Film Opening 2

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 Opening Evaluation

The opening to this film opens with the classic variation of the Warner Brothers Logo which is now commonly associated with Harry Potter after this it cuts to an extreme close-up of a man’s eyes even though he is talking the audience never see the man’s mouth. An extreme close-up is used to show the emotion in the man’s eyes because he is talking about the death of the minister of magic which is quite an emotional topic of the man as you can see the emotion in his eyes. It then become a close up of the man halfway through his speech to allow the audience to see the emotion in the rest of his face. Once he has finished talking the shot becomes a medium-shot from behind his back which shows the audience who is talking to and then the flashes of cameras can be seen showing he was talking to the media while the flashes are going on the camera shot changes again into a long shot. The scene then changes to an extreme close-up of a newspaper which gradually becomes a close-up before the character picks it up and begins to read a different article than the one the camera was focused on. When the camera is finished following the newspaper it cuts to a long establishing shot because you can see the whole of Hermione but it is also telling you where it is, her bedroom. In the distance her mother is heard calling her and the camera goes into a medium shot of the Hermione replying to her mother. The scene then changes again to a family leaving their home. They are having a conversation about why they are having to leave. This shot is done from a high angle looking down on the family packing up their care. The conversation can still be heard in the background but the shot has changed to Harry peeking out from behind a curtain watching his family pack. This shot is taken from a low angle to tell the audience that he is in his room looking down on them.  The scene changes again to the side of a house where the camera pans up the side of the house before a character is visible. The camera then changes to show the front of the house while zooming out so that Ron can be seen within the shot looking at something in the distance. In the back of the shot, out of focus, Ron’s mother can be heard giving him an instruction. He turns back to look at her and then returns to look towards the camera and worry can be seen within his face as it is a medium-shot. The medium shot continues even though the scene has changed and it has now returned to Hermione. The camera then does shot to show you exactly what Hermione is seeing. It then returns to the shot of Hermione and she can be seen performing a spell on her parents. While the spell is happening the shot changes so that all the characters can be seen. The camera then pans round the room and shows her disappearing from all the pictures. In the middle of the panning it cuts to a medium shot of Hermione and the audience can clearly see how upset she is with what she has had to do. The scene then changes again to a women sitting in a car preparing to leave her home and the audience and clearly see the worry written across her face.  It is then of a man about to get into his car and leave before finally the camera does a low angle long shot to show the family leaving Harry behind. It then becomes a medium shot of Harry and you can also see that he is upset about making his family leave their home. It zooms out till it is nearly a long shot before changing to a long shot of Hermione leaving her home and going up the street when she is walking the camera continues to zoom out but also goes to a high angle so it is looking down on her. After that is goes into the film title which is very dark. When the camera appears to have gone through the titles the clouds clear and an establishing shot of a castle can be seen before a black shape comes speeding past and the camera appears to follow it down to the entrance of the castle before cutting to a shot from the floor showing the black shape turn into a person it then pans up the character before it stops at a medium shot. It then goes to another shot from the floor but this time it is behind a gate and the character is seen walking through the gate. The clip ends with a close up of the characters face and his stern emotion can be seen.