Analysing Film Openings - Blood Diamond

Analysing Sequences - Blood Diamond

The first thing the audience sees is the title credits of the production companies. They are both popular companies and produce very popular films so this creates an atmosphere of trust.  There is soft non-diegetic music playing in the background. The soft music makes the atmosphere sombre and allows the audience to expect a sad film.

This advertisement for the production companies fade away and a map of Africa appears. Underneath this map an insert title reads “Sierra Leone, 1999”. This map along with this title establishes where and when this film is set. Whilst the map is still up, the subtitle then changes to “Civil war rages for control of the diamond fields”. This quote tells the audience what is occurring in the country at this time and it also tells them to expect violence. This piece of information under the map is designed to prepare the audience and enlighten them as to what is going on in Sierra Leone.  Facts such as this, “Thousands have died and millions have become refugees” will shock the audience and they will be intrigued as to what is going on and try to follow the story more. As the scene fades and the last fact  to appear reads “None of whom have seen a diamond”. This exaggerates the poor living conditions in Sierra Leone.

Music continued to play through this text. The non-diegetic music matches the mood set by these devastating facts.

A close up of an African man is the first glimpse we receive of any character. As he is the first to be introduced and in such a manner the audience presumes that the man will have a main part to play in the story. The first prop we see is the lantern, this emphasises the poor living conditions. It is also another factor of mise-en-scene. The light produced is minimal, just enough to light his face.  The actor chosen is evidently from Africa, due to his skin colour. This shows the audience that they live in poor conditions and they don’t even have electricity for lighting. Mise-en-scene is also used as the man and his family is in a hut.

This man speaks in a foreign language to his family. Therefore confirming he is not English.
The editors then use a transition to cut to another shot.

A long shot of a sun rise confirms the time of day and most people in the background is getting their fishing boats. This proves that this village is primarily a fishing one. There is another caption saying “Warner Brothers in association with Visual Studios”

The scene focuses on the boy and his father. This shot above shows how close they are and their location.

This is an effective opening to a film. It relies on beautiful lighting and music to draw the viewer in and make them feel they are watching a quality production. There is a lot of attention paid to how the shots look, how they are framed and how they are lit. For example, the screen shot above is very striking and almost like a poster image. Analysing this has taught me that opening sequences do not have to packed with action to be effective. All that we really learn here comes from the non-diegetic text slides. Because we have read them, we assume that this boy and his father are poor. The one thing the filming does establish is the relationship between the two, and we are already afraid for them because this is clearly going to be a sad film. This is a good lesson in how to get the audience behind the main characters really quickly.