David Lynch's Blue Velvet
The opening consists of a blue velvet backdrop, linking to
the title of the film, which transitions into a blue sky once the director and
producer have been credited. Blue Velvet plays in the background as
non-diegetic sound which gives the feel of innocence to the start of the movie.
The blue sky pans down onto a white picket fence with red roses growing in
front of it which could foreshadow that there could be love of some sort later
on in the film, as roses typically symbolise love, or that there could be love
coming from within the house. The three colours shown tie in together to
represent the classic American image of red, white and blue and how patriotic/
welcoming the neighbourhood is.
The screen then fades to a shot of a red fire truck passing
through the street which gives off the feeling of safety in the neighbourhood,
which slightly juxtaposes what is about to happen in the rest of the scene, as
well as contributing to the stereotypical image of an American street. Again
the screen fades, this time to a close up of unbloomed yellow lilies; this
could connotate an illness related death later on in the film as yellow is
usually associated with infection and lilies are usually used surrounding
funerals and as the lilies have not bloomed yet this could be foreshadowing
that someone may die later on in the film. We an also hear diegetic sound in
the background of birds chirping which again brings in the feeling of
homeliness and safety to the street.
The screen dissolves to an image of children crossing the
street with the help of a lollypop lady which demonstrates how safe the street
is or is assumed to be and how even the most vulnerable of people (children)
are well looked after here by all members of the community. We then see a long shot of a traditional
looking house, from the outside, which we assume to be property of the man, who
is introduced in the next shot watering his garden (which also adds in diegetic
sound of him watering his garden), again a normal thing to do which shows how
customary the area is.
The interior of the house is then shown and, compared to the
exterior, is quite dark in contrast. This could foreshadow that something
is/has/or will happen in this house. An older woman is shown sitting on the
sofa watching television when a gun is shown on her screen. This could also
foreshadow that something is about to happen (which we see in the next minute
of the film). The man outside is again shown which further communicates to the
audience that there is a link between the gun on screen (and the connotations
related to it) and the man.
A close up of the tap which controls the hose is shown, along with it comes diegetic sound in the form of the tap spurting out water. Using our common knowledge of how things should work, we can tell that the tap has something wrong with it, further pushing the idea that something bad is going to happen. The man then pulls on the hose which leads us to a medium shot of the hose twisted around a wire. Throughout the whole scene, tension is being built up for the audience who is able to tell that something is about to happen. Finally, the audience is displayed with a shot of the man collapses whilst gripping his neck in pain; this is the why the audiences is supplied with clues throughout the whole scene. More diegetic sound of the man gargling is heard paired with a long shot of the man struggling in pain on the ground. A quick vertical tracking shot is shown of the hose spraying water everywhere; keeping the water as the main focus in this shot. A long shot showing the injured man, a small dog and a toddler is given with some diegetic sound (the dog barking; the man has stopped has stopped gargling as he is now almost motionless on the ground), this then turns into a medium shot of the man and the dog, which then is converted to a slow-motion shot of just the dog jumping on the man. This is also the only clear and obvious shown evidence of editing in the scene as the narrative is shown clearly through the use of sound and mise-en-scene with no real need for major post-production editing.
To finish: a close up of the freshly cut grass, which you could suggest is a POV shot of an insect of some sort as the camera pushes through the grass like an insect would, all whilst we are given diegetic sound of insects moving. It is unclear what exactly is 'crawling' through the grass although we presume it is an insect.
From this opening, David Lynch pulls in the audience and
provides them with a hook that will keep them intrigued and wanting to continue
watching, therefore making it a successful opening.
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