Edward ScissorhandsBy Hasan Ali

Throughout the opening scenes music plays a big part in conveying the genre and setting the scene, this is because at the very beginning the music is very childlike and eerie. This helps convey the fairy-tale element of the film as the fact that children and eerie music are often associated with an element of fantasy and fairy-tales. Fairy tale is also conveyed by the mysterious castle and the lighting showing the mysterious working machines during the opening scene this makes the audience wonder what the machines are for and bring in all sorts of ideas within their imagination adding to the fairy-tale/ fantasy element, the music also helps greatly with this as it plays in the background while the machines are working adding a spooky element to the big castle.

The size of the castle also drives an element of fairy-tale into the opening scene as the castle is enormous and dominate; the camera angle helps us realize this as the castle is shot from below and seemingly above the audience. The fact that the castle is large makes the audience think about olden times and often these are associated with fairy – tales and “tales from the past”.

Romance is also set in the opening scene although it is very subtle, it is shown by the snow falling and the warmth of the old women’s house as she begins to tell a tale the audience becomes aware that her relationship with the tale to be told is very strong and it will contain a great amount of romance. The snow is also symbolic for Christmas, which contains a sense of fairy-tale and romance in itself as it is when children and family spend quality time together showing love and compassion for each other and as shown in the opening scene share tales, most of which are based on fairy-tales. The music also very subtly sets an element of romance in the opening scenes as it is calm, slow and romantic as the snow falls.

Horror and comedy are both set in the opening scenes which is quite an odd combination as the two are not usually in scenes together; this shows the strangeness in the film itself. Horror is conveyed as Edward is hidden in a corner and there is not very much lighting in him and the camera is distant this means the audience will be guessing what he as and as he appears and the camera focuses on his giant scissor hands this strikes fear into the audience as they are sharp and dangerous and as Edward looks quite scary this also sets an element of horror into the film.

Comedy is also set alongside the horror this is because throughout the last scene the character Peg keeps displaying her intention to sell Avon products this is quite humorous as we can see Edward looks quite scary and yet Peg is telling him not to be afraid and that he needs to take care of his skin. It is her curiosity that adds humour to the scene as the camera shows us Edward and Peg alternatively looking at each other confused.