Opening scene of Lord of the flies

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   Media: Opening Scene of Peter Brook’s adaptation of William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”

“Lord of the Flies” is Peter Brook‘s adaptation of William Golding's famous novel. The opening series of grainy black-and-white still photography is not actually in the book but Peter Brook includes it as background information explaining to an audience who may not have read the book why the boys ended up alone on the island. A plane carrying English primary school boys has crashed on an uninhabited Pacific Island. With all the adults killed, the boys must fend for themselves.

 The scene opens with the sound of the rising bell and a water colour of a public school in the country. This creates the impression that these are English boys from middle or upper class backgrounds who go to an expensive public school in the countryside. With the bell ringing in the background it sets the impression that these boys have a very routine and normal public school life, a million miles away from what they are about to be submerged into. After this there is a school photo of the teachers and the pupils all looking content and civilised, again showing what a happy and carefree childhood they all have, but also how they always had an adult nearby to watch on them, emphasising what a shock it will be when they are stuck on the island without an adult in sight. The camera slowly moves in making us feel as if we are looking around their school. This is followed by a photograph of students at desks in big school with the sound of a teacher reciting Latin faintly highlighting what a dramatic transformation they are about to go through in their descent into savagery. In the background, the camera moves down the room, first from one direction so we can see the back of the boys’ heads and then the other so we can see their faces. This use of filming is clever as you forget that it is a still picture and are tricked into thinking it is filming.

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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 ...

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