Film Deconstruction : Black Swan

When researching psychological thrillers, I came across the phenomenon that is Black Swan. Last Year, this movie reached critical acclaim with being nominated for every award ceremony and actually receiving the awards. I decided to buy the dvd and I can truly see why it was worthy of an oscar. The cinematography was perfect, the editing was flawless and the acting was captivating. Therefore, I decided to deconstruct the opening two minutes of the film and see how it wowed the audience. 


The clip begins with a pitch black screen. The black could represent evil or fear of the unknown. We then we hear the music. It's very classical and it seems gentle, elegant and artistic. Whilst the music is playing, the titles appear on the screen. They fade in and out, which I would take in account when creating the titles for our main task.  The font is very contemporary and classic. The colour of the white font contrasts with the dark background. The connotations of white and black together could mean  a power struggle or it could mean good vs. evil because white is associated with purity. However, black and white do look good together therefore instead of contrasting they could be complimenting each other. 


After the titles, we see a spotlight on a girl dancing in the dark background wearing a white dress. There are several panning shots of her feet, this girl is doing ballet and creating different lines and intricate footwork. There is then a mid shot of the ballerina, whom is the actress Natalie Portman. There is then a point of view shot of a male dancer wearing all black coming on camera, the camera is very shaky when introducing him which could represent trouble. We then hear Natalie Portman's character breathing heavily insinuating that she is in fear. The music at this point turns very operatic and striking which symbolises a struggle between the white and black dancers, ultimately meaning good and evil. 


This is all that happened in the first two minutes, however, I became hooked as soon as the classical music began, and continued watching the movie until it finished. I can definitely see why this movie was considered number one. As well as the acting, and filming being excellent, a lot of thought went into the lighting and the costumes and the different angles the camera could do. The little things matter such as props or location, which means we have to research and consider all the different possibilities for our main task. 

This is the only opening scene I could find, however it doesn't show the titles.