Action Adventure (Spiderwick chronicles)

Action Adventure (Spiderwick chronicles)

Sound:

At the beginning, there is non diegetic music playing in the background while the jars and creatures are reviled to the audience, this had a magical, big and grand sound to it; this makes the audience seem small and feel helpless towards what even might appear from the shadows. But when we see the man burst in to the room; along with the shortened durations of shots, the pace of the music gets faster dramatically. This gives the audience the feeling that he s in a rush and hasn’t got any time to waste, this is backed up by the quick cuts and the quick movements from the actor.

Another sound appeared when the man stamped down the book, this had the music building up to this shot. This made a massive loud roar which made the audience feel worried, this makes the audience curious and make them ask questions about the book and the roar.

Cinematography:
This used a lot of close ups throughout this scene. When showing the props, it was careful to hide the detail of the room because it will build suspense for the audience. These close ups of props make us feel that he is an eccentric man due to the amount of creatures he seems to have as it is unusual to have so many. A blue tint was put on, to tell the audience that this man is very lonely and he has no companions, with no one to rely on, maybe because of that creature we heard of when it roared might have captured or killed his wife/partner/friends.
A dolly shot was used when shooting a shoot of the man’s face after he had stamped down the book. This showed his shock to the roar and shockwave that occurred. An establishing shot was only used at the ending, which is very unusual because it is normally placed at the beginning of the opening sequence. They hidden the setting through extreme close ups, they made sure that we couldn’t see the man’s face until the end and the setting.

Editing:
There is a use of cross dissolve, this is to let the audience establish that a period of time has passed, we know this because text appears at the bottom of the screen telling us this (80 years later). The scene now looks isolated, more than ever due to the surrounding of trees. Fade in and outs were used quite a lot during the revealing of the jars with creatures in them. This could have been used to let the props be show slowly and gradually to the audience, so that they have enough time to second guess what it could be and why it is there.

Mise En Scene:
During the beginning of this opening sequence, we see loads of props of weird and different creatures. This makes the audience believe that the rest of the film will be concentrating on a scientist; this is due to all the extreme close ups/close ups of the jars filled with little creatures and gives us a feel that all these props would be found in an old fashioned laboratory. Then our minds change to the thought of magic; this occurred when we was shown the little green pixie in the magnifying glass. This idea about the magic is also backed up when the title of the film appears; there is pixie dust/magic dust when it fades in.
Low key lighting was used in this opening sequence to set the scene of mystical, untrustworthy and uncertainty with lots of shadows. The car which later comes into the scene, with the headlights on, brings a lot of light to this dim and dark setting, which seems enclosed with the trees. This could symbolise the hope for the man living here and something with a good sprit to get rid of the evil creatures lurking within these shadows.

Titles:
When the titles appear, it fades in slowly with magic dust floating away from it, as if it has just been created from it. This shows the audience that it will be about magical and mystical things/objects. Also one of the letters is shaped like a tree; this likes with the appearance of the titles when they seem to appear from within the brunches of the tree; it could link to a special feature about this tree as it could come to life or have a special power during the  rest of the film.