Textual (Mirco) Analysis

My sequence is 00:00:23 - 00:05:23

The opening scene introduces the main character David. He is in his basement painting. This shows his love for art and you quickly get to know the character. There is a close up of the painting, which could symbolise that his painting is could be related to what will happen further on during the film, as there is light/mist on his painting. The bad weather shows that something bad is about to happen, which does and as the family awake they discover a tree has crushed there house during the night. It foreshadows that the events are going to get worst throughout the film. Once the family awakes the lead character David gets annoyed at the events and swears, showing that his character can be easily annoyed, aswell as laid back. It is shown that the painting he spent working on was destroyed when the tree crashed through his basement. This could be symbolising the events which will come. David blames himself for the painting being ruined by saying "he should of taken it upstairs with him" even though he had no clue that it was going to happen. It is easily established that David is the main character, as the other character's don't have as camerawork and framing. He also has the most dialogue in the opening scene. There is a establishing shot of the lake, which is the area the family live in. There is a close-up of David's expressions when he see's the damage the tree has done to the lake. There is also a over-head shot of him holding his head with his hand when he see's the lake, which probably is out of anger or stress. There is a wide shot of a white mist coming over the lake as David and his family are looking onto the lake. David doesn't take much notice to the mist and just refers that "he has seen mist on the lake before and its probably left over from the storm", this being foreshadowed as a horror/diaster from the beginning and the title being "the mist" shows that the mist will play a key part in the rest of the film. David comes across as a reasonable person when he attempts to talk to his neighbour about the tree falling in the night, while his neighbour comes across slightly ignorant. The noise in the scene is mainly diagetic e.g the voices of the characters, thunder storms and rain (which could also come under non-diagetic). The mist automaticly grabs the audience attention when David's wife raise's her concern about the mist, claiming " that they've not had mist over the mountains" its shrugged off by David. I think the opening scene forecasts that it is a horror/diaster film as it gives hints things are going to get worst as time goes on. We learn about David's family life and the area he lives in with his wife and young son. Not a huge ammount of dialogue is used between David and his family, but it is easily recognised that he is a good man and is happy with his life. Tension is built up in the first five minutes, by the tree crashing and the mist on the lake, it makes the audience want to watch on to discover why there is mist on the lake and what will happen to the characters we've already met.