Prisoners- Opening Scene Analysis

Prisoners

Prisoners is an American film produced by Alcon Entertainment in 2013 and directed by Denis Villeneuve

Opening Credits

The titles of the film are presented in the centre of a black background in a white serif font to create a reverse block effect to make the title of the film stand out. The font is large and emboldened to attract the audience's attention and make them wonder what will appear after the opening titles. The title of the film 'Prisoners' hints towards the narrative of the film, suggesting that the girls the detective mentions are maybe being kept as prisoners creating a sense of drama and tension for the audience.
The titles read:
Directed by Dennis Villeneuve
Hugh Jackson
Produced by Alcon Entertainment
Music by Johann Johannsson
Inception

Sound

The main character, Detective Loki, has little dialogue in the introduction to the narrative. A low pitched voice is presented by this character, which creates an manly, sincere tone to this character right from the beginning. Non-diegetic low pitched music is also used throughout the opening scene once Detective Loki leaves the restaurant which creates effects of tension and suspense. The heavy rainfall throughout this scene is also effective because it adds to the tension due to the constant sound effects reflecting the mood of the narrative, implying that the narrative will revolve around negativity and possibly sadness as these are common connotations of rain.  

The sound of rain is enhanced to add a sense of sadness.

Mise en Scene

The clip wipes to a black screen after the police officers take the suspicious person to their car and the detective heads off into the woodland. The police indicate a sense of drama and an obvious crime has occurred, which is a typical convention of a thriller. This adds to the verisimilitude of the narrative as well as adding suspense and drama for the audience to endure.  

Detective heading off into the woodland.

The low key lighting used throughout the narrative, especially in the woodland when all the detectives are congregated together, the darkness makes it difficult to identify each face, creating an anonymous air as each character doesn't really appear to have an identity. This adds to the narrative enigma and building tension in the extract.

Low key lighting is used frequently in the narrative.

Camera

A close up of Detective Loki is used as the suspect is being dragged off towards the police cars for questioning, which again creates tension for the audience. The close up on the character's face conveys his angry and concerned facial expressions, which causes the audience to empathise and mirror his emotions as they relate to the main character. This shot also helps to focus all the audience's attention on his face and concentrate on his dialogue, which shows he is one of the most important characters to the narrative and has a high status.
An over-the-shoulder shot from Loki's perspective is also used when the suspect is facing towards the forest, and turns back to stare at the police officers. This shot creates a fearful effect as the audience feel as if they're in the situation too. The suspect's facial expressions are also unnerving as his expression is completely neutral and blank, so it suggests that he feels no emotions towards the situation at hand and could also hint that he's unpredictable, or a similar event has occurred before.

An over the shoulder shot is used.

Editing

When the detective arrives at the location of the campervan, the pace of the editing begins to increase creating a sense of pace and quick decision making. The editing starts to cut between different camera shots much quicker than before, which foreshadows that some kind of action scene is about to commence.

The editing increases in pace, keeping the audience engaged.

As well as this Detective Loki receives the most screen-time throughout the sequence which suggests that he is the most important to the narrative. This implies that he is the main focus of the narrative and plays a key part to the film. This is stereotypical of thrillers, as the protagonist is usually male, brave and strong which is how his character is perceived from the beginning of the film.


 The clip analysed shown below: