Terminator 2 opening sequence starts off with a long shot of a motorway in Los Angles. These shots present that nothing from ordinary is happening and it’s just a normal day with people driving. The production company, the distribution company and the director are all presented on screen at the start of the opening sequence. Non-Diegetic sound at the start when the production company is introduced creates enigma because when we look at the footage, it seems like a normal day, however the deep, slow, dark music suggests that the story will not be what we first think and could change in a matter of minutes. Next there is a two shot that shows children playing in a park. This shot represents children’s everyday lives. The camera then focuses on a girl swinging back and forth on a swing showing she is enjoying herself as she is smiling and laughing like any small child would while at a park on a nice sunny day. Diegetic sound when the girl is on the swing emphasises the change of the situation, from happiness to unhappiness, or normality to disaster. The shot of the girl on the swing slows down into slow motion. This may be done to highlight her happiness and to contrast it did not last that long. Moving on from the positive and normal scenes it slowly changes as the camera shows a medium shot of a destroyed and burned out car with a skeleton sitting in the driver’s seat, the camera continues to focus on the skull which shows an element that is included in a thriller genre. The voiceover tells the consumers what has happened and why this has happened. The use of monologue offers an insight into the mother’s feelings. The sub-title “Los Angeles 2029 AD” is used to tell us the year the film has fast-tracked to and the film is set in the future. Furthermore these next couple of shots shows how powerful the robots are as there is a low angle shots which shows the robots body and head with a weapon standing tall. The robots could be the antagonists of this film. This clip also conveys a genre of not just thriller but sci-fi as well so his films genre would be sci-fi-thriller. In this whole scene it shows all different types of shots from long, short , extreme long which helps to show the two different sides which are possibly good and evil (the antagonists and protagonists which is a convention in many thrillers). The clip then changes to a close up of a person in a flashback that shows the importance of this man in the film. This is also establishing a character john Connor (Arnold Schwarzenegger) The man that was in the previous clip then fades into the fire, to help show the contrast between them both and to show how much the setting has changed from before. Then the actor’s names slowly come out of the fire one by one. The background of fire and flames connotes danger, violence and heat which is stereotypical in thriller films. The camera slowly explores the park by panning across the setting that was shown at the start of the opening sequence with the girl on the swing enjoying herself but this time the park has been destroyed and burning. This also shows this is a thriller film because all the good/positive things are being taken away or destroyed and this gives suspense on what will happen next and makes us have many unanswered questions which will make the consumer want to watch the rest of the film. Diegetic sound of the creaking swing shows us that we’re in the same place, just at a different time. The sound when the screen goes to the deserted city adds suspense as we expect something will happen to make us jump. Also, it shows us that time has moved on, but we are still in the same place. The closing scene of the opening sequence is of a robot come through the flames and coming up close continuously staring at the audience, the close up into the robots eyes gives a sense of tension and makes the audience focus on his eyes as they are red and connotes danger and blood which gives away the main theme of the film.
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February 2016
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