Opening Sequence Analysis Of Panic Room

Camera Shot/Angle/Movement

The camera is very steady and takes various shots of different places in New York. This is used to show us that the film will be based in new york and its going to be a very busy film since New York is also busy. The camera pans in many of these shots to get the credits in the center of the screen.

Sound

The music being played is very simple. It is a string quartet playing and it seems a bit relaxing at first but then the tic toc sound of a clock is played and it makes the tempo a bit faster meaning tension is building or something dodgey is going happen. When this change in music happens the strings play something different they play more of a jumpy rhythm towards the end the strings return to what was played at first but with the continuous ticking of the clock this makes us feel weary relief meaning something may still happen 

Editing

The editing of this opening sequence is done well but not quite effective. It places the credits in the middle of the buildings and a fade in and out is used in the first two shots.

Characters

We see the characters at the very end of this opening sequence. We see a woman walking along with another woman with the older woman in a bit of a rush. This shows the older woman works and she is in a rush to get to work since she is late, this makes us wonder to weather the woman is organized and manages her time well. The older woman is in her mid 30s or early 40s and the younger one seems like she is 18-20. 

Locations

The location of the opening sequence is in the busy streets of New York. This just shows that the film may be very busy and something is always happening in contrast to the where its set.

Narrative/Plot

We do not really get a narrative/plot because nothing is being shown only the busy streets of New York and 2 women walking with each other one is in a rush and one is rushing trying to catch up they could be friends, relatives, lovers or parent and child.

Themes

There are no real themes to this opening sequence because it does not really show anything that leads on to anything. All it shows is the location and two women walking it is very hard to get a theme from this so we look at the title and we get a feel of mystery because the title ‘panic room’ sounds very mysterious.

Visual Style

The opening sequence to panic room is very common in many films these days, maybe because the producers do not want to let the audience into what happens to early, they may want the audience to watch the movie to find out what its all about instead of just watching the opening sequence knowing what happens and not watching the rest of the movie. This would lose profit on the movie.

Genre

We have not been told what the genre is in the opening sequence, it is very hard in this instance to guess what genre this film is.