Fargo The very first thing that is seen on the screen is writing, white on black. This is in contrast to the setting of the film. This shows how dark the film even though it is in a very bright environment. The opening is a car driving through the snow towing a broken vehicle. This is not a typical thriller convention however it has aspects of a thriller convention. For example the snow and fog can be more eerie than the dark at night as the snow and fog in this scene can be very disorientating like a thriller. They have only used one continuous camera angle of the car driving for the majority of the scene. It starts at a distance and gets closer and closer, the camera is in one fixed position, on the opposite side of the road. It starts at an extreme long shot. You can’t even tell that it is towing another car until it is really up close, at a medium shot.

Until it drives past at and we get an extreme close up. We then get a long shot of the car from the side of the road.

Then the camera is placed on the opposite side of the road driving away from the camera and ends on an extreme long shot. This has typical thriller convention as with the extreme long shot you cant really make out what it is, creating a sense of mystery. This is also creating by the foggy snow so we can see a blurry whiteness. At the start the scene were the screen goes white, it then fades into the scene. The same colour white is used for the white screen as is used for the snow and the fog so it goes together this also gives a sense of confusion by not being able to see properly. This is like common thrillers, confusion. The sound in this scene is mainly non-diegetic, as guitars and violins are playing very slowing. Until it becomes visible what the car is. Drums are played loudly and the whole of the music instruments play until it stops. No diegetic sound was used. This is doesn’t really have a convention however it could be interpreted a as there being loads wide areas of land round these parts were you wont hear anything making the film feel eerie with the silence which follows the typical thriller conventions. There is a sound track along with this scene. This is not really cheerful music giving us thought that this isn’t going to be a nice story. It is going to be quite tragic. This is a very natural occurring event in a normal state. This makes us feel

like it is too normal and too good to be true; a traditional thriller\horror start to a film.