Main Task - Nightmare On Elm Street Deconstruction

Nightmare On Elm Street (opening scene clip link)

The opening scene of Nightmare on Elm Street starts with the production labels and the opening credits, with a quite non-diegetic orchestra music being played. The credits are dark and in a scratched font which gives an uneasy atmosphere, but the credits are written again in a clear, bold font over the top. The cuts between different shots and the credits are very fast at the beginning but then start to slow down to go into a close up pan shot of a road sign saying ‘ELM st.’ this lets the audience know where the film is based. The cuts then speed up of a few shots of children playing in a playground, this tells you the film is going to be based on children or will have the children in the film. The sound of the children playing and shouting gives the impression that nothing bad is happening to them and they are happy. A mid shot on a girl running and the lighting is bright yellow/orange could tell us that something bad has happened that she is running away from something or it could show she is happy and playing. The next shot is a close up of a school picture showing the name of the school is Badham School, this tell us that this is where the film is going to be based or what the story will be based around. There is a scratch around the word ‘preschool’ and then it zooms in on the word which makes us think why that is being point out to us, it lets us know it’s to do with young children. The next shot is a close up of the children in the picture and then a fast edit to the picture being scratched which makes us think something bad has happened to the children. A close up on ‘Bad’ from ‘Badham’ and then a close up on ‘school’ tell us that that something bad has happened at this school and to these children. The next long shot shows children’s play blocks with letters on which spell ‘he’ and the blocks are in fire; these are giving hints to what’s going to happen in the film. Another bird’s eye view shot of the children’s playground shows they have written in chalk ‘no’ and ‘stop’, this tells us the children are trying to tell us they need help but can’t tell us what’s happening. Two separate shots zoom in on a boy and a girl from the school photo, this makes us think these two could be main characters in the film. Another long shot shows play blocks spelling ‘pain’ and ‘stop’ this also tells us the children are trying to communicate through other objects that they are in trouble. This opening lets the audience know it’s a horror film because of the repetitive, love pitch, orchestral music and the different shots and fast edits it has to show.