Drive - Tom Peacock

Drive 

Tom Peacock

The opening scene to Drive is very interesting because normally in thrillers you'd expect there to be an opening filled to with action or at-least something to get the viewers interested. 

The above shot is taken from just after the introduction. We straight away see that there has been the use of restricted narration to introduce the character we see here. Our first impressions are straight away ones of mystery and confusion. We don't see or learn anything about the character in these first scenes, we don't know if it's female or male, what they're doing, why they're there. This is great way to start the opening because it doesn't give anything away and keeps up the theme of suspense. The use of Low angle shots as well as close ups helps to solidify this.

The great thing about the opening of this thriller is the fact that they use a voice over and non diegetic sound as well as lighting together to furthermore increase the viewers sense of mystery. We see the director here using the 3 set up for lighting, using the key light to light up only one side of the character, the rest of him is in shadows. This is clever technique to show the side of the subject which you want the audience to see. Below is a diagram showing how this was achieved using the key light.

Sound is also used here to good effect. We firstly hear the voice over talking over while the first few shots introduce the character. We then hear the background music fade in, which helps pick up the pace of the opening. That transition helps to represent the change in rythem and also that the main story line is picking up.

Costume also helps convey mystery in the opening scene, with the character here wearing dark colors. The room is dark lit as well and only a few things like the bed here and the TV in earlier shots show us any sort of color. This could've been done to make the appearance of the character here stand out a bit more to the viewer, presenting questions such as "Why is he dressed in black". Black is also a color, which could represent death and this could be a possible use of  Iconography.