Analysing Opening Sequences-The Prestige

Opening Sequence

As the production companies appear, there is complete silence so tension has already began to build before the film has even started. The title appears immediately shows on the screen and stays on as a visual bridge as the black background fades into the first scene: a group of identical top hats in the middle of a forest. The audience do not know why they are there or who they belong to and so the first image has already filled the audience minds with questions. "Are you watching closely?" an off-screen question quietly asked to the audience; again the audience then have more questions in their head like who said it, are we supposed to be looking at the hats, if so, why? This is done to get the audience to make the effort to remember this scene foreshadowing that our questions will eventually be answered. This makes this a successful opening sequence in which the audience are already hooked and wanting more.

There is then a sudden direct cut to take the audience to the next scene. The quiet, mysterious atmosphere changes to what looks like a frantic, noisy scene as we see caged birds chirping and flying around everywhere. We then hear an off-screen non-diegetic narrator whose voice can be recognised anywhere as they are so well known. Michael Caine walks into the shot and so now the audience that the narrator is a character in the story. The audience are also introduced to the main subject of the film: magic. As the audience listen, we see two different magic tricks, one is small to entertain a young girl, another is entertaining a huge audience and looks dangerous. These two tricks both involve the the audience of the film as we cannot see how the trick is being performed meaning that the audience feel like they are part of the film. Hugh Jackman's character is also recognisable to the audience and so, although he does not say anything, we know that this is most likely to be one of the main characters of the film and so we concentrate more closely onto what he is doing.

As a character goes backstage, the audience discover the final well known actor of the opening sequence; Christian Bale and from his dialect, are mislead into thinking that he is part of this great trick. As he travels down the stairs, the use of dark lighting and colour creates suspense and then we realise that this is no ordinary magical genre film; we get our first glimpse of mystery and horror. There is a strong feeling of fear and shock as the audience catch a quick glimpse of an old man with cold, all-white eyes. Although the narrating voice continues, the scene suddenly changes back to Michael Caine and the little blonde girl to emphasise the contrast of the innocence of the child, and the horror and possible evil of the man under the stage.

As the end of the trick is drawing closer and closer, the timing between the different cuts of the two scenes become shorter and shorter to build up suspense and tension. Also at this point, the bigger trick starts to look more dangerous and the lightning keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, emphasising again that this is no ordinary magical magician story-line. As the small bird and the character disappears, the noise coming from the machine stops, the audience in the theatre are silent and so is the little girl. The sudden drop of sound level hooks the audience as we wait for the final part of the film; which Michael Caine gives the correct name... The Prestige. The audience immediately recognise this as the title of the film and so we now know more about the films story-line, it is about a trick (or possibly an event) coming to an end. The audience are then shocked and scared as we see that the big trick went wrong and the magician is drowning, another contrast to the smaller trick.

To add a final and dramatic twist to an exciting film opening, we realise that the narrative of Michael Caine was actually a long sound bridge that took us to the present tense, although we did not realise we had been watching scenes that had already happened.