Phantom of the Opera Opening

'Begins when an opera ghost terrorizes the cast and crew of the French Opera House while tutoring a chorus girl. He finally drives the lead soprano crazy so she and her friend leave. The girl is able to sing lead one night but the soprano doesn't want her show stolen so she comes back. The ghost demands they keep giving his protégé lead roles. Meanwhile, His pupil falls in love with the Vicomte de Chagny, but the Phantom is in love with Christine, his student. The Phantom is outraged by their love and kidnaps Christine to be his eternal bride.'

This film begins with a black screen where gold writing fades into it; this clearly contrasts with the black background and makes the text stand out. It also immediately catches the audiences eye as it is the only thing on screen and therefore seems a lot more sinister. It is also the first thing in the film that they see and therefore sets the tone of the film. There is some faint background noise, although it is unclear what this is which makes the audience immediately curious.

Then, the screen lights up a bit more with a candle (almost a fade in) and we see the title of the film, which matches the colour of the candle and seems to set a scene of a horror genre. The non digetic music is also quite high and haunting, reinforcing the horror genre that seems to have been previously incinuated by the darkness of the beginning credits on the black background. The camera then zooms into the candle, and the title fades out to reveal a black and white photo of 20th century Paris. The image is in sepia, although people are moving in it which seems peculiar and unnerves the audience.

The non digetic music continues as the camera pans into the focal point of the image; a cathedral and the colour of the image changes from sepia to black and white. These are both quite bland colours and ordinarily would be quite dull to watch, however due to the fact this is accompanied by the eerie music, the audience is still interested as they want to know what will happen next and why they are made to feel nervous in this way.

As we get closer and closer to the action, the non digetic music fades out and we get the digetic sound of the hubub of Paris. This is a new sound to the audience and therefore intrigues them more and forces them to ask themselves questions such as why were they made to feel so nervous and on edge and now they appear to be entering a troublefree time. By the time the camera has stopped moving, the audience is staring at a horse and carriage, in particular the door, and see a close up of crest of some sort so that they wonder what this means. Then the shot changes to a close up of someone's feet, who let the passenger of the carriage out, however it remains close ups of their feet or torso and the audience does not see the person's face which makes the audience wonder why and what influence they will have on the film and what happens during the film.

It then goes to a medium shot of the person being taken into the catherdral, however it is taken from behind so we still don't know what they look like therefore leaving the audience in the dark as to who he is and the judgement they can make as to whether or not he is a protagonist. The camera then pans out to the sign on the cathedral telling us that the audience is about to be taken into an auction. This is to remind them of the situation the characters in the film are in.

The black and white colouring has now become sinister as the camera, once inside the cathedral is shooting through a ripped drape, which connotates that something bad has happened and once again the audience becomes nervous and unsure. This reminds the viewer that this is a horror film and they should be feeling scares and nervous in this environment as they have no idea who they are looking for with regards to the protagonist and antagonist.

The person we saw being wheeled into the cathedral is then seen again, although it is done at a long shot. There is more digetic sound of one of the characters in the film talking but we cannot see who it is, however the audience can hear it is the person running the auction and become even more tense as they still know nothing about the man whose presence was made so known through the close ups and follow through to the auction room.

We then see a pan of the room that the auction is being held in. This is used to emphasise the time that the film is set in as we can see the old set up of the room. Then the audience is shown that it isn't a very busy auction however they cannot see the man they had become so curious about, raising their suspicions further as to who he is and what he is doing there. Then they see a medium shot of a woman on her own, letting them know that she has some kind of influential role in the film. She is dressed in quite dark clothes and her facial expressions are quite suspicious therefore raising the audience's awareness surrounding her despite knowing nothing about her. After this, we finally see the man in the chair, at a medium shot. We can tell that the woman seen previously was staring at him (180 degree rule) which tells the audience that there is some kind of relationship between them although we do not know what that is at the time. There is then a shot reverse shot between the pair making us wonder whether or not this is a hostile relationship. This continues until they make eye contact, the intensity increasing before the director decides to show us the man running the auction at a long shot before going back to the pair again for another shot reverse shot. This is to give the audience 'time to breathe' temporarily before returning to the action.

We are then shown a close up of a plastic monkey on top of a box with symbals clapping them together which is quite unnerving and raises the tension the audience is feeling further. The pair then get into a battle to buy the monkey box and the audience sees more shot reverse shots. It is clear they are both quite well off which makes us wonder what altercation could have gone on between them or people they are friends or related to. The man then wins, which we see in a mid shot as he releases a sigh of relief however it shot then changes to a close up of the woman, who does not look annoyed but instead is very gracious which confuses the audience as to what their relationship is. It can't be that hostile or she wouldn't have been so elegant about losing.

There is a medium shot of the monkey box being given to the man, which forces the audience to consider whether or not there is something particularly special about it, if it is of some sentimental value to the pair. This is exaggerated by a close up of the box, then a close up of the man's face after he gets it given to him. There is also some non digetic music, which is quite haunting not unlike the look on the monkey's face which once again creates suspense in the audience.

Analysis ending at 4:10