Opening analysis: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPKhWXhiMSw

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, is a thriller movie based on spies and traitors, in the opening scenes I can see how the main aspect of these scenes which makes it interesting is the background music. This is mainly because the background music somehow creates an eerie and mysterious atmosphere especially when the classical song starts playing since the beginning. You can hear knocking and footstep sound, to make the audience feel as if something is going to happen. The old man has a typical voice of someone who narrates the story or someone important. Some dialogue and voice over is being said to tell the audience what is happening and is going to happen.

In the first scene, Rhythmic editing is used to make the scene have suspense aura. During this process: CU (knocking), over shoulder (opening door and talking), LS (Pan) shots are used to show cautiousness coming from the old man; when he first saw the man through the use of CU but as soon as he recognized who the man was he opened up a bit and LS was used to show this. LS is also used to show the setting, in this case the room of the old man which is filled with papers and books, this suggests us how the old man is very intelligent. After that, an extreme LS is used to show the scenery of the place, which zooms out. In these scene the old man acts as a narrator to give us some idea about what the movies is based on. There were a lot of Medium shots and LS which was taken from a low angle really quickly with the background music to make the audience something will be happening and maybe the character is in some sort of danger. After the man was shot, there are some scene where the people in the background did nothing or just walked away casually making us believe that these kind of things happens quite often. The women from the balcony is shown again from a low angle, making us believe that she could be someone which power or maybe she will be appearing again later in the movie as she could be playing an important character for the protagonist. Most transitions had shot reverse shot and the timing was quite fast when the background music was building up to make the audience feel nervous and excited at the same time.

Throughout most scenes, the lighting was quite dark to make the atmosphere serious. The scenes included props such as ancient-expensive looking wooden furniture, stacks of books/papers, lamps, tables, chairs and many more. By using these props it is able to show the audience where the place is and if it is an important place or not. The customs are appropriate for the characters as it reflects on their personality and what job they do.