Opening Shots Tell Us Everything 

I really want a director to come out and say "nah, I just thought it looked cool"

I noticed the symbolism in the title of this video. Notice how it uses the word "shots"? This symbolises the rampant alcohol problem in the movie industry

Whenever I look at these analysis I feel like the dumbest person on earth.

I think you may be reading too much symbolism into the Silence of the Lambs opening. You say the other rope not being used means not everyone has made it as far as she has. You continue to say that she's determined to save herself from a figurative rut she's stuck in by training. I think it's more of an introduction to the character of Clarice Starling. She is running an obstacle course on her own, which means she's not doing it at the orders of her superiors. There's no drill sergeant yelling at her to go faster like in Full Metal Jacket. This establishes Starling as a highly-motivated FBI recruit who pushes herself further to be the best or at least prove herself to her peers. She is so dedicated, that she'll work to be the best even when nobody else is doing the same, hence the empty rope and nobody else on the course. And what is this rut she's saving herself from? She is obviously not struggling through FBI training, as she is quickly upjumped into the field by her mentor to interview Lecter a few scenes later. She's someone who is succeeding in training and becoming a capable FBI agent, not someone stuck in a rut.

Hey guys, I've been getting some feedback suggesting I try seeing an opening shot from a film I've never seen before, try to infer about the film from the shot, and watch the rest of the film to see if I'm right! Anybody have any suggestions? Preferably something less popular so I may not have seen it.

further on the silence of the lambs opening: the audience knows this is a horror film from advertising, etc., and if they're horror fans, seeing a woman alone in the foggy woods will make them expect something bad to happen to her. the music also adds to the tension. there's even an almost jump scare, the sound of birds taking off, which would make a nervous audience jump slightly. because of horror film tropes, we think something is going to come after her, especially since she looks offscreen towards the sound. instead, she is totally fine, and comes to be our main character and hero of the film. this all tells us that this isn't your typical horror movie.

Little Miss Sunshine's beginning shot stuck with me more then I thought anything would. I was eleven when I first saw it and fell in love with the movie. Then of course Moonrise Kingdom and Rushmore have some of the best opening scenes. You can't forget about Inglorious Bastards or Pulp Fiction obviously. My newest favorite is from the Lobster, just draws you in.

The opening shot of Birdman is the entire movie ;)

"The way the pizza delivery woman bangs on the door is symbolic of how she is about to be banged by the man in the apartment. You'll notice the first position is the 'missionary' position, as her character is there to help the man reach the next stage in his journey. The fact that he's on top is in reference to the patriarchy, and at the end, when the man ejaculates (or 'busts') in her face, this bookends the film because it goes from 'bang' (knock knock) to 'bust' (skeet skeet), in reference to the economic troubles of late 2008. You can learn so much from the first shot."

I don't think it's right for you to say that these shots tell us everything about a movie immediately. They may set the stage and impart a certain feeling in us, but if you were watching any of those movies for the first time you couldn't pause it and immediately extrapolate all of that information.

More than anything else, the opening shot should establish the tone of the movie.

This is basically what a GSCE English lesson is.

Make sure to check out the opening shot of "Lost in Translation" ;)

Ehh I got a different vibe from the opening of silence of the lambs....the music gives it an ominous feeling, and the birds flying away suggest that perhaps danger is nearby or that someone is watching her, and her reaction could be interpreted as caution or jittery..ness...That scene specifically I think maybe we're all digging a little too deep into but that's just my .02

There Will Be Blood's opening shot contained no dialogue for the first 15 minutes. A must see.

I haven't seen silence of the lambs, but I can say in that opening when the birds fly away, she stops, turns her body towards the camera so you can see on her shirt "FBI academy" telling us a lot about her, where she is, and why she is there.

2:58 ... uhm... really? I mean.. "EXACTLY what the plot will be about" ?! From that shot you know that we have like 3 parts in that movie from apes killing each other with bones to a monolith in space, a crazy robot-mind that controls the ship and tries to kill the passengers and some dude on LSD in space?!

u dont think 35 secs is a bit much for a youtube intro?

Have you ever gotten into a fistfight with Every Frame A Painting?

Loving these videos! Keep them coming!

2:07: "This shot literally showing the dawn of man". Figuratively, not literally. How would you even begin to literally show a dawn of man?

Now look at the opening shot of Little Miss Sunshine. What do you see? *sees glasses* A NERD!!!

I googled Dan in Real Life (2007) because I suspected the opening Shot was about him looing at a picture of his dead wife. Crazy how well acted by Steve Carell that is! powerful opening

The opening to 2001 also tells you that it will be a long, tedious, drawn out ordeal.

I think some of your assumptions are a big stretch of the scenes, yes you can translate them like you say but is not really that.

sometimes a shot of the earth is just a shot of the earth man

There can be many interpretations. Little miss sunshine was quite obvious, we cant say much about this opening. It's nice that you show people that movies are not only to watch but also to READ.

You are definitely over-analysing on the opening shot of silence of the lambs

Not everything is symbolic

I'd be really interested to see your analysis of a movie opening from a movie you HAVEN'T seen. It's really easy to infer a lot of info from the opening shot of a flick if you already know the themes and plot of the movie. I don't think people would draw the same conclusions otherwise. They might though, I'm just not sure. Well-done video either way. I like.

the commentaries are very interesting. They remind me my french literature classes when we studied books and analysed incipits. We were a scientific class, french was not the interest of 90% of the class and some brillant classmates said "this is bullshit, you can say what you want with a text cause one sentence can have several meanings. The author did not think about every metaphor (for example)". I think they were right about the several interpretations for one sentence...but i still think they were wrong about the "you can say what you want with a text" because a text have precise words, constructions, and even if the meaning is open to interpretation, it's not unlimited: maybe 2 or 3 interpretations, not a million. Literature is less precise than science cause it's not about truth, it does not have to be totally clear...so you have to look at the whole text, to analyse and understand. My teachers showed me keys I did not understand in some texts, for example the manipulation of a character by another. But yeah I understand comments, sometimes analyses are too much...especially I remembered an analyse of a Rimbaud poem called "voyelles", the teacher analysed it with sexual interpretations, clearly for me it was too much. The difference between good and bad teachers in literature is about what they want to see, and what you can really see. Interpretation is possible only if the text support it, not only one word. Ok my commentary was very long sorry but i still love analysing text and videos so i don't like when people say this exercice is totally random and useless.

The sudden sound of birds taking flight at the beginning of Silence of the Lambs also suggests a dangerous presence nearby. The second rope also tells us that she is making her journey alone.

Most opening shots in movies: Tells something Killer bean: FUNK

Baby drivers first shot sends chills down my spine every time i see it, the cross between the tinnitus ringing into the brakes of the car, changing the focus from far away to close up immediately draws our focus to it. Baby driver is a goddamn masterpeice, everyone needs to watch that movie.

I love Little Miss Sunshine. Tells a great story with a fantastic message and unique characters. One of the most underrated movies.

Ok that analysis with Silence of the Lambs was a huge stretch. Nothing against the guy but it felt like he was looking for symbolism where there wasn't any.

This sounds like such over the top analysis and projection. Particularly the scene from Silence Of The Lambs. First of all, people DON'T watch films like that, finding hidden metaphor in absolutely everything. So no we DON'T learn all these things from this scene, you're ascribing them to the scene because you've already seen the film and know that these things apply. While some of the analysis and symbolism you discuss in your videos is very well considered, a lot of it is over-analysing and pseudo-intellectual nonsense. Why can't someone climbing a rope just be someone climbing a fucking rope, why does it have to symbolise the entire plot of the damn film we're about to watch, and at what point do the scenes stop symbolising the rest of the fucking story and just tell the damn story? That's my problem with this analysis. Maybe those things do represent far more than I'm giving them credit, but I think you're reaching. You want everything to be symbolic and you make the idea of watching a film feel like a chore. I shouldn't feel the need to contemplate every scene for 5 mins, that's where film loses what makes it so enjoyable. If you want a slow and meticulous breakdown of each scene, novels are a far better medium for that. Let's not try to force film into making everything represent something else.

I've never heard of Little Miss Sunshine, but what I inferred that our main character is a curious (wide eyes) girl who's smart (glasses) and is intrigued by the beauty pageant winners. The color palette suggests an older time so I thought her infatuation was about her looking at successful females who can do great things, like she wants to, even if at that time they are mostly judged for superficial things. Tldr: she is enamored by successful females and wants to be one of them

Everyone in the comments is saying that these observations are overthinking the actual meaning of the shot, or that they're "a bit of a stretch", but directors start a shot from scratch and have to place each element into the scene with care and intention. Rarely will a well directed movie have scenes that are shot in a certain way because it was convenient, or because that's just the way they shot it. Films are like a story told one painting at a time, and every part of that painting has meaning.

Inglorious Basterds and the French farm house? :D

Doesn't it say that Miss Louisiana is the runner-up and Miss Kansas is the winner in the Little Miss Sunshine segment? They must be showing the elated face of Miss Kansas (not Miss Louisiana as he states).

The opening of The Black Swan is one of the most beautiful.

I love the opening shot in Gone Girl. its amazing.

I've been paying a lot more attention to opening shots now. That and closing shots. Thanks!

Love love love little miss sunshine

Makes me think of the opening shot of the Sixth Sense. The slow turn on of the light bulb makes a great metaphor for the that final revelation.

I've honestly learned so much from this channel. I make youtube sketches and they get better with each video mostly from channels like this.

Very in depth, master yoda!! very artsy!! really enjoyed the 'Silence of the Lambs' bit...Really cool!!

But What Does It Tell Us When You Capitalize Every Word In The Titles?

Imagine a movie starting in a bar, fade in from black, zooming in to a single person sitting at the bar. This person drinks a small alcoholic drink, then looks right into the camera and says: Well, this was the opening shot. Boom, awesome!

Jesse Eisenberg's voice

Amazing as always. Your analysis of The Silence of The Lambs opening was my favourite!

I just saw the Moon, Earth and Sun and you got the whole plot of the movie from that? Okay :(

The opening shot of this video and its accompanying welcome is pure classic.

With regards to the opening of "Silence of the Lambs", it's a fight against nature. She's running through nature, uphill, struggling forwards, through a dark, misty forest. It's a fight against the dark, hidden corners of human nature. Kinda says to me that Hannibal Lecter wasn't some sort of monster. He was human, and humans are capable of such horror.

Did you take inspiration from Every Frame A Painting? You sound like the guy from there, are the channels part of the same network or something? Great vid!

[about the 2001] "You know exactly what the plot will be". I watched this movie and all i saw was the moon, the earth and the sun. You must watch the whole movie to interpret that. Seriously. But i liked how you presented it, cause after watching the whole movie you understand what was that about (or the second time you watch it, or the third, or when someone explain to you)

3:00 "From this shot, we know exactly what the plot will be about" Yet, I had know idea what the movie was about, even after finishing it.

The opening shot of Memento is another great example. Its actually the ending but sums everything up.

the opening scene of trainspotting is the best introductions to a movie I've seen

Did you forget about the Star Wars: A New Hope opening shot?

The way you analysis every single convention reminds so much of school where they make up create meaning into everything even if it's very weak evidence to support your argument

This is such poorly made film essay. Try an exercise: watch a film you haven't seen yet, pause it at the very opening shot and try to deduct the upcoming events from it. Practically impossible to do. At best you're capable of defining some broad aspects of the film, like the style and the tone and such, maybe in some cases you can assume some character traits or something about a possible plot development. But overanalyzing the opening scene in retrospect, what's your point man? Check out the channel Every Frame a Painting and get your act together.

For the rest of my life from now on, having seen this video I will be analysing every single opening shot of every movie I ever watch. imagine being so powerful you can make somebody think a certain way forever, well done, thank you for an awesome insight and video.

i personally prefer the more technical analysis of films from channels like Every Frame A Painting. The video was great though

I really liked the opening shot in Contact. You start out looking at Earth from Orbit. The audio is of some then modern song (Spice Girls I think). We then begin to move away from Earth, passing the moon, mars, asteroids, Jupiter, and Saturn. As we move farther away the audio gets older and older (not really keeping in time with the location) showing us that the farther away we move the farther back in time we see. We pass through the Kiper Belt then the Proxima star system. Moving farther and farther, the radio broad casts finally out run the radio voices and the sound is replaced with science. We can see the Galaxy from the out side, then the local group. Finally we see the large scale of the Universe and then we are moving so fast that the lights streak and finally we move outside the eye of a little girl playing with a ham radio. It's one of my favorites.

Fire Walk With Me? Amazing opening shot

Great video, man. One of the greatest brazilian writers of all time, Luis Fernando Veríssimo, once wrote about two opening shots that I learned to love: Yojimbo and Rear Window (and I made a video essay about this one). It is just incredible the use of the symbolism and the synthesis in the sequences.

I consider Memento´s opening to be another great example

Serenity: a majestic shot of the ship coming in for a landing on a planet with a glorious score playing in the background suddenly interrupted by a piece of the ship flying off out off out of frame. Sums up the series perfectly.

I always liked the opening sequence of Back to the Future :)

You blew my mind dude, great stuff.

I'm a film reviewer and it drives me nuts when people overanalyse films, picking metaphors out and acting like it's the 'answer' to a film. It's like being back in high school, when your english teacher would tell you what all the symbols meant. Metaphors are just a part of the film, it's your interpretation of it and how it makes you feel that is more important, not what clever connections you can make.

you can't comletetly describe the beauty of the opening shot of 2001...without acknowledging the epic music.

The American Beauty guy filming me creeps me out

Thank you for putting this insightful video together :) I am trying to learn the ways to properly start and introduce a story, and this is extremely useful. Really made me think again about really just how much effort and thought was put into every decision when it came to storytelling. Wonderful work!

Such film school BS. This is the definition of 'reaching'. i'm sorry to say but you are reading far too much into these shots. In the words of Freud, 'sometimes a cigar is just a cigar'.

How can you do a video like this, and NOT put A New Hope in it? That movie's opening was the first time I'd heard someone describe to me the meaning conveyed in a scene that could be done so visually. To explain what I mean, the first thing we see is a small ship, being chased by this towering massive ship. It says EVERYTHING you needed to know about the Empire's reach, and how small and weak the Rebels were in comparison. The size difference and the way it's positioned is brilliant. And to be frank, I don't think a single Star Wars film has ever opened more powerfully than that. The Empire is powerful, strong, and its influence reaches much of the galaxy. The Rebels meanwhile are weak, and small, with influence in basically just one small section of the planet, an influence which is fought over in the movie. I really love it, and I think it's one of the best examples of visual storytelling being able to convey meaningful information without the need for exposition. You could probably have made the movie without the opening crawl and had the plot be explained, and explored naturally throughout the movie. The opening crawl is there I think pretty much entirely as an homage,.

No mention of The Shining? The opening shot(s) sets the whole tone of the movie.

this helps too! I haven't seen most of these and I took what I thought & compared it to what you say it's about. pretty spot on man.

Best opening shot to a movie is without a doubt Rear Window.... the whole movie is in the first shot

I really like the way the opening shot of Star wars: A New Hope very effectively tells you, even without the on-screen text, that you've just joined in the middle of something that has a galaxy's worth of lead-up to it. You see the starry expanse of space, several small moons, and a very alien world. It's reminiscent of things we've all seen, videos from orbiting spacecraft, but it's so clearly not our planet that we're instantly taken to another galaxy. Then a spaceship flies overhead, engines roaring and bright laser weapons flying, leaving us with no doubt that we've come in right in the middle of some other story's epic climax. And then you see the pursuing ship, and realize as it passes that this isn't just a little skirmish between spaceships. This is big. It's bigger than you think. And just when you thought you knew how big it was, nope, that's only the tip of this thing.

My favorite opening shot in movie history is Star Wars: a new hope

It's like an essay. The first paragraph must contain the things you will say in the rest of the text.

2001 opening scene represents the relation of monkey, man, superman. (not the man of steel, Übermensch.) Simply evolution! Something that even the music reveals. Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

what a greeeeeeat interpretation. love it! thanks a lot for your content!!!

I always took the opening shot from Silence of the Lambs as she was doing the obstacle course on her free time, being she runs by a group of guys training for PT in all matching uniform, different from hers. Also, when she's told to report to the office, it seemed like they weren't expecting her to be on the course, like she was just training off schedule, which makes sense why she stands out because it shows her character is determined to work harder than everyone else.

The birds flying don't symbolize shit

Hey, I'm really enjoying these video essays as an aspiring filmmaker. This made me put more thought as how my first shot will be in my next short, so thank you. Again, I love all your videos.

It's important to analyze what the opening shot makes the audience feel WITHOUT knowing the movie. That's the problem. You know the story of Little Miss Sunshine, but as an audience member watching for the first time, you don't exactly know she wants to be the beauty winner yet, but in the first seconds you do get the sense that we're seeing a young girl being impressioned by this beauty pageant. We haven't really been given any hint to what she's feeling or thinking. The important thing is that it's a movie THROUGH THE EYES OF A LITTLE GIRL, and how the world, or maybe the media, is influencing her. That's all we know. That's all we need to know at that moment. Try to think in context as well when analysing.

I can say for sure no director planned these things, they just thought “wow that seems pretty cool” and that’s about it.

Also in 2001 we first see the monolith and then we see earth rising

Another great video from you, as always.

3:00 "From this shot we know exactly what the plot will be about" No, we don't

4:34 Correction. She doesn't want to be Miss Louisiana because then she will just be the first runner up. This was Miss America 1997 and Miss Kansas-Tara Dawn Holland won here. Listen more closely. "The new Miss America is Miss Kansas, Tara Dawn Holland"

reminds me of high school inference skills..

hey to Now You See It I don't know if you know, but thought it might be worth mentioning. The opening sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey music is the first chapter of a composition by Romantic composer Richard Strauss. The piece is in itself, a 30 minutes Symphonic Poem (a style developed mainly in the Roantic era, in which composeres try to convey a thought, phillosphy, poems or even just great stories through the means of a symphonic orchestra). Richard Strauss' symphonic poem which is used in this movie and opening sequence is called "Also sprach Zarathustra",which in translation means "Thus spoke Zarathustra". "Also sprach Zarathustra" is based upon Nietze's phillosophy novel with the same name. Nietze's book, as far as I know, is (I might be wrong, I'm basing this on memory) about a man called Zarathustra traveling throught the world and talks and speeches about human's nature, existence etc. From what I've understood (I haven't read the novel), in the first part of the novel, sunrise and prolouge, Zarathustra, after something happens (again, haven't really read the novel), his conclusion about the human kind and God is that we should eventually ascend to become God. As we evolved from something lesser (apes), into something better (humans), we humans are to eventually ascend the position of the superman, the Ubermensch, as it's called in the original translation. Basically, according to some of Zarathustra's prolouge, the legacy of humanity is divided into three parts, in which every parts lead to the other - one in which humans are a lesser kind. The apes, according to Zarathustra have defeated their predators and have made them their prey. Second, in which the humans rose above the apes and become the better kind. Third in which the humans have defeated their predators and made them their prey. By doing so, the humans have become a super-being, an Ubermencsh. The first chapter of the Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss which is presented many times throughout the film, and in the opening music for the film, is based on the first chapter of the novel by Nietze, which discuss the things above. Thus the film's three parts: The animal ape stage, trying to defend themselves and to beat their predators, the advanced human stage, trying to defend themselves and beat their predators (HAL in this case) and the third, super-galactic baby-super-being, as the third and most obsulete form of the human kind. Know it's long, and if I'm wrong about some details then say, I'm no expert on Nietze's novel, I based most of these things on what I found online about the book's prolouge. But hey, it seems to make hell of a lot sense.

The opening shot of this video wraps up everything I hate about Kubricks's 2001.

I am an artist, musician. That's who I am in life, person, and career. I love film and good storytelling. I have really been enjoying your analysis & discussion on film and such. And this video is so good, and some great examples to cite, they're just rushing into my head. But I will cite one that is one of my favorites, and that is the opening to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Just an awesome opener. How the music swells to an abrupt end...then BOOM...then to the Excelsior blissfully unaware of the danger heading their way. SO great.

i prefer...every frame a painting