The Opening Shot #2 - The Conjuring

The Conjuring

James Wan, 2013

Lead actors: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga 
Genre: Psychological horror

Production companies: New Line Cinema, 
                                         The Safran Company, 
                                         Evergreen Media Group

Distributor: Warner Bros Pictures

Budget: $20m

Worldwide (US + International)                      

The UK 

Critical Success:

Trailer

THE SHOT

Before the opening shot we get a black. We have voiceovers, all American, denoting the location of the film, USA (not the south). We have the female. Although we don't know. We have a binary opposition already, an unsure female character assured by a male character, ancient stereotype?The first shot exposes a central character, the antagonist. It is more usual that we have a protagonist (as Shawn in This Is England), but in a sense one of the protagonists has already been introduced before through the voiceover. Binary opposition, real life human 

The camera zooms out slowly to a close-up. Rule of thirds isn't applied, further anchors this is something abnormal, the monster lurking in the corner of your eye. The eye is looking at the audience, viewers empathise with the feeling of surveillance the dummy will give all the characters throughout the film.