Film Opening Analysis - Black Swan (2010)

Introduction

Genre: Drama / Thriller

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Producers: Scott Franklin, Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, Arnold Messer

Distributed by: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Budget: $13,000,000

Worldwide box office: $329,400,000

Synopsis: Nina Sayers is a ballerina who got cast as Swan Queen in Tchaikovsky's, Swan Lake. The production requires the ballerina to play both innocent Odette (white swan) and dark Odile (black swan). Nina at first is unable to embody Odile, while her rival Lily is a perfect fit. Nina felt overwhelmed by the pressure that she had to deal with when competing for the role. This causes her to lose grip on reality and start descending into madness, fully transforming into black swan, Odile.

Film Opening Sequence

Black Swan (2010)

Clip duration: 03:24

Start Point: 00:00

End Point: 03:24

Genre Studies

"Black Swan" opening sequence is able to establish its genre as drama and thriller through the use of symbolic and technical codes. Despite the indents and typography of the sequence being easy to mistake for another genre, the 2-minute opening scene fully represents the drama and thriller genre. First of all, is the overall atmosphere created. By the use of 1 source lighting and dark surroundings with a monochrome color palette, "Black Swan" has a cold, lonely, and scary feel to it. 

While Nina is portrayed as an innocent ballerina, a dark character is introduced to provide a thrilling feeling when the audience first encounters him. This is a very common method used by a lot of thriller movies. The way Rothbart appears also builds up the emotions for the audience as he walks out from the dark and approaches Nina with a scary face. Jumpscare is a popular element used in almost all thriller movies and in the opening 3 minutes of Black Swan, the effect is used once when Rothbart suddenly turns into a nasty-looking owl and chases Nina. 

    

Music was also an important part that confirmed a genre. Even though the music used in the opening sequence is a classic song with instruments, it complements perfectly with the ballet scene and the dancing scene of Nina and Rothbart. As the scene progresses, the song changes and helps to alarm the audience about what is to come. In context to "Black Swan", it is the appearance of Rothbart and the tension between him and Nina. The use of sound in "Black Swan" does not only suit the genre but the theme of the movie as well.

Besides music, lighting was also a big part of the sequence. Drama is one of the "Black Swan" genres and the use of hard light in the opening 3-minute fully portrays the genre as it helps to bring in the dramatic effect for the scene. This is presented in the shot where Nina and Rothbart dance together but due to the addition of hard lighting and sound, it creates the effect of them fighting against each other.

Analysis

Idents   

The opening consists of 4 different idents. "Fox Searchlight Pictures" appears first as the distributor in association with "Cross Creek Pictures". Followed by "Protozoa Pictures" and "Phoenix Pictures" as the production companies. Lastly, the name of the movie: "Black Swan" is revealed. The way the credits appear is similar to each other, they slowly fade in and out in order. The font that is used is "Trajan Regular", which is considered very elegant and suitable for fancy movies. The color of them is pure white which contrasts with the black background, giving it a mysterious feel. Regarding the music used while showing the credit, a song started to play at a low volume. The song is modulated as it gradually gets bigger when the title is seen on screen and builds up the emotion when the black screen slowly reveals Nina (in the role of Odette), this helps to set the theme of the movie as classical sophisticated themed and prepare the audience for the upcoming scenes.

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Typography

In the first 3 minutes of the film, only one title is seen, which is the name of the film: "Black Swan". The font that is applied for the typography is called "Trajan Regular" and it is an elegant and fancy font, normally used in royal-related movies. The genre of Black Swan is thriller and drama, hence the use of the font doesn't complement the genre. However, the theme of the movie is related to ballet, which is considered the most graceful dance form and in that case, the font used for the title is suitable. Overall, based on Black Swan, despite the font of the title not complementing the genre, it is easy for viewers to understand that they are about to watch a film with an elegant theme. Moreover, the contrast between the color white of the title and the black dark background could partly show that the film might not be fully bright and innocent. 

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Connotations

As the opening sequence only shows the scene of a ballerina dancing to a classic song, the connotations revolve around her and what appears on screen. Ballet is the prioritized image in the sequence and this denotation connotates movement and beauty. In the scene, Nina is seen wearing a gorgeous white leotard and dancing on her pointed shoes, looking absolutely stunning. It is hard to deny that the denotation of Nina being a ballerina is the perfect example of movement and beauty. A dark ballerina later appears, in the context of the movie and Tchaikovsky's, Swan Lake, the male ballerina is Rothbart, an owl who came to put a curse on Nina, turning her into a white swan. Based on Roland Barthes's theory of semiotic codes, dark colors connotate the evil side and by the grumpy look on his face, we can confirm that he is not a good guy. Besides Nina and Rothbart, their surrounding environment also follows Barthes's theory. The darkness around Nina could symbolize loneliness and the lack of freedom. This representation could further be understood when the audience continues to watch the movie. 

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Mise-en-scene

The sequence starts with an image of a ballerina, Nina, performing. The scene was probably taken indoors, in a dark room with a light turned on. The 3-minute sequence mostly uses chiaroscuro lighting to create the contrast between Nina and the dark background. The audience could confirm that Nina was alone in the room as we followed her footsteps when she performed and no one was seen around. Later on, Rothbart appears from the dark and begins to torture Nina. Rothbart is the 2nd character that appears on the screen but later disappears, leaving behind no clue about him. Nina was captured as the main character and was always centered on the screen. Since she was the main focus, her outfit was specifically shown with a simple and elegant white leotard. When Nina turned into a white swan, her leotard became more complicated with feathers, and her hair was also styled with a feathered headpiece. The atmosphere created by the mise-en-scene was very mysterious and scary as it is dark and not much of the surroundings was revealed.

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Camera techniques

The scene begins with a wide shot of a completely dark environment and a spark of light, showing a ballerina, Nina. The camera then cuts into a close-up shot of Nina's pointed shoes and her dancing to the music. The camera movement went with the moves of Nina, creating a lively dancing scene. The scene then cuts into a medium-wide shot, capturing Nina in her white leotard with her hair put in a bin and a satisfied smile.

A high-angle shot is then used when Nina is seen sitting down on the ground, with a source of light coming from above. Due to the shot, Nina looks small and weak compared to her dark surroundings. It is later revealed that Rothbart is walking towards her, looking down from above. This could represent that Rothbart is much more powerful than Nina as the high-angle shot diminishes her power. As Rothbart slowly steps into the spotlight with Nina, the camera cuts to a medium shot. From here, Nina faces her back to Rothbart while Rothbart continuously tries to grab her. These actions are all portrayed by a medium shot, which is able to capture all the actions of the 2 characters but also their changes in emotions. Moreover, the camera movement in these shots is specifically faster and more intense compared to the beginning shots.

When Nina transforms into a white swan, a close-up shot is used to clearly show her changes, especially since the top of her leotard has feathers attached to it and a headpiece was also added to her white swan transformation. After that, a close-up is remained to capture her changes in emotion and facial expressions. In the end, the camera slowly cuts into a wide shot of Nina dancing and the screen fades out.

    

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Sound*

The sound used for the opening sequence is a song called "Nina's Dream" and is the official soundtrack of the movie. The name of the song fully describes what happens in the sequence as it is just a dream of Nina's. However, as the audience watches the film, they are unable to know the name of the song and focus more on the rhythm and how well it suits the image on screen. Since Nina is performing, the song is likely a dietetic sound but because it is a dream, it might be considered an internal dietetic sound as well. 

    

At first, the song is soft with the soothing sound of instruments that make the audience feel calm and relaxed. Slowly, as Rothbart starts to approach Nina, the song gets a bit more intense and loud. Some non-diegetic sound of wind that might be caused by the camera movement is also heard. This could be added to show that Rothbart is chasing Nina, trying to cast a spell on her. Just then, the song gets more and more intense and when Rothbart turns to become an owl, 2 different sounds are layered onto each other, both are diegetic, one is the sound of the wings being flapped and one is the sound of excitement that Rothbart made when he was about to cast a spell on Nina. When he jumps out of frame, leaving Nina desperately wanting to run away, a non-diegetic sound is applied for the action of the jump. This addition helps Rothbart to become more mythical and stronger. In contrast to Rothbart, Nina was also heard sighing during that moment which shows her disappointment and weakness that she was unable to escape from Rothbart.

After transforming, the song is modulated and gradually gets louder until it finally reaches its peak when Nina turns into a white swan. At that moment, "Nina's Dream" changes from a soothing song to a strong, powerful song but doesn't last for too long as it slowly fades out, together with the light.

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Lighting*

As seen in the 3-minute sequence, only one source of light is used which creates hard lighting on the 2 characters, Nina and Rothbart. The use of hard light helps to bring in contrasts to the character and the background. Moreover, it also adds in dramatic effect to the scene. Even though there is only one source of light throughout the sequence, the beginning of it doesn't show a lot of contrast as only part of Nina's leg and pointed shoes are shown. In the later minutes when Rothbart appears and the face of Nina is seen on screen, the low-key lighting is shown very clearly. This specific part of the sequence is also the part that raises the audience's emotions the most with the intense music and camera techniques, together with the lighting that creates a dramatic image of the dance between Nina and Rothbart.

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Enigma

Throughout the 3-minute opening sequence, 

the film triggers the audience’s curiosity by provoking numerous questions: Why is the ballerina dancing in the dark? Why is no one watching her? Who is the male ballerina that approached her? Why did she change her outfit? Why is the ballerina wearing white while the movie title is "Black Swan"? All of these questions are questions that I had before watching the film and the answers are slowly unveiled as the film progresses. So, in order to fully understand the enigma that is raised in the opening sequence, the audience must continue the film to find out.