Inja
The main character of Inja is introduced right away after the opening shot looking over the farm with workers in it. The dog is also introduced with him and you see him stealing for the dog to make him a collar, which implies that he cares about the dog deeply. The older man is introduced when they cut to a shot of him standing in the window. The next scene is the older man calling over the boy and the dog, then beats the dog, but tricks the dog to think the boy did that to him. This shows the viewer that the old man has all the power in this story. Throughout the scene, they used a lot of face shots to show the emotion of the moment.
The setting is of this film is shown very well, there where several shots that panned over the farm where you could see the workers. Throughout the story, you always see the workers always outside while most of the time the family old man and his wife are on the porch or inside reading or drinking tea. This shows us the dynamic of the setting.
The beginning of the film starts with a lot of close up shots showing the face of the boy and the dog to show that it’s hot out and he is working hard for the dog. They also used the panning over the fields of workers to open the whole story, setting the time and place for the story. The filmmakers also use the same shot of the boy putting the flag up two times to show the passing of time.
The pacing of the film seems steady when in the scene where the old man is beating the dog, it doesn’t seem rushed or full of action. With every kick, the sound effects kick in making you almost feel them as well, while your watching. After the boy opens the bag and lets the dog out and he runs away they show a close up of his face and then cut to black, then open up with him later in life putting up the flag. That cut moves the story along, giving us only enough information as we need to know.
The elements of the movie that create a strong impact are the shots and the audio coming together. When the dog is being kicked, we hear the crying of the dog and the boy begging the man to stop, this pulls at the heartstrings really giving the viewer a reaction to the story. One of the first English words we hear the old man say is, “dog must learn”, which really is an interesting choice for first words for a character but they have an impact that just makes your stomach sink. This film left me feeling sad and wondering what the boy ended up doing.
Jurassic Park
In the opening scene, no specifics of any characters are given but they start the scene by panning over the area filled with workers with guns showing how serious it is. There was one man dressed differently than the rest of the workers and he was the one giving orders. The difference in clothes and speaking shows that he is higher up to the rest of the workers.
They are in a facility covered with trees but also gates around it so right off the bat you know this is some type of closure or zoo. They don’t show too much of it, but as the scene opens we see a close up of trees rustling and then when we finally see the crate where the dinosaur is in we see the enclosure that they are trying to put him in, giving the audience the indication that they are trying to build a zoo full of dinosaurs.
The way that they used shots was similar to Inja because they opened with a close up of the trees to open the curiosity of the viewer. Then they show the faces of the workers up close to show their eyes and how serious it is. The next shot is another pan of the workers but you can see them holding guns which draw the viewer in even closer to the storyline in the first scene.
The overall editing of Jurassic Park’s opening scene is smart, they open with wind and rustling of leaves which sets the setting right off the bat. They limit the talking to the one man barking orders, which shows the audience that not only is he in charge but they have also practiced that process before which means that something could potentially go wrong. The final shot is the one that had the most impact for me, when the man is trying to fight the dinosaur off and the man in charge is helping him, they close up to his mouth when he’s saying the words, “shoot her”, then we see a hand gripping and gunshots then the hand releases the grip as the screen fades to black. They set the tone for that whole part to happen by having very little sound while the man was doing his job but as soon as something goes wrong the music starts loud which will also help get the intensity of the situation across. This now has the audience fully invested in the story from just the opening scene alone.
The visual was perfect, there was a dark setting underlining how the tone of the opening scene would go. The close shots to the workers, man in charge, and the dino itself gives the audience a look at all the elements of danger that might come about. All around this scene kept my attention and had me wondering what was going to happen. When in the last scene I found myself tensing up because of the music and yelling mixed with the close shots and intense faces made by the actors.
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