Opening scene analysis- A Nightmare on Elm Street

The establishing scene begins with a transition of fading into the shot, which suggests that the audience have  just opened their eyes to see the location of the horror film.The establishing shot consists of a close up of someone dragging their old worn boots along a dirty floor, with someone grabbing a bag full of items inside. The close up shot suggests that the person is the antagonist of the film as the camera does not allow the audience to see very much of them, which makes them intrigued in what they are doing and who they are. Involving the person grabbing the heavy sounding bag, makes the audience more intrigued in what is happening, which follows the conventions of a horror film as having reoccurring suspense and tension is key in these kind of films.The use of quick cutting editing from each shot makes the audience stuck to their seats as they are intrigued to see what is happening and also adds tension and suspense. The use of the worn leather boots, suggest that the antagonist maybe a hard labour work, with not much money as they are very worn. The dark lighting suggest that the location is a bad place as it isn't very well lit, which creates tension in case anything jumps out. Furthermore, the lighting which is used is a glowing red, which could suggest blood, due to it being a horror, but also implies that it is a bad place or the location is in a factory as the lighting implies hot flamed engines working and is backed up by the non-digetic music of heavy metal clanking, screws and nuts bolting.
The next shot is a bird eyes view of the antagonists hands fiddling with numerous tools, which are on the work bench. This shot makes the audience feel more superior as they are over powering everybody below them. It also creates a sense of us looking as if we looking over them, spying on what they are doing, which creates feeling riskiness. This shot allows the audience to see all the what is on the work bench, which are numerous tools and mechanical devices. These suggest that danger is involved due to the dangerous items scattered all over the work bench, as usually in a safe work place they would always be tidy to avoid injury, which draws the question, is pain the aim of the game here? The use of the scattered tools could give a little insight of the character of being untidy and violent. The use if the dirty red jumper and flaky unhygienic hands suggest very bad health care or that an event has happened for their skin to be like this, which makes the audience want to know why they are like this.In this shot the man is picks up a knife and sharp metal parts, which implies this person conflicts the pain and the audience becomes very wry of them as they do not know they are doing with them. The audience would also be inquisitive as the tools which were grabbed viciously, are not usually tools which go and work best together.

The next close up involves the grabbing a leather worn glove, which he grips to tightly, which suggest the importuncy of this part. Having the numerous close ups and shots of this character portrays that they are they are one of the very main characters in the film, as no one else has been present at all in the opening scene. From this close up it jumps to another close up of the antagonist cutting something, but the main focus pull is the dirty thickened rimmed glasses. This main focus pull of the glasses suggests that the antagonist may have a normal life but when the glasses are off and it is at night they are a different person, which people do not want to see or know of.  This makes the audience unable to know who they really are as it suggest they are two different people.
After this close up, there are numerous quick cutting edited close ups of the antagonists cutting and blow heating metal. This implies that what they are making is an important element of the film. The close up with the sharp blade, emphasises the sharpness of it as the lighting glistens of it. This builds up tension as what they are producing looks dangers, so what are they going to use it for or on...
The extreme close up of the hands slotting into one glove, with metal attachments to it, creates tension as the slowness and the heavy satisfying breathing suggest that they are happy with what they have made and are increasingly proud of it. This is then followed by a close up of the antagonist burst out their fingers to extend the fingers. This makes the audience jumps as the musics volume increases. This adds tension as the gloves consist of sharp razor sharp blades on the ends.
A quick fading out transition of this shot allows the opening title of the film to move onto the screen, ' A Nightmare on Elm Street'. Read analysis of fonts for the affect of this effect). The volume and horrific sound increases to provide increasing suspense for the audience.
Due to the bright colouring of the font, the audience is forced to focus on this, which makes the audience jump on the next shot as they are so focused on the titles. The next shot consists of the sharp razors piercing through, what seems to be leather, which is very hard to break and could symbolise skin as leather is cow skin. This emphasises the sharpness of them and pain they can cause. This shows that the antagonist is going to cause unimaginable pain for whoever comes in their path...
The use of the music throughout the opening scene, adds continuous tension and suspense due to the eerie and spooking instruments used. The volume also increases when something bad or something frightening is occurring on the screen.