Film Production Analysis - Sin City - Opening scene - The customer is always right

The screen stays black for a moment, before any visual image is shown there are clear diagetic sounds of car engines, sirens from public authority services and an ambient sound of an open outside atmosphere. The last sound to enter only milliseconds before the visuals appear on screen we here a saxophone play and now we have all the key elements to signify that this film is most likely to be a 'film noir'. If you didn't already know, film noir originates from the French 'film in black' which is usually based on crime and sexual motivations and set between the years of 1920-1940's.

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After the first sting of the saxophone we now have a visual on screen of a slim figured woman walking from the building to the edge of the balcony overlooking the city. The woman's dress is the only thing that is in color and this happens to be red, in most cases the color 'red' is associated with love, passion and danger. Well now we know that is a 'neo-noir' film but is this signifying whether this beautiful young wealthy woman is in love or danger? judging by the jazz styled music in the background I think it is safe to say that we'd all suggest that there is more sexual tension rather than any real threat.

However, the music suddenly produces an eerie fall to it as she reaches the balcony her body language suggests that she could upset, weak and in a vulnerable state along with being cold, then the narrative from a male says "She shivers in the wind like the last leaf on a dying tree" which clarifies to the audience that she must be in distress and fulfilled in life.

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As a male in the shadowed distance walks towards the female we then recognize him as the narrator when he says "I let her hear my footsteps" as if he is suggesting that this could be a past memory or a present intuition that he doesn't want her to be any more anxious than she appears to be, this suggest the man to be caring and understanding however with the eerie and mysterious style of music subtly in the background we still feel a little unsure of his character. So he offers her a cigarette and they start talking, the music is dipped but still subtly there keeping a mood in the background but allowing us to focus on the dialogue.

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The conversation soon gets slightly more flirtatious as the jazzy styled music starts to become less eerie and more like a song again you can begin to feel a sexual desire arising, and as she stares at the man as he lights her cigarette while mentioning her eyes they light up bright green for a moment as she shows interest in the way he sees her, eyes are also known as the doorway to the soul. The color 'green' is associated with safety and also greed, she then turns her body in the other direction as they continue to talk, this could be a sign for the audience to show that she has a weakness for love or for men, or just the charming ones, she turns back around after she states that she doesn't want to do it alone as a sheer invitation for the man to join her.

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This whole scene is so evidently deceiving to the audience for what is coming toward the end of the scene.

As they kiss the rain and music becomes more prominent and romantic as the camera angle furthers focusing on both of them in a silhouette and some of the scenery and you start to build up a positive rapport for the man and the scene but at the end of the kiss as they hug the music sudden dies down and the piano parts seems to become out of place, it has a disrupted feel to it that something is not right, especially as the narrative's words are so sweet and sincere why would we be feeling that something is wrong in this romantic act, and then it happens, the reason we felt uneasy, the music is silenced with only the sound of rain you see a flash and hear the shot from a handgun with a silencing adapter just after the narrator said he loves her.

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She falls and he holds onto her until she is dead as he wonders what it was that she was running from and why it was so bad she chose the path that she did. The last words that you hear from the males narrative are "I'll never know what she was running from...I'll cash her check in the morning" and at this point we are able to confirm that she was the one whom had hired a hit man to take her life.

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Full scene

CONCLUSION

You'll notice that the lighting and camera angling techniques used always keep the man's face in the shade much more than you will notice on the woman's, this a great subtle way to suggest that the character is a dangerous one.

Every word the male says may sound like beautifully romantic sweet surrenders to a female but the words were chosen all so carefully, yes they were sweet, they were also true, he does admit that she is a mans desire, he has been watching her for days (figuring out the best time to strike), he does know that she is scared and tired of running from her problems and that she doesn't want to do it alone (that is why she hired him to put her out of her misery but to comfort her on her way out in an act of role play), and he meant what he said when he said that he'll save her and take her far far away (by taking her life to be sent to the heavens).

I think this style of writing, camera and lighting, sound and visual style is art at the highest of standards, each part of the stories in this film (and the next) are well thought out, keep the audience interested and most importantly coming from an audio engineers point of view the sound and the levels were amazing. A lot of films that I have watched tend to over use music and the volume level of it, and I often find myself having to keep the remote control nearby to be ready to adjust the volume for more intense scenes, whereas in this film I didn't need to, sure the fight scenes were louder as they should be (guns are loud) but it wasn't too loud to come as a shock to the system.

Frank Miller's Sin City could possibly be my favorite movie, I hope that the 2nd film (A dame to kill for) isn't the last.

Thank you for reading, I hope this has answered any questions or left you with a more in depth way of seeing films from here on.

I do not often write these types of blogs but I do like show an understanding for anyone that may need an audio engineer for their projects ;)