Swordfish

This is the trailer to movie as I was unable to get the opening scenes to the movie, but I analysed the first couple of minutes.

When Dominic Sena was directing this movie, the screen writer Skip Woods, must have initially been thinking how can we trick the audience the best. When I watched this movie as the the audience and not as an analyse, I felt that this movie had a very powerful and intense opening. It opens with the iconic man who was John Travolta, this immediately will catch many fans to watch the movie. The lighting is very dark which can indicate to the audience that its night time and its dark, but also that he is in a closed environment. When he speaks the camera is close and the audience hasn't established the setting and they can only guess where they are. I thought that they were in a hide out of some sort and he was being a critic to a movie by what he was saying. We don't hear much, we hear him speaking and we hear non diegetic sounds. The non diegetic sounds are creepy and uncomfortable. But the audience stay entranced. We can see that John Travolta has the power as there are men around him and he is in the chair. He is the only important person speaking as he is the only character where any characteristics are revealed. When we find out about other characters we also establish setting as he is leaving and we discover he is in a cafe and its light outside. We also discover he is talking to the police, which indicates he is the antagonist in the story. As he walks away there is a change of scene and the audience can feel slightly confused but yet, after listening to what he was saying we can relate as we watch that what he was saying was coming to reality. We realise the seriousness of the situation as he walks outside and we see the vast number of police officers at the scene. This is done with a point of view shot and he looks round.

For me, I found this a very important and powerful opening and I think that it was very effect in grabbing the audiences attention. The audience are left wondering what was going to happen and I feel that the director, Dominic Sena used the different camera shots well to hide the truth behind the story. But also Skip Wood, created a very good script and it is discrete and is well presented.