Analysing Film Openings - Blood Diamond

In the opening of the film Blood Diamond, the audience can see many things. The first of these is the production teams. The production team that made Blood Diamond is called “Warner Brothers” and these were in association with “Visual Studios”. Both of these companies are very well known and respected due to their past films that have become big hits.

After the production company idents have faded out, a black and white map appears. This is a map of Africa and we can see this as underneath the quote says “Sierra Leone, 1999”. This sets the place and time of the scene. Whilst the map is still up, the subtitle then changes to “Civil war rages for control of the diamond fields”. This tells us that the movie will be based around violence and anti government parties. It also tells us that it has a theme of money and diamonds. We can also tell one of the themes is violence as the subtitle above the map changes again but this time to “Thousands have died and millions have become refugees”. The screen then goes completely black using a fade transition and the words “None of whom has ever seen a diamond”. This adds emphasis to the struggle going on at the time in Africa. It also gives the audience the indication that times are hard and bleak and there is not much to look up to in the future in those conditions.

Whilst the map and the sub titles were playing, there was non-diegetic music playing. The music used sounded sad and this emphasized the poor conditions and the struggle to survive in Africa 1999.

It then cuts to a close up of the main character. The close up tells the audience that this person is important and that he will be in for the duration of the film. The man lights a match and uses this to light a candle. 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 tells us that they are poor and most probably in a third world country. In this scene, the man is talking to his family in an African language. This is diegetic sound as the actors are supposed to hear it. This also is how we can tell that the film is not set in England.

 

The editors then use a transition to move to another shot. This is a long shot and it shows the sun rising over the sea line. You can tell that it is morning as everyone in the background is getting their fishing boats and nets ready for work and the animals are just waking up. Over this shot, there is another caption saying “Warner Brothers in association with Visual Studios”.

This then cuts to a close up of the little boy and his father talking. The two minutes finished with a close up of the little boy from the side. This tells the audience that the little boy is also an important character and he will be seen later on in the film.

 

The opening of Blood Diamond does make me want to watch more. This is because it leaves me wondering whether the father or the son will end up being killer, or will they become refugees and have to escape the RUF, or will they work for the RUF as slaves and become diggers for the diamonds. These are all questions left in my head after seeing the two minute opening cliff hanger in Blood Diamond.