For my case study, I chose the opening scene of Twilight(2008).
The opening scene (0:22 - 0:35) opens with an establishing shot of a forest with a deer drinking water and rises to a high angle.
The scene is quickly cut to a point of view shot (0:37) of something that appears to be preying on the deer. The shot shows leaves and branches in front of the predator as it carefully stalks their prey (0:37-0:41), then the POV shot moves on a tilt beginning from the sky, and halting at the forest path(0:42-0:44).
As the POV comes to a halt at the forest path, the shot is then combined with a handheld shot as the POV that the audience or viewer is looking through begins to charge towards the deer drinking water and begins to chase it.(0:45-0:49)
With this, the point of view and handheld shot ends and changes to a tracking shot of the deer running away from the predator (0:50-1:04). This shot is accompanied with frantic blurs, fast movements, and cuts as the deer races through the forest attempting to get away from the predator, who is only revealed to be a man in the last second of the scene as he finally catches the deer and a bright flash comes onto the screen.(1:06). This scene may be shot in this way to make the audience feel panicked and to create suspense about what or who is chasing the deer until he is revealed.
This bright light transitions into the sun and the camera begins to move into another tilt from the sun, down onto the main character, Bella Swan, holding a cactus to reveal a complete change in scenery from a dark, muggy forest to the bright and sunny state of Arizona(1:06-1:10)
As the tilt comes to a halt on Bella, the camera zooms into a close-up shot to focus on her facial expressions as she prepares to move away from Arizona to live in Forks, Washington. This shot shows the audience that Bella is trying to prepare herself for the big move while she also appears to already be grieving her home as she hugs the cactus close to her chest and breathes in deeply(1:11-1:19). The close-up shot is then combined with a dolly shot, as Bella starts walking forward, the camera moves backwards while still up close and focused on her face. (1:20-1:26)
This scene then cuts to a close-up and two person shot of Bella and her mother holding hands and getting ready to leave(1:27-1:29). The shot then pans to a man standing in the driveway of their house as he has just gotten done packing up a car with luggage (1:30-1:33) and then cuts into an over the shoulder shot of Bella looking at her mother again in reassurance as they finally decide to leave(1:34-1:38).
The Final shots of this scene include a wide shot of the packed car pulling out of the driveway of their Arizona home(1:39-1:52). This stands out as one of the longest, continuous shots throughout the whole opening of this movie so far and is most likely meant to make the audience reflect on how Bella might feel as she leaves her home for good. The shot then cuts very quickly to a close-up of her silhouette in the car as her hair blows in the wind(1:53-1:54) and closes out with a tracking shot of an airplane taking off(1:55-1:56) and finally ends with a wide shot panning over canyons as the production logos start appearing on the screen (1:57-2:00).
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