Peter Brook chose to use black and white rather than colour because especially in the opening scene it sets more of a realistic wartime film. It gives the scene a somewhat cold and remote feeling. The next shot is of dining hall with the sound of young voices chatting happily. At this point the camera slowly moves upward to a window at the top of a room through which light is streaming. The way the camera is moving upwards towards the light looks as if it is moving up to heaven and feels very religious and at this point the image fades out to a line of choristers and the sound of their voices singing a Christian anthem. This is once again highlights what a far cry their behaviour is from the unchristian acts they will shortly commit. The camera slowly pans along the line of boys, so we can take each of them in. Again the fact that the camera is moving along a photograph gives the impression that you are walking along looking at the boys singing. The religious feeling is quite ironic considering what happens on the island. This is the end of the first sequence as we have uncovered every aspect of the school, physical, intellectual and spiritual.
Following on from this, there is a black and white shot of spectators at a cricket match, who are heard to be clapping. Suddenly we hear the faint sound of tribal drums, which gradually get louder and louder. The contrast between the civilised clapping and the savage tribal drums indicates that their relaxed and carefree world is about to be tipped upside down. The camera flicks away from the cricket match to photographs of nuclear missiles facing one way and then the other. The drumming continues to become louder, quicker and more intense, as the camera moves slowly up the photograph of an enormous rocket, making you feel as if it is not a still photo, but a moving image. The camera view of it makes you feel very small, compared to the enormous rocket.
We hear the chiming of Big Ben and see a picture of it that is tilted, as if it is falling over, which indicates the destruction of London. Following this the camera is zooming out from an evacuation sign, and a shot of boys looking naively happy, as if they do not realise that they are in the middle of a nuclear war. One of the boys is also holding a picture of an aeroplane, again showing how immature he is not realising the danger of the situation. After that there is a series of watercolours of planes and clouds, the camera moving over a cloudscape and map to create a sense of movement towards a destination in the Pacific. Suddenly in one shot lightning strikes the wing of a sketch of a plane, implying a crash; the camera cleverly twirls, again giving the effect of the plane spinning out of control and plummeting to the ground. The opening scene ends with a picture of the plane in a lagoon and of the tropical island. The background has been filled in and the moving pictures start up.
Peter Brooke successfully carries off using still, sometimes blurry black and white photos, or water colours, rather than what the audience would expect, moving in Technicolor, as was the norm at the time; it is very brave of him. His use of camera techniques such as panning, fading, flicking, zooming in, zooming out, camera angle and many more, manages to keep you interested. The fact that he uses black and white photos does make you feel it is more realistic and authentic. It also adds a sense of mystery and hints at the darkness looming ahead. He incorporates sound very effectively, like the tribal drums, which are quite a theatrical and dramatic contrast to the pleasant sounding choir boys, a contrast much like the one the boys undergo on the island. Peter Brooke’s opening scene is original, an interesting way of putting the background information across to the audience. He sets the scene for what is to come, while emphasising the dramatic change the boys go through to become the bloodthirsty savages that they are by the end of the novel.