Kayla- Hanna opening

Hanna opening

The film starts of with no dialogue and hardly any ambient sound, the first shot seen is of some snowy rocks setting the scene that there is no one around.

 the next shot is a long shot of a swan, over this shot is the faintest sound of the water moving, this creates a calm slow pace beginning.

just to set the scene we see a few more images calm snowy water

slowly a figure is revealed but their face is not seen. There is still no dialogue and still very little ambient sound. Before we have time to see their face they vanish without making any sound. As the camera tracks right, a tree gets in the way for just a second but when the camera has past the tree the character is gone from where they were before, this raises the question of ‘where are they?’

then a reindeer is seen and non diegetic sound of it breathing is used. There is only small sounds being used to build up tension as it creates a calm vibe making the viewer wonder what is yet to come.

the editing frequency is still slow keeping to the calm vibe. The shot changed from the reindeer walking to a medium shot of someone standing still between two trees they seem to be in camouflage, the character is quite hidden creating mystery and also it is clear they are hiding so the idea they are hunting comes into mind

 it becomes clear what they are hunting as it goes back to a shot of the reindeer connecting both shots

we then see the characters eye through the trees, that is all that’s seen. There is also still no dialogue and the editing frequency is still quite low.

All of a sudden the editing frequency increases and in the space that she shoots the reindeer with an arrow to when she gets to the reindeer there are about 14 edits in the space of 20 seconds. High editing frequency so quickly into the film makes the viewer want to keep watching as they are already on the edge of their seat. Also the film goes from very little sound to a quite loud diegetic sound of her shooting the arrow, this sound is the first sound we really hear before lots of sounds are introduced such as her footsteps as she chases the reindeer and the sound of the reindeer running and squealing in pain.

the next shot is of the dying reindeer alone in with an arrow in its stomach this sort of shows that she has disrupted the peacefulness of the nature we saw at the start, but it is acceptable as she is hunting.

we then see her pull out the arrow from its stomach and still no dialogue has been used.

a low angle of the girl is used to make her look powerful as she is higher up than the camera. It is clear she is standing over the reindeer.

we then see a BCU of her pull down her scarf and reveal her face. I think it has been made this way to show she is a girl and stereotypically girls don’t like blood and hunting so it shows she goes against stereotype and makes the viewer wonder who this girl is and why she is hunting. The first dialogue of the film comes from this girl and she says ‘I just missed your heart’

A prop is then revealed which changed the whole opening and makes it more thrilling as this type of prop is associated with other things such as murder and normally this type of gun isn’t looked at as a hunting weapon. The gun is pointed towards the camera, which makes it more thrilling as it involves the viewer and makes them

As the gun is shot is fired the opening cuts straight to the title and the fire of the gun is carried on and over exaggerated to draw attention to the title. The title is Hanna and so viewers questioning who the girl is immediately believe this must be Hanna. The red background also makes the viewer instantly think of violence as red is a connotation of blood, In this case the red might have been used to represent the reindeers blood as she shot at it.