English Media Studies

Authors Avatar

Pirates of the Caribbean; ‘Comment on the ways that Gore Verbinski creates tension and introduces his narrative in the opening scene’

In the opening scene of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, we know that the film has a pirate theme and is of the action genre. We know straight away that the film has a pirate theme; firstly because of the title of the film as it is called ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and secondly the setting reveals the sea and the ship, this is typical of pirate based film and makes the audience think that the film has a pirate theme.

The establishing shot in ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ reveals Elizabeth stood on top of the navel ship. A lot of shots are used in this scene to make the whole sequence more dramatic. The very first shot of the whole film is a medium pan shot of the ship. The camera moves towards the ship and gives the impression that the shit is moving fast. The shot then pans up into a low angle shot on Elizabeth. The camera looks up at her and gives her a sense of authority and power.

The character of Elizabeth is unexpected to be seen in the first scene on the ship because in those days, it was bad luck to have a woman on board a ship. We know straight away that she is from a high class background. We know this because of the way she is dressed which is far superior to everyone else, who are all dressed in dark, dull colours, where as she was wearing a silver dress. This is significant as it immediately tells the audience of her status and shows her wealth and power over the other crew members.

Join now!

The costumes of the crew show their status in the society. For example, the naval officer wears bright, vibrant colours such as red and silver, whereas the lower ranked crew members wear dull colours like grey and black. This shows the audience straight away the status of the characters on the ship. The officer is given a higher status than the first sailor in their conversation due to the camera shots used on the higher rank crew on the ship. The director uses a low angle shot to look up at the officer and emphasise the importance of the ...

This is a preview of the whole essay