Analysing the Opening Scene of The Shining

CAMERA ANGLES/SHOTS

• Establishing shot used at the beginning from above the sea and then above the travelling car - carrys the effect of being put in the point of view of a bird like predator like an eagle chasing and swooping for its prey; in this case it could be the car.
• Aerial shot - exaggerates how isolated the hotel is when it is reached (so far away from civilisation and quick help from the outside world is not available). Also exaggerates the contrast between how small the car is to its landscape; putting the car and all its passengers in a vulnerable position.
• Tracking shot following the car's journey - following the car from behind gives the effect that it is being followed by someone or something (linking back to the idea of the predator hunting for its prey; the prey being the car).
• Quick Zoom In on car - has the effect that someone or something is closing onto their victim (the car); the predator is catching its prey.

MISE EN SCENE

• Although it is a natural landscape that surrounds the car, it can suggest a sinister atmosphere because of the dangerously high mountains, small roads and the car being on the road alone. Can suggest abandonment, loneliness and any danger that could happen in the landscape, nobody would know about it because the landscape is so isolated from civilisation.
• Landscape surroundings changes from lush green trees and grass to snowy, cold and barren -This change could suggest the logic of a long and tiring journey as well as the long distance that has to be travelled from destination A to hotel. But also because the landscape at the beginning was full of life and then the atmosphere changes to nothing living, it could suggest the death of something or someone; hinting to the characters life.

EDITING

• Slow Paced Editing - could hint to the audience the long journey and long distance there is to the hotel. A sense of a calm, relaxed and normal atmosphere as the journey is calming and slow. Although, audience expect something bad to happen because everything is too calm. Audience begin to wonder where it is the journey will end and what will happen once the destination has been reached.
• Fade Transition - first introduces the car to the audience and its long journey ahead. Shows the audience that time has passed as the journey is being made. Also, shows the difference and change in landscape to the audience; from lush green to cold winter.

SOUND

• Long String instrument and repetitive chanting - The repetition suggests that something bad is about to happen again, something that has already happened in the past; reacurring danger that the car is entering when making it's journey to the hotel.
• Faint sound of a woman screaming - Telling the audience of what will happen further into the film and narrative; the screaming of the wife when her husband is breaking through the bathroom door with an axe.
• Sombre and imposing music in a deep toned beat - could symbolise the beating of a heart. Also because the beat is fairly deep, the deepness of the beat could symbolise the sinister and evil doing that will take place in the hotel further down into the narrative of the film.