black swan - opening title sequence analysis

7/24/2019 Black Swan - Opening Title Sequence Analysis

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Black Swan OpeningTitle SequenceAnalysis

2010 Psychological Thriller


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Sound

A non-diegetic, calm, beautiful piece of piano music plays whilst apiece of black chalk is slowly crafted by a womans hand around a

blank canas, most likely to result in drawing a picture! An echo of

the piano or something else can be heard accompanying the piano

playing, but only in one part of the se"uence! #hat the audiencesee of the ineitable picture is the lines that make up its form! The

chalk is almost dancing along to the music as it is moed around

the canas, possibly representing dance! The thinner the black chalk lines, the lighter, "uieter and higher in

pitch the piano playing, and the thicker the black chalk lines, the

heaier, louder, more dramatic and lower in pitch the pianoplaying! As we are presented towards the end of the clip with part of the

$nished picture, non-diegetic shattering glass is heard oer the

piano playing as the title of the $lm shows up on the screen! This

could suggest a characters fall from being on a high within the $lm!


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Camera shots, angles andmovement

The camera %using a smooth &owingmoement' follows the chalk around theblank canas through slight high angle

close-ups of the chalk and the clean cut$ngernails of the person who is drawing, thewhole time the picture is being drawn, untilthe picture is $nished! This could possibly

represent the main character as how theaudience follow them throughout the $lmuntil they are done (drawing their story forus to understand!


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Miseensc!ne

The lighting is of a soft white tone,which is unusual for a thriller, but it

could be depicting the contrast withthe black chalk on the canas, whichis also of a soft white tone, and thiscould suggest the contrast betweenpersonalities in this $lm ) good andbad, white*good, black*bad ) blackswan, black*black, swan*white!


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"diting

+ade in from black at the beginning!ach new line%s' that was drawn faded into a new line%s'

being drawn and sometimes the image of the last drawnline%s' that was fading out didnt completely fade out and

stayed on the screen for a couple of seconds whilst thenew line%s' was being drawn %oerlapping'!This couldsuggest that certain characters personalities oerlapwithin this $lm!

Towards the end when the name of the $lm is shown and

part of the picture is reealed, the clip is slowed downslightly so that the audience are able to properly catch aglimpse at what the picture could possibly be of, that thiswoman has drawn and then they can $gure outimaginefor themseles what the picture iscould be!


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Typography

The credits are presented in a seriffont %which is black for most of the

credits and white for the others',small and with a design in the letterswhich seems to be the letters writtenin the letters to gie an e.ect whichmake the s look like swans whichrepresents the title of the $lm andpossibly part of the $lm and what it

is about!

black swan - opening title sequence analysis

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