Gone Girl (2014) Film Opening Analysis

I wanted to explore the opening of this film as I am aware it is about how a man’s wife goes missing and he is being blamed for her potential death. It has similar traits to my film, therefore I want to explore the technical elements this film has used also.

The film opening begins with a man talking about how he wants to get inside of his wife’s brain, and that he wants to answer questions about what she is thinking etc. then we are shown several locations around what is presumably this characters home town, followed by the character standing outside of his house breathing heavily early in the morning. Then we are taken to a bar where we begin to learn a bit more about his life.

The film opening doesn’t really have a significant setting at the beginning, as we are shown various places in a short amount of time, and in one shot of these places there is a sign that states ‘city of North Carthage’, assuming this is where the film is set. Then we are taken via the character to a bar, presumably in his home town as he is very familiar with the barmaid. The lighting is all ambient, as for the majority of the film opening there are shots in the outdoors, and even in the bar the room is lit up by natural sources of light through the windows. The colours vary quite a lot throughout the opening scenes, as some of them are very dull and bland showing buildings and road signs, and some are bright as we are shown houses by a lake with bright green grass. However when the character is outside his house, the colours then maintain a very bland and plain colour scheme, and with only the male character being shown in the opening, it automatically proposes that his life is dull. The performance of the actors are quite interesting also. When we are shown him outside of the house, from previous shots we are aware that it is 6:55 in the morning. He is stood outside of his house, panting. Which makes the audience seriously question what is going on, ad this would stick in their heads as it is quite an odd thing to do. As well as this, he is going to the bar relatively early in the day, and is very familiar to the barmaid – instigating he is a regular. He also brings her a present, which supports this further, and shows that he must have nothing better do to. It is also showing to the audience judging by the plot of the storyline portrayed on the trailer that he may be escaping the fact that he is guilty, and trying to get away from his problems. when the man asks for a drink, the bar maid pauses – maybe showing that she is disappointed as it is early I the day, or she is pausing as the man may not be a pleasant drunk – this could be showing streaks of violence in his personality. The character also says that he is having a bad day as it is his wedding anniversary, and as soon as he says he is having a bad day the barmaid straight away knows it is about his wife – Amy. This shows that he may have a lot of marital problems that he shares with the barmaid, not only supporting he is often in the pub, but causes the public to question his innocence later on too. The main character is shown wearing jogging bottom and a t-shirt in the morning, looking like he had just woken up. And later in the day he is wearing a shirt over a t-shirt, showing that he is quite a laid back, casual person, and doesn’t take a great deal of care into how smart he looks.

The first shot we see is a close-up of a man stroking a woman’s hair, and she turns up to look at him. This shot is very captivating, as her expression is quite emotionless so we are unaware of what is going on. Although, she is laying on his chest, so this must indicate some form of relationship

between the pair. Then we are shown an establishing shot of a beach, where the titles appear. Following this we are shown shots of several locations, such as a building with the Coca-Cola symbol on, an empty street, a sign with ‘City of North Carthage’ on it, a drain, the side of a building being worked on, a lake with several houses and a deer by a tree and a few more. As mentioned before I think this has been done to show surroundings of the man character in his town. Then there is a tilt shot going upwards, showing a street clock that says 6:55 to show the audience how early it is. Straight from this we are shown a wide shot of a man stood outside of his house, heavily panting. It is very unusual as the rest of the locations are deserted, and it is only him outside of his house. This shows that he must be up to something quite dodgy. There is then a very wide shot of the man walking back into the house from the bin he was stood net to, and the camera pans to keep him in the shot. I think this has been done to again highlight how deserted the rest of the street is and how quiet it is. Then we only generally see mid-shots following this of shot-reverse shot conversation between the barmaid and the main character.

The sound used in the film opening is quite interesting too. In the beginning, it uses a slow and depressing orchestral no-diegetic music, which is what I expected. There is also a voice over of the main character, saying that when he thinks of his wife, he thinks about breaking into her skull and divulging information from it such as what she is thinking, how she is feeling and asking what have they done to each other. From this point, the music then dies out, and we hear several natural sounds to the environments in which we are shown, such as birds, water dripping, a boiler making noises, the cold silence street of an empty street, a ticking clock etc. the music picks up slightly when we are shown the man stood outside of his house, as it leaves the audience questioning his innocence with the use of dramatic yet depressing music. From here on there is only dialogue between the man and the barmaid.

At the very beginning of the film opening, the editing is quite slow. There isn’t much going on, and the shot lasts for quite a long time. There is then a very strong fade to black transition that instigates something bad may happen to her. From this, the editing then suddenly picks up its pace and slows down again in certain places. For instance, the editing is very fast when it is showing all the different places with straight cuts, and then begins to slow down when we are shown the time of the clock and then gets even slower when the man is outside his house, although there are still straight cuts in place showing the scene from different angles. I think this has been done to build up suspense with the audience, and also to take in certain features of the film opening more than others.

The film opening is very different to the one I want to create, so it would be quite difficult to incorporate many of its features however. I really like the music that has been chosen in this film opening, it really makes the footage stand out and captivate the audience, which I something I really want to do with my film opening. I want to use something very similar to this piece of music.