Blue velvet- 1986
At the beginning of the film, lively and happy music is played to create a sense of irony. It’s the opposite of what the audience is expecting.
The curtain moves behind the credits as they are being shown. This suggests a mysterious image or person is behind it and doesnt want to be seen.
A white picked fence and red roses are then shown outside a big white house. This shows a very positive and typical American location. This confuses the audience as they are expecting a thriller. At this moment in the film, nothing thrilling has been shown or suggested. In a way, this makes the audience more on edge as its ‘too happy’. The mood is alos very peaceful which makes the audience naturally relax. Then it shows what’s really under all the happiness as a man is hosing his lawn. A typical American action. He then gets strangled by the water pipe and falls to the floor. The happy music is still playing so it doesn’t give as much tension as it could have. This suggests that disaster slike this happen all the time in a nice neighbourhood which is shown. It may look perfect and innocent on the outside, but on the inside, its more thrilling than the audience are expecting at this point.
Then, Camera angle is in the sight of something. Brushing through grass and seeing insects close up suggests that we are seeing the eyes of an animal of some sort. Tension builds up.
The next shot then quickly cuts to a big billboard of a typical image of a pin up girl. This changes the mood to being more settling for the viewers and shows a happier tone to the film again.
The lighting is quite natural as it’s outside. This shows more realism to the film.
When a character finds an ear on the floor covered in ants, this is a symbol of the ‘thriller theme’ being finally introduced. Enigma is created. Who does the ear belong to? Why is it there? What is the character going to do? These questions all appear instantly in the viewers mind.
