Opening of "Shutter Island" - Aimee

The start of Shutter Island begins with titles and a non-diegetic parallel soundtrack. It creates an eerie feel, which makes the audience ask questions; what's going to happen? Where are we going to be? 



A title appears showing where the film is set, in this case 'Boston Harbour Island-1954'. A fade to white is used to transition into the first shot, establishing the film is about to start.













A boat then appears out of the fog and we are shown our first character in a close up, this helps empathise with his sea-sickness and to establish who our main character is. The sound-bridge still continues over these shots creating suspense because we're still unsure who this man is.
Diegetic sound is used to add to the suspense; the sound of chains 'clanging' together. Connotations of chains; torture, trapped, no freedom.


A long shot is used to establish the next character and to show they're in fact on this boat which appeared out of the mist. The costume he is wearing reflects the time period they're in. Detectives used to wear trilby hats with a long brown coat, slightly showing a suit. 

To indicate a flashback when one of the characters is asked about his wife, the contrast in colour changes to very high. A two shot medium close up is used to show how happy they were and also contrasts the present as he is now sea-sick on his way to an island. In this flashback a vinyl player is shown in a close up, music = happiness? 




An extreme long shot shows the island they are travelling to and the non-diegetic sound-bridge becomes louder to indicate there is maybe something wrong with this island. The weather and a low contrast of colour foreshadows that there maybe something wrong on this island and something bad will happen.