Watchmen Opening Sequence

Cinematography
At the beginning of the clip of ‘The Watchmen’ we see a mid shot of two men or ‘action heroes’ fighting, showing to the viewer that this movie is an action movie. We then see another mid shot of a woman, showing to the viewer another ‘action hero’. We then see a mid shot of once again an ‘action hero’ who has this time caught a bank robber and is posing for the cameras. So far all of these shots are showing the viewer that there are a number of action heroes that are fighting the bad. We then see a long shot moving into a mid shot of all the ‘action heroes’ posing for the camera, this shows the viewer who all of the ‘action heroes’ are so the viewer won’t get them confused. While these ‘action heroes’ are posing for the camera beneath them we see the title appear. As the viewer is watching, they will see things start to take a turn for the worst as we see a long shot of an ‘action hero’ dead. We also see a panning shot of a ‘hero’ running for a car. The viewer will see from all of these shots and will get the idea that most of these ‘action heroes’ have been found dead or they have become bad and lazy.

Mise-en-scene
We can see from this opening sequence that this film has been set in a different time to present day just by the costumes that the people in the background are wearing. The costumes of the ‘action heroes’ are shown to be very colourful and bright so that they are standing out from the crowd. There is no location or setting of this particular opening sequence, it just shows parts of homes, halls and the city. During the time we see the characters, in the background there are credits being shown in a bright colour, this is so that they are defiantly being seen because they stand out.

Editing
To get the audience hooked into the film we see different shots of different heroes, this would want to make the audience want to know more of what is going on. The viewer will see many clips of the ‘heroes’ which are also shown in the movie itself. We also see that there are many clips in which the rule of thirds is used.

Sound
The sound for this opening sequence seems almost childlike by the fast paced voice singing, the voice sounds as if it has been fast forwarded and the background music to that has not. The sound in the opening sequence is non-diagetic as we cannot hear an people or traffic.