The Da Vinci Code opening scene analysis

The title of the movie is the first thing you when the movie starts, it says "The Da Vinci Code" in white letter on a black background, the colour of the background may represent that the story is quite dark and threatening. The font in which the title is written with looks old fashioned which may mean the story is based on something old.

 In the background there is some very quiet music is a very low pitch this adds suspense.

The first shots of the film is a fast edited panning of painting on walls this tells the

audience that the first scene is set in a museum or gallery. The museum looks to be closed because its dark however you can see a shadow chasing a man, to the audience it looks as if someone has broken in and committing a crime. These connotations represent a mystery-detective genre. You can see the man who is getting chased but you only see a small snippet of a shadow walking towards him. An enigma is created by only showing a shadow of the man chasing him. This adds suspense because the audience want to find out who he is.Also by showing a shadows it may frighten the audience because people associate shadows with death. With the small clip of the shadow its looks like the person is wearing a cloak, this indicates that he trying to stay hidden or un-identified. The old man is wearing a suit this gives the impression that he works there and is an important part of protecting the gallery.
They use a bird’s eye view shot from outside of the gallery through the glass ceiling a couple of

times , however you can see anything through the glass, this gives the idea that no one can save the man because no one can see what's happening, this is also why it’s based at night.

The mysterious character which is following the old man, only seems to be walking, this shows that he is confident. They use a close up of the man running to shows that he frightened and tired of running , this also shows that he is very old because he was hardly running at a fast pace. They use a camera angle which makes it look like he is running at the audience this makes sympathise with him.

As the man is running away they show a lot of the painting in the gallery this adds an enigma its makes us, as the audience wonder if it represents anything? They also have use an extreme close up of eyes on the painting this gives the impression that someone is watching, also Christians believe when they see an eye that gods watching over them.

The old man pulls off a painting to release rails; this makes the audience think he is safe.
The un-identified character takes his hood down and they do close-up of his face, so the audience can get to know the type of person he is.He looks ghostly with the white skin, this

makes him look alarming.

They then show an extreme close up of the villain gripping the triggerof a gun, this shows us that he is planning to kill the old man.After shooting the old man they use a low angle shot at the villain this shows us that he is powerful, they then use a high angle shot at the old man to show that he is helpless.After this they use a long shot of the man walking away this shows that he is significant to the story line.

(NOTES FROM PLANNING)