Explore the use of film language for effect in an
opening sequence to a thriller. How does the director engage the audience?
‘Pulp Fiction is renowned for its dramatic
and surprising opening sequence in which the characters ‘Honey Bunny’ and
‘Pumpkin’ brandish guns in an attempt to rob a restaurant. The opening
sequences camerawork begins with a side on double shot of the characters in a
booth at a coffee shop. The shot is partly an open frame; the audience is aware
of an outside world both within the coffee shop and outside the coffee shop.
This puts the two characters in perspective of the outside world, the
conversation between them is made to seem normal, a part of everyday life. As
the waitress arrives a close up shot is established with her to establish an
intimate relationship between her and the audience where else she would be an
anonymous figure. The faceless figure of the coffee shop becomes real and we
have a sense of the characters interacting with the outside world. However, we
never see the body of the waitress, alluding to the fact that something is
always kept from our knowledge; we’re introduced to someone who works at the
coffee shop but we never see her fully; we know the characters are in a coffee
shop but we’re not introduced to an establishing shot (so in a way the frame is
also closed). The shots then begin to cross cut between close ups of Amanda
Plummer (Honey Bunny) and over her shoulder at Tim Roth (Pumpkin). This
introduces us to point of view shots, establishing the audience as a part of
the conversational intimacy so they feel included in the action. The camera
tilts to include all of Amanda Plummer’s perspective in the shot. The movement
is made to feel like Plummer’s eyes focusing on Roth. There are very little
pans of the entire scene; we don’t really get to see the coffee shop beyond
Plummer and Roth’s conversation. There is a sense of mystery as we are unaware
of the surroundings and unaware of what is going to happen next. As the
conversation between Plummer and Roth progresses and sub genres of action and
crime are revealed, crosscutting between shots becomes more frequent and the
shots begin to become more intense: as Roth explains his theory of Robbing
banks the camera rolls and zooms increasingly into a close up. We are given a
sense of building encroaching tension. When Plummer announces she’s “ready,
right now!” Roth brandishes his gun on the table and we are given an extreme
close up of the gun to emphasize the severity of the situation and the tension
building question ‘are they actually going to do it?’ that we are all thinking
becomes shockingly real and apparent. The camera then zooms out to a wide long
shot of Roth standing on the booth seat and Plummer jumping to her feet holding
a gun screaming threats at the coffee shop. The shot is at a low angle, thereby
exaggerating Roth and Plummer to look larger and more intimidating than they
actually are. Up until this point there has been very little focusing to create
a depth of field in the scene, other than the perspective of the world through
the window to make the scene seem as normal and ordinary as possible until the
very last moment of total shock to keep an element of surprise and an air of
mystery about the whole scene.
The scene lighting in this scene is low
key; developing a spectrum of contrasting shadows known as chiaroscuro. There
is very little filler lighting used at all, there is one main key source of
light that originates from the window that’s made to look like naturalistic
lighting and not stylized. The source of this light comes from the side of
Plummer and Roth. Combined with very little filler light we are given a
naturally uneven, contrastingly lit scene; from the side profile double shot
perspective Plummer and Roth are highlighted but the shadows cast on their
profiles seem to allude to an air of mystery and foreshadows their villainous
intent that we are yet to be introduced to. In close up shots, these
contrasting shadows are emphasized and so is the element of crime, which is why
close up shots are used more frequently as the conversation becomes more and
more suspicious.
The scene itself is designed to seem like
an everyday setting; there is nothing unusual about the appearances of the
characters or the situation they are in. other than the fact that we are never
given any establishing circumstances, so we are aware of an outside world
existing but we are never introduced to it; there is something there that we
are unsure about and don’t quite know. The set of the booth is made to look
like Plummer and Roth have been there for a considerable amount of time already
(used coffee cups, discarded plates) forcing us to ask the question ‘so what’s
going to happen next?’ . The scene continues to enforce this element of being
unsure of the future and keeping us as the audience on edge, even at the end
when the full plot of the film still isn’t revealed and we are drawn into
watching more.
Sound is used effectively in this opening to
enhance the mundane everyday setting of it at first. We hear background noise
and chatter from the dinner throughout the whole scene reminding us of the
outside world still existing. Part of this background noise is murmuring, the
sound of cars rushing by and evening a faint tinkling of piano music. All this
alludes to the life continuing to go by in the outside world as we watch
Plummer and Roth’s conversation take place; as the scene progresses and we
become more aware of the fact they are criminals, the background chatter of
everyday life becomes ironic and we begin to sense a building of tension and
expect something to happen next.
It is the combination and layering of these
four aspects that transforms the scene into such an entertaining, surprising
and allusive scene that draws you in to watch more.
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