Analysis of opening sequence: Black Swan

Black Swan

The opening to black swan starts with a clear stage with a black back drop, the darkness symbolises the mystery and the darkness that is yet to come in the film. Not much lighting is used apart from one spotlight which follows the female dancer around the stage as she’s dancing. This draws the audience’s attention to her and they notice through this her importance in the film, furthermore the use of the spotlight creates shadows on the stage which adds to the mysterious side of the film. The light being projected onto the female the whole time allows us to see her facial expressions and also doesn’t allow us to see the man’s face, thus hiding his identity from the audience. In terms of camera shot, close ups are used at the beginning on her feet to allow the audience to feel more involved in what’s going on and to highlight that she’s a skilled ballet dancer as she’s on “Pointe”.  A long shot is used when the man is making his way onto stage, he comes from the direction of the camera which keeps his identity hidden from the audience and making him look like a threat to her.

The music used in this scene is classical to again highlight the dancer she is, I would say this piece of music is dramatic from the start, however then gets even more dramatic and quicker paced. She projects sounds of heavy breathing as he enters the performance and gasps to portray the fear the man has caused. The music reaches its climax when the pair are dancing together, showing this is an alarming occurrence. The use of the change in music grips the audience and makes it the comparison in the characters evident. Once the man leaves the stage the music gets slower and so does her dancing and almost goes back to how it was before he joined the dance, showing that his exit caused her to calm down.

The costumes used create a clear contrast between the characters; firstly dressing the female in white suggests her innocence and purity, whereas the man is dressed in black which is a representation of the mystery of him and possible how evil he is. Mid dance there is a costume change, both characters are dressed in feathers, again the female is in white to show she’s the good character and the man is in black to show he’s evil. The man is also in a sort of monster costume with horns which could also link to evil as monsters aren’t normally good. The colour difference could also be linked to the representation of gender in the film, the men could be the antagonists and the women could be protagonists, this is not known by the opening sequence only suggested. Lastly the opening sequence leaves many questions for the audience and narrative enigma codes like ‘why’s he evil?’ ‘who is he?’ ‘why’s she scared of him?’. Most of these questions being based on the man as he is the more mysterious of the two and less of his identity is shown in the opening.