RS - Sample Opening - My Bloody Valentine Opening

My Bloody Valentine (George Mihalka, 1981)
Budget: $2m
No Box Offices Figures given
Remake released in 2009

• First shot is at a dutch angle, and the two people in the shot are wearing helmets for narrative enigma so we don't know who they are.
• The two people are both holding picaxes, foreshadowing things to come
• Both fully clothed and nothing is exposed
• The next few shots are all using dutch angle
• Non-diagetic sound is used in the soundtrack because you can't see it in the film.
• Diagetic sound is also used when one of the people move the objects in the way of the path, they make a noise replicating the movement. You can also hear the people breathing in their masks
• They both stop next to a wall and one of the two begins to look around and see if anyone is watching them, foreshadowing actions to happen.
• The other person is undressing, revealing a red heart tatoo above her breasts, again foreshadowing blood, death and also romance.
• The person takes off her helmet revealing a typical "scream queen" stereotype underneath, we expect her to be killed because of this, and the fact she is sexually active with only her bra on.
• The other person gets close the woman and then slams his picaxe into the wall behind her, at first it looks as though it is going to hit her. This is just a false scare.
• The woman then starts un dressing the man, reiterating the face that she is sexually active
• We begin to hear a heart beat getting louder and louder as the two people rub each other and feel each other
• The other persons helmet stays on, and theres an ECU of the womans tatoo and his hands shaking next to it, signifying he is going mental because of her and the tatoo
• The other person then rams the woman into the picaxe that had been in the wall behind her, in anger. This ends the scene

Techniques we can use from the opening:

• We could use the dutch angle shots that this opening adopts, because it adds to the whole confused aspect, we are not really sure what they are doing, or who they are, until they stop and the woman takes off her helmet
• The narrative enigma aspect is great, because we have no idea who these people are, there is no clear anchorage as to who they are, until the "scream queen" reveals herself.