Opening Sequence

AnalysisBy Rob Kirby

Indiana Jones – The Kingdom of

the Crystal Skull

• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

• Year of release: 2008

• Director: Steven Spielberg (We know it’s going to be a film with action

and a sense of Sci-Fi when we know Steven Spielberg is directing it)

• Genre: Action/Adventure

In the opening shot of the film, we see an

establishing shot of a desert with a close up shot

of a small sandpit, to reinforce the location that we

are set it.

The lighting in this scene is in broad

daylight, showing the audience that it is the

middle of the day and will be blazing hot

because we have established that we are in the

middle of a desert.

An extreme long shot is used here to create an effect of vast-

ness to enhance the depths of the desert to the audience. We

also see a car in the distance which shows that some of the

characters are meant to be in the desert for a reason. This could

lead to the audience wanting to know more

The sound used in this opening scene is ‘Hound Dog’ by Elvis

Presley. This music sounds like it would be coming from the inside of

the car, this could be done on purpose to make the audience feel like

they are riding along with the characters through the desert. We

don’t know whether it is diegetic or non diegetic, because it could

easily be from the car radio, or it could have been put it separately in

the editing stage. It also sets the scene with an upbeat song, as it

creates an up tempo atmosphere for the audience which prepares

them for the nature of the whole film.

Here we see an array of screen shots that show the

camera movement across the desert following the lone

car. The camera begins with an establishing shot

and, as it moves along with the car, it slowly turns into

mid shot of the car and the people in it.

The opening titles are present in this scene and are

fixed above and on the mountains in the distance. This

is done on purpose to divide the screen up

proportionally so that it feels balanced on the screen.

Now that the camera has followed the car onto the main

road, we realise that they are not alone. We see another

extreme long shot to make the road look endless. There are

many army vehicles on the road which make the original car

look much smaller, this would have been done to show the

power of the army vehicles whilst keeping it subtle.

The many army vehicles on the road has changed the mood of

the scene, even though the music is still up lifting. We relate army

vehicles to war and killing which is what the audience is now

thinking because they have come into the scene so suddenly.

We are now seeing the car from the view of someone in the

back seat of the army vehicle which is a point of view shot. All

of the people in the outside car are in view on the screen, this

is done purposely to keep a balance of all the characters on

screen at all times.

Finally, we finish the opening scene with an extreme long shot of the open

desert road which looks like it is never-ending. This creates a nice opening

for the film to begin because it has set the scene ready for the main

characters to begin their journey’s in.