'The Road' Opening Scene Analysis

Purpose and Conventions

The purpose of 'The Road' is to create a sunken and isolated atmosphere. There is a monologue that tells the audience the story of the apocalypse and adds a dark, dead atmosphere to the film. The purpose is to show the audience the current world within the film and an overall backstory. We're given an explanation through a monologue while being shown shots of a man and a boy walking through a dead world and trying to survive. The non-diegetic sound adds to the dead and hopeless opening.


Conventions used are ones I want to use in my opening. The deep sense of isolation and loss of hope in a dead world are conventions of a post-apocalyptic film. We're given a monologue, much in the style of my ideas, telling the story of the apocalypse and setting the atmosphere of the film. The sole survivors are another convention of the genre. Indeed, this film opening creates an atmosphere relatively close to the one I want to create, as 'I Am Legend' does.



Shots and Angles

Most of the shots are of the two, what we can only assume to be, protagonists walking through a dead forest area. Many wide shots and extreme wide shots are used to establish the surrounding area. This is due to the opening heavily relying on the scenery to set the overall feeling of the opening and fit with the music and monologue. The wide shots and extreme wide shots include the protagonists walking or struggling in the area. The opening seems to slowly focus more and more on what the protagonists are doing until the final shots, which are close ups of the characters' faces.



Mise-En-Scene

As said before, the setting is established through wide shots and extreme wide shots. We're given an idea from the dead trees and deserted areas that the location is dead, which is what the scene aims to achieve. Lighting is also dark and moody, again establishing the bleak and dead environment surrounding the characters. The dark lighting is important in illustrating the defeated and dead tone of the opening.

The characters wear dirty clothes and are generally unclean from surviving in the harsh environment. They're represented as being alone and only having each other. The man in the monologue, who we can safely assume to be the in the opening, sounds defeated. We're given the impression that the two characters are very close and share a father/son bond.

Editing

The scene is edited to be darker and create the dead feel through the lighting. The monologue fits well with the shots and music, being well edited together. The transitions are smooth and unnoticeable, but do not vary. The pace is well set, feeling slow yet enticing, through editing. The final two shots fit together, as the monologue is speaking of the boy in the opening as we get a shot of the boy, which then cuts to the man looking at the boy, further indicating that it is the man speaking in the monologue.



Sound

The opening relies on two sets of non-diegetic sound with no diegetic sound. The two pieces of sound, the monologue and the music over the scene, fit very well together. The monologue introduces the story and sets the overall tone for the film. The man tells us of how everything is gone and that the world is dying. It helps give us the dead, empty feeling needed in the opening. The music creates the same effect, but does not tell us the story. It fits well with the shots used, as the monologue does, and sets the tone of the opening. The music feels hopeless, sad and empty, helping the scene along and fitting the overall opening.



Narrative

As said above, we're given a narrative through the monologue and through the shots of the dead area with the man and boy being sole survivors. The man in the dramatic monologue tells us that the world is dying and some hints as to how it happened. We're also given some narrative through the travelling shown with the two characters. They are the only people around and the scenery is dead. They work together to do things and the man seems to care for the boy.