Facial expressions in this opening sequence aren’t visible which increases the tension for the audience which captivates them and makes them want to discover who the person behind the mask is. However the body language of the thief becomes more accentuated due to the lack of facial expression from the person. They appear to be graceful and experienced at burglary especially when they abseil down the front of the building, also they appear to be fearless in a very dangerous situation which also helps to build the tension within the opening sequence.
Costume is a vital part in setting the scene and showing the audience that this person is a thief. They are dressed in a black seemingly specialized jump suit, with a black helmet which contains within it an infra red visor. This costumes shows experience and that this person may have used this outfit before on a similar sort of robbery.
The props used are all very technical, scientific and precision instruments, this shows a well planned operation and also that a lot of money has been spent on this job. Also this conveys that the painting must be very valuable to the thief to use such high-Tec expensive equipment.
Character positioning is generally within the centre of the frame as if we are watching them carry out their well planned operation. The audience doesn’t see a full length shot of the thief until they are just about to abseil down the front of the building. This is a very impressive shot as it allows the audience to capture their first glimpse of the thief whose hands they audience had seen setting up the equipment needed to carry out this operation.
As this opening scene occurs in the dark the majority of colours seen by the audience are black and the yellow glows of lights from buildings and street lights. However the equipment has a silvery look to it which conveys technological intellect and expense. The colour red is used on the computer screen, on the screens of the equipment the person used and also on their helmet which is very contrasting to the dark subdued colours surrounding them which makes the numbers on the screens and the thief’s visor stand out very prominently.
The most vital part of mise-en-scene in this film is the lighting. High key lighting is used throughout which produces large sharp shadows. This is obviously apparent and affective at creating atmosphere when the thief is walking through the room and the shadows from her feet are shown on the floor. This increases the tension as at this point the audience doesn’t know what the thief wants from the room or what they are going to steal. When the thief is seen standing on top of the sky scraper backlighting is used. The light could be perceived as shining from the moon down onto the thief although the moon is not in the shot. This gives the connotations of nocturnal animals that are out to hunt at night as the thief is hunting for the expensive painting like the animals would hunt their prey.
Other aspects of cinematography are used to create atmosphere and to position the audience precisely where the director wants them. A lot of shallow focus is used when the thief is setting up their equipment on the roof of the building. This intrigues the audience as to what they as specifically doing and what it will be used for. This shallow focus correlates with the extreme close ups and close ups of the character and equipment, and also deep focus correlates with the mid, long and extreme long shots used within the film. Deep focus tends to be used when the director wants the audience to see the bigger picture of what exactly is going on rather than with the shallow focus when he is only teasing them as they cannot see fully what is going on.
The shots in this opening sequence tend to be objective as it detaches the audience from within the scene and allows them to observe what is going on and be intrigued by the thief’s actions rather than engulfed in what the thief is feeling and their emotions during the scene. Subjective shots are used however when the thief is looking down towards the ground from the roof of the building, the audience views this shot through the thief’s night vision mask and the colours dramatically change from black and grey to a distinct tone of green which helps to differentiate from the subjective and objective shots.
Finally framing and camerawork also plays an important part of engrossing the audience with the action that’s happening on screen. Extreme Close ups are used on all of the thief’s equipment, these occur generally when the thief is physically using the equipment for example when the thief is seen to unscrew the bolts for the windows. These shots are also used on certain parts of their body this evokes tension because we as an audience do not yet know who the perpetrator of this crime is. An establishing shot is used at the very start of the opening sequence of a city scape at night, this is a birds eye view shot which pans through many different buildings, a re-establishing extreme long shot is also used when you see the thief standing on the roof top of the building as this reinforces to the audience that the thief is performing their crime in the city they have just seen.
