Shaft

The opening sequel to the 1971 film Shaft is 4 minutes and 42 seconds long. At first glance it looks like a fairly simple sequence, but in fact due the the amount of elements it involves, you can see that it would be a very complicated piece to film. Director Gordon Parks chose to introduce the title character in the very first scene, although there is very little dialogue.

Almost straight away we find out the name of the movie in big, bold, red letters and begin to hear Theme from Shaft by the musician Issac Hayes. This non-digetic sound has a very mysterious tone, which seems to reflect on the character. We see a man emerge from the subway into a bustling city, with an heir of authority over him - this could be down to his costume and his behaviour in the first minute. He is wearing a long brown coat, with his hands in his pockets showing that he seems to know where he is going. The man decides to cross the road while cars are still driving along, which suggests he likes to be dominant and in control - almost arrogant - especially when a driver stops and shouts at him, of which he takes very little notice.

There are countless different camera angles used to follow the character as he walks through the streets, including ariel shots, close-ups, medium and long shots. Most of the close-ups are low angle shots which also adds to the impression that he is a man of importance and dominance. The length of each different shot varies from 2 seconds to as much as 30 seconds or more, and these longer clips tend to be aerial or longer shots, where the character is further away from the camera.

The opening credits are layered on top of the action, carrying on the theme of bold red lettering to display them, so that they are easy to see and read over the changing backdrop of the action.

During the sequence, we learn that this man is in fact called Shaft (from his conversation with a newstand attendant) and that he is a police officier of some discription (a man tries to sell Shaft a watch on street, so Shaft shows the man his badge). We also learn that he is a popular man as he knows so many people. Mid-way through the sequence the non-digetic soundtrack introduces lyrics, about the main character, to the song and this sort of acts as narration to tell us more about the character.

From this opening sequence, I have learnt about how some camera angles can be used to follow a character (one of the ideas I have), how to effectively apply titles onto an opening sequence, and also how music can be used, not just to give atmosphere, but to tell us about the characters or the narrative itself.