The opening scene of A History of Violence

(Only the first half of the scene as was not available on youtube)
What the scene is about:
We watched the opening scene of A Histoty of Violence. It was about two men that had killed two people. However, in this scene it did not look like they cared about what had happened. We focused on four main things which are the editing, camera, sound and Mis en scene. The Director of this film is David Cronenberg, Writers are John Wagner (graphic novel), Vince Locke (graphic novel), Stars are Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris. This film was made in 2005 and it has a 7.5 star rating. This film made a lot of money. Budget was $32,000,000 (estimated), Opening Weekend: $34,911 (Chile) (17 March 2006), Gross: $89,838 (Chile)(31 March 2006)         

Editing:
In the first part of this when the two men walking out of a house towards the car, it was a very slow speed lasting between 3.51 minutes longs without one single cut. Usually cuts are usually quite quick and last between 5-10 seconds, the reason i believed that they used this was because, it allows the audience to wonder what is going on. Not just this but the audience do not expect what is going to happen next. When the man got out to the car to go into the Motel there was a straight cut used to put him from out side to inside, this was an effective cut as the audience do not notice it, but allows the audience to see that he has moved from one side to the other. A jump cut was used when the little girl come out of the bed room, it was used to tell the audience that he had seen the little girl and that the little girl had also seen him. This cut also builds up the tensions and suspense for the audience and makes them wonder what is going to happen next. However, when the man goes into the house the speed of the shots start to speed up, the reason for this is to build up the suspense for the audience. This was very effective as the audience was able to get a quick idea of who the men where and what they really do. However, i believe that the reason the first bit is very slow is also because they have to writing on the bottom of the screen to let the audience know who is staring the the scene so that they know. This is because then the audience can know who is in the film.

Camera:
The ways that they used the camera was very effective towards the audience. The reason for this because you could tell that they was using the steady cam as everything was well done. However, they used the tracking shot, which i also believed was created by using the steady cam and they used this shot for then the man was driving the car to the other bit of the motel. This was very effective as it allowed you to follow what the man was doing and how relaxed he was. A low angle shot was used when the man was filling up his water bottle when he was in the motel, this was effective as it also showed a shot of the door which allowed the audience to wonder why the door was closed, or that maybe their may be something behind it. Many different camera angles where used such as a close up when the man was in the motel and coming out towards the car, extreme close up which was on the gun before the man took it out, point of view when the man see the young girl and many medium shots where used through out the scene.

Sounds:
There where many sounds going on throughout this scene. There was many diegetic sounds, such as the radio, which you could see the source of the music, sound of the car, you could hear the car start and the man drove the car towards the other side of the motel, other diegetic sound where the water fountain when the man was pouring the water into the bottle. Therefore, gun shot was a diegetic sound the reason for this is because you was able to see the source that the sound was coming from, also the ring of the bell as you see the man ring the bell what was on the counter as he walked past. Not only this, but many non-diegetic sounds where used, the ways that they used non-diegetic sounds was because the tracking/background sound you could not see where the music was coming from. However, their was also a sound of a fly, but you was not able to see it flying, the reason the fly was their was to give the audience the impression that the two people where dead on the floor. However, the reason it is diegetic is because you was not able to actually see the fly itself. The music has a great affect on this scene the reason for this is because when the music is introduced it allows the audience to see what has happened and that they are not just two ordinary men after all and that they have killed to people. The music also makes it very exciting for the audience and makes the wonder what is going the happen next. Therefore, mean that the music matches what is going on in the setting.


Mis en scene:
The mis en scene is what is on the scene what the audience is able to see and what the characters are like. The two men wear dressed very casually. However, one of the men looks like they are more in charge as he looks for dressed up and more over powering them the other one, as he went into the motel and did what needed to be done. The props that where used within this scene, the main one was the car, to show the affect the they was going somewhere, and it must be far as they needed to drive there. However, the setting in this first scene, is a lower classed and not very nice place. The reason for this is because it is a little motel where it was all dark. Meaning that it may be lonely and quite quiet their. This scene also shows us that the young child lives in the motel with her family.