Detailed Analysis to the opening scene of Arlington Road

On the 25th of January 2010 we watched and analysed five different clips in class which were Arlington road, Dead calm, Marathon man, Seven and Shinning. i am going to be analyzing in more detail one of these movies.

Arlington Road
Due to the fact that I couldn’t find the exact same clip that i watched in class i am going to be analysing the opening scene to Arlington Road. Arlington Road is a 1999 film which tells the story of a widowed George Washington University professor who suspects his new neighbours are involved in terrorism and becomes obsessed with foiling their terrorist plot.
What happens in this clip?
a young boy am guessing between the ages 13 and 15 is staggering down the centre of a road with blood dripping to his blue converses we are unsure of where exactly the blood is coming from but we know that he is hurt. his eyes are rolling back as if he is on drugs and around his eye lids is red. A man in a silver mini jeep drives in to the road the boys walking on. When he notices the boy walking on the road he comes out the car and tries to get the boys attention. He then notices the boy is hurt and calls out for help and tries to apply pressure to the boy's wound.

Use of Camera
The clip starts off with a medium long shot of someone staggering. At this time we are unsure of who this someone is because it is blurry.

Then it spontaneously moves on to a medium close of the persons shoes which are still blurry. I feel that the reason for this is to show the audience that there is something wrong. The use of the blurry effect lets the audience see from the characters point of view at that very moment. It then moves back to a medium long shot from a low angle of this person staggering. We then see an extreme close up of part of the person’s face at this point we establish the fact that this person is a young boy and is going to play a main role in this movie.
There is a medium close up of the back of the boy’s neck and head which then zooms in to his neck. Then it moves to an extreme close up of his face here we see his eyes roll back and the camera shows us from his point of view the blurry houses.
Again we then see an extreme close up of the side of his face and a medium close up of blood dripping onto his shoes. We then see things from inside the driver's car. There is use of 360 degrees pan when the boy is in the man's arms this lets the audience get a better view of the surrounding.i think it also allows us to see from the man's point of view when he is looking aroung for help.

Sound
It starts off with a non diagetic sound which is slow, calm and repetitive it sounds like a child’s lullaby. This gives it a spooky feel Within that sound we hear the foot steps of the person which is a diagetic sound because it comes from within the frame and within that sound we hear orchestral music which is non diagetic because its been added on to the frame. We hear whispers someone says "do it, hurry up c’mon, run" this gives us a sense of haste then we hear the breathing of the boy who is hurt. The orchestral music increases at a one point and that’s all we can hear this has more effect at that moment therefore increasing our anxiety because we don’t know what’s going to happen next. The beat gets quicker more up beat when the man gets on the scene and then we finally hear dialogue which is the man’s voice. He has an American accent. Kid!
mise en scene
The mise en scene includes the young blonde boy who is covered in blood wearing a blue top and a grey hood on an army green combats and blue converses walking down the center of the street in the day light.

Then there is a white man who is driving a silver car. he is wearing baige trousers and a white top with a pen inside the pocket (this gives us a clue that he is the professor)and a navy blue tie and a wrist watch on his left hand.










The mise en scene also includes blood and mixture of fast pace and slow pace edit. vulrenability and helplessness in the case of the injured boy.
Editing
we get alot of dissolves from one thing to another.e.g. close up of the boys eyes rolling backwards then a dissolve edit to the buildings. we also get match cuts.e.g. A close up of the boy's eyes rolling backwards and a match cut of the blury buildings. Theres a slow motion of the professor walking quickly when he notices that theres something wrong. This has been done on purpose to prolong the moment.

Want to watch Arlington Road?
http://megavideo.com/?v=KOCUAK08