The Shining, opening credits review

The Shining

At the opening of the movie “The Shining” a loud slow soundtrack begins to play, with a lot of pausing on a low noted track, making that atmosphere of the area this is set, more creepy than normal, with a high and wide shot on the camera to open at the camera swoops into the mountainous area above the water at a high speed. The camera then beings to go onto a bird’s eye view of the car in a woodland area, this provokes the feeling of being isolated and abandoned as the shot is taken at an extremely long distance from the car showing most of the surround area and giving the viewer more of a prospective of just how large the area is and just how alone the car is. The car continues its journey around the mountainous area overcoming different scenery as it travels, still completely alone and isolated, the music later brings in strings being plucked and distorted over the thumbing low bass sound to add a creepy effect.

                If the soundtrack was completely different, and then to be added to the movie scenes then it would give the viewer and completely different outlook on the whole scene. For instance, if the music was a happy upbeat tone then the connotative of the viewers imagination would think that it’s a family on a road trip towards a holiday, but the soundtrack being creepy and uncomfortable makes you believe that at the end of this journey something may happen, and makes the audiences mind unclear of where they are heading, this also created the questions of, who is in the car? Where are they going? What will happen to the people? Before the movie has started the audience has been engaged with thoughts about the lonely car in the vast mountainous area.

                 Many long shots are used around the car to show the audience where the car is heading to and to give them a clearer mind of what is going to happen, although with this movie the car is heading into what seems like more nothingness, an endless journey into the unknown which again keeps the viewers confusion of where they are heading to and why they are going there, further leading onto the character development being created in the imagination of the audience without even seeing a single character as of yet. The titles emerge as you draw closer to the car, and they scroll up the screen in a brightly coloured font which can make the background seem darker than it is, they move at a constant speed relatively fast up the screen, maybe provoking the speed of the car and the views patients in wanting to know what will happen next, keeping it fast paced.

                As the camera comes off the car and into the forest where there are no signs of life creating a more mysterious setting, the music comes in louder with drowned out screaming, more effects on the string noises and more creepy sounds to make the viewer more uncomfortable, this attempts and succeeds to make the atmosphere more intense and frightening as now all you can see is lonesome wilderness and odd sounding musical tracks making the audience again feel uneasy, before hand it also goes into a close up of the car, giving hope to the audience in that one of their many questions will be answered. The credits when the title come up also slow down as it goes off the focal point of the car making the audience concentrate more of the credits rolling past. Although all the lighting in the scenes are bright, it also creates an area of mystery in what is going on and why at this time of day? Why so alone in such a big area at a supposed busy time of day?

                The loud thumping noise comes back in when the music dies down a slight bit and the car comes back onto the screen, again making if come back from being frightening and scary to being mysterious, after it quickly moves onto a huge building that is in the middle of nowhere, still strongly enforcing some of the audiences questions, and colours and lighting of the house look old and dark which can again make the building seem like a panicky area. You can gain some of the story line by denoting the house, as being a big manor that the people are clearly driving towards but in a connoting way, you may wonder that is this some form of ritual place? The music may suggest and the emptiness of the roads from the opening, but with a densely populated area in by the large dark building.