'Don't Look Now' opening title sequence

So in today's lesson, we looked at another opening sequence and tried to identify what editing techniques were used in it and what was the meaning behind it. 'Don't Look Now' is a very good example when analysing editing because the genre is physcholocigical horror, meaning a lot of the story has to be conveyed through the use of edit as we can only show 'supernatural' features this way because it's obviously not real.

The sequence used a lot of 'match cuts'. This is where it looks as if one thing i.e an action of a character in the shot, is triggered by another action in a different shot but they link - whether it is obvious or not, the editor has done it purposely. The different shots are trying to convey the same meaning between them, even though they're usually in different places, they're are linked/related somehow. In this case, 'match cuts' were used to link what was happening outside was relating to what was happening inside. One example in this is where the girl outside throws the ball to her brother, and when she does it cuts to the dad, inside, throwing the cigarette box to his wife/the mother. These match cuts helped identify that the characters were linked and were family. 

A clever 'match cut' used was when after the liquid had spilt onto the photo, the red ink started to run across the picture, creating a shape, this then faded into the girls body shape when she is being picked up out of the water. They're both in the same colour as well - red. The red colour symbolises death as it looks similar to red, and red itself has connotations of: danger, hate etc. 

A lot of the 'match cuts' are used to trigger a lot of incidents, in this case, it setting up an idea one after another, getting worse and worse and it was as if the girl is getting nearer and nearer to her death; this is shown when: she is being shot again and again going through puddles after puddles, getting closer to the pond. Another example: when the father spills the glass over the picture, the girls ball falls into the pond. 

There is an edit where the brother and sister are outside, and the boys bike breaks so his face is towards the camera but his back his away from his sister. The boy is out of focus, whereas the girl is in focus. We see the boys eyeline looking down, so we can easily identify he is not aware of this sister behind him. This represents that the girl is the important character, and it also recreates the idea of 'depth of field' where it looks as though she is so lonely and vulnurable and there is not contact through them, again suggesting something is going to happen. This creates meaning that anything could happen to her as she is on herself. There a quite a few long shots through the sequence to create how the girl is distant just to keep reminding the audience that she is on herself, so that we feel more worried for her safety. 

The opening starts on a pond, the pond which the young girl drowns and dies in (but we find this out later in the sequence). The scene shows that it is raining, which instantly sets up the idea of pathetic fallacy: the weather reflecting the mood. Opening on the pond also suggests something symbolic about the it as well as we as an audience do not know where/why it's being filmed. The camera then zooms into the pond, closely, and then the title shows up. The title itself instants start to set up ideas of why we shouldn't 'be looking now', especially right after we have zoomed into something that doesn't contain a lot of eye catching attention. It is only shown for identification and knowledge.

From being shown the 'depth of field' and the 'match up' shots, we get a real sense of the girl being unprotected. The meaning created is that although the parents are not with the children, the dad has moments of realisation and feelings shown through close ups, however the mother has completely no realisation. In one shot, the mother has her back completely turned from the dad, showing she is distracted and throughout the sequence it becomes stupid that she has no concern or awareness towards any of the characters. This shot was created with a long pause/hold to express this meaning of her being uninterested. The way the shots are put together, the parents do not once give eye contact to each other which is unusual and slightly odd. This creates meaning that they, particularly the mum, have no interest in the situation inside the home or outside the house, even though the dad is acting slightly on edge and conscious.