Commentary on the Opening Sequence of Dog Soldiers Essay

Opening sequence of Dog Soldiers

The sequence begins with a couple camping in the Scottish Highlands. The woman gives the man a silver letter opener as a present, soon after they are attacked in their tent. Meanwhile, Private Cooper is seen running through a forest in North Wales. He attacks his pursuers, but is overwhelmed and wrestled to the ground. It turns out Cooper was trying to join the Special Forces, but fails when he refuses to shoot a dog. Captain Richard Ryan returns him to unit.

This sequence opens with a slow left to right pan; this pan is part of the transition fade from the previous scene, this sets a calm and positive mood. The shot reveals an extreme close up of the man and woman kissing, because this is in the horror genre this has codes of when love is being presented the couples always die first, this could slightly change the audiences mood and realize there could be immanent danger. The shot could also represent the confined space in which they are in for shadowing no escape, this also likes in with the horror genre. The shot then carries on in a slow left to right pan following the mans hand, exploring the man intimacy, the scene is still quite calm and harmless, it then cuts to a low close up of their faces and body language. This changes quite soon as the creepy constant sound of the tent zip is moving. Their body language has completely moved now from relaxed to immediate concern mirroring the audiences felling for them. Tension is building as the camera zooms in towards the couple and the sound of the zip getting louder. Then there is a fast cut to the zip, in a medium closes up with a fast zoom until it is an extreme close up, in the touch light, this is to focus all attention on the slow moving zip. The tension is still climbing as the camera carries on zooming right onto the girl signifying her a an important subject then another cut to en extreme close up of the zip still moving. The shots have reduced greatly in length from three four seconds to one-second shots. The next shot is a static big close up of the couple lasting two seconds, this is tow draw out the suspense then there is a growl. The shot cuts to close up of claw this will be a shock and the climax for the audience as the hand grabs her leg. The climax has now been reached and the full action is in progress. There is lots of hand held shots shacking all over the place this could reflect the struggle of the man trying to pull the girl back, it could also reflect their confusion and shock of the situation. The audience can see clearly what is happening but we can here what is going on. The director wanted to use this because it will leave the audience to their own imagination of the girl being ripped apart, so they could picture the scene better. But we see blood splatter then finalizing her death, the climax of the scene with the girl has ended but we now focus on the man, the camera shot is in a close up of the mans face clearly showing his shock and horror, also showing all the blood splatter on his face, which could convey that he is now marked for death. This shot lasts for five seconds, drawing out a second climax and more tension. It cuts to his hand creeping to the silver letter opener; this is icon because every one knows the myth about silver and ware wolves. But he doesnt do anything; this could also foreshadow someone doing what he couldnt do with the silver letter opener.

This sequence is set in a forest in a remote part of Scotland. During the opening Sequence we dont see any other people at all so this indicates that there is no other population at all so they are completely alone. It then cuts to the tent scene where theyre completely isolated, and only one exit. The lighting used throughout the sequence was very dark, this helps set up the genre and creates a obscure atmosphere. There are very little props used in this sequence, the torch the man uses to light up the mysteriously moving zip. And the silver letter opener that is iconic for the future points in the narrative.