thriller opening 5: Sin city - Frank miller

Action - thriller.

Camera:

• Sin city opens with an establishing shot tilted downwards upon the city location and an elegant woman in a low cut slinky dress. The use of this first shot allows the audience to recognise the editing techniques that have been applied, being the greyscale shots with the signifiers coloured in red. In this case, the women being the victim who is about to die.

• Close ups are further used to express their flirtatious body language and facial expressions. The camera focuses on the woman’s face, making it clear to the audience that she appears memorised by the male figure as her eyes are fixated on him. However whilst the male appears to be devouring her with compliments the camera uses a mid shot, expressing that he doesn’t feel that connection to her, he probably doesn’t care for her at all, thus being shown by the distance he is being shot away from her.

• The next mid shot is filmed in front of the two characters. This is used to show the camera slowly zoom in, emphasising the importance of the dialog in the shot. It could be suggested that the camera zooms in to represent the feelings growing and her sense of closeness towards him.
  

• Whilst the two character hug in the rain the camera tilts down on the woman showing her sense of security, then tilting up to show his facial expression, which appears to be blank as he gazes out rather than inwards towards her.

Sound:

• At the beginning of the extract a subtle short shrilling noise is used to dictate the atmosphere of what will become next. Faint ambient background noise of the location is also used to help the audience to recognise it is based in a city.

• Non –diegetic sound of saxophones and piano are also played faintly in the background, expressing the classy, romantic atmosphere of which is supported by the characters costumes.

• Ambient sound is again used further on during the scene. As the couple expresses their ‘feelings’ by dialog and body language, thunderstorm sounds are played. This intensifies the moment making the scene appear passionate until he shoots her, where the thunderstorm sounds become louder, actually expressing the unexpected negativity brought upon his actions

Editing:

• The director cleverly uses a limited colour range of black, white and red. The majority of shots are simply black and white, although all the shots have been edited to high contrast, making the colours oppose each other thus creating a comic book effect.

• The use of red has been use to emphasise the object in which is in colour, expressing their connotations. The woman is wearing a long sleek red dress, symbolising her elegance and class, reinforced by the red lipstick. However the use of the red also symbolises the danger she is in and that she is in fact the next victim.

• The woman’s eyes are emphasised by a slight tinge of green as the man expresses his love for them. This also draws attention that her eyes are completely transfixed on him showing her adoration for him.

• During the scene, black and white shots of their silhouettes showing what appears to be their closeness and affection, rain is used to intensify the moment. This has also been used to carry on the black and white comic book theme to the movie.