Textual Analysis of the 'Twilight(2008)'

Twilight was realeased in 2008, staring Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. The film has won 23 awards and has been nominated 9 times. At the beginning of 'Twilight' the camera angle is an Aerial Shot which sets the scene in a forest, we can only see natual lighting which appears to be dark, this tells the audience that the sun is setting. Incidental music comes in as the camera is moving and and the audience gets a birds of view of the deer drinking water from a pond. It cuts from the birds of view to looking straight at the deer, as soon as it does this the viewer hears a voice over of a girl talking, her tone of voice is calm, which makes the audience relaxed and not on edge at the fact they can hear the girl but cant see her she says 'but dying in the place of someone i love, seems like a good way to go' this tells the audience that film is about people risking their lives and dying. The camera cuts to an extreme close up of the deers face looking through the grass, it is a hand held shot which could show that the deer is being watched. The camera then goes back to showing the area and the camera tilts from the looking at the night sky back to the floor, we start to hear ambient noises of the trees rusling together in the wind, the frequency of the incidental music gets louder and the tempo gets faster, this puts the audience on edge into what will happen to the deer. It is now a hand held shot which gets faster and faster towards the deer, it then cuts to a fast horizonatal tracking of the deer running away, this puts the audience on edge

When the deer runs between two trees a figure jumps out between the tree and jumps on to the deer biting it, the camera angle used is a two-shot showing the distance between the 'vampire' and the deer, there is a bright light which shines behind the vampire this makes it very difficult for the audience to work out what has actually happened. The screen goes blank making the audience wonder what has just happened. Next the sky is blue and the camera tilts toward Bella's face showing a close up shot, her face expression shows determination, the camera back tracks while she is walking through the field. there is an over voice sound of her talking about what has gone on in her life, this is giving the audience am insight into her life and what has happened and what is going to happen. as the camera zooms in the screen goes white and there is a master shot of the car reversing off her drive. there is a soundtrack playing as the car drives off, the music has a country tone to it this gives the audience that there going to the countryside or somewhere that is old fashioned. The camera cuts from different landmarks, this shows a passage in time.

 

The camera angle is now am aerial shot of a forest with a layer of snow sitting on top of the tree tops, a caption comes in to the shot saying 'twilight' the letter 'g' has a swirl that keeps going this shows that something isn't right and it's repeating. The lighting is dark this indicated that its a lonely place to be and the snow shows that its cold and isolated as the snow doesnt look touched. It then cuts to a panning of the old fashioned American police car driving over a bridge, as the camera pans it zooms in showing fast action. The police car indicates that the film is going to have a lot of  danger and crime in it.

overall the opening of twilight, leaves the audience sitting on the edge of their seats, wondering what's going to happen to the girl that's just moved to a new town, and what was that figure that ate the deer.