By Megan and Navpreet

The genre is a variety of things action/adventure, fantasy. Can you tell this by the opening scene due to the mist, grimy look? Yes, the dark atmosphere is used to draw you in, It makes a perfect setting for an action shot or fantasy sequence. But the look of the scene overall is quite fantasy like. Also it can make the mind imagine a variety of things .e.g. like something bad is going to/or has happened due to the grey and the cloudy mist. The weather denotes a bad atmosphere, laying down an enigma for the audience.

The sound at the start of the scene( the titles) has a metallic ring to it, its sinister and fits in the with setting. Blow pipes are used in the soundtrack, these fit in with the setting (Caribbean).Diegetic sound- The sound the characters can hear; water, creaking of the ships, sails, Fire and other character dialogue and singing. This adds to the realism of the scene.Non Diegetic- The Audience can hear the soundtrack, its used to created tension in the scene, obviously the characters can’t hear it!There is a sound bridge from when Elizabeth is a girl, to when she wakes up as a woman from her dream. This could suggest that her dream is ongoing and real, Which is explainable since she says it was a memory.

There are a lot of close ups used to show facial expressions and reactions.The camera does a lot of panning and follows the little girl, showing that she is the centre of the audiences attention. Medium close ups are favoured in this opening scene, to express the characters body language. There are some level shots as well, for instance, the character Norrington is shown to be higher up than everyone, however, the high angle shot makes him look smaller, this provides the option that there are others higher than himself. The first two minutes of the shot there is a narrow angle when they are surrounding together, showing the character relationships and their closeness, or, it could show their fear of the pirate legends.There are few tilt and long shots, because they are not needed in this scene.

Costumes: The costumes used old fashioned, preferably to relate to the time period, the 1800s. If we know this, we, the audience, can guess what attitudes these sort of characters have ,how they behave and how they live.Their clothes look expensive, showing that they are rich, however they look out of place of a ship, emphasising that they are not used to long voyages across the ocean. Some characters also wear wigs.

Props: Mr Gibbs has a drinking flask, he too, also looks out of place, he doesn’t suit such high class settings. He is scruffy looking too.Many characters have weapons such as swords and pistols attached to them, this shows us the need they had for such items in those days. The Flags, the high class ship has the British flag, the same as the burning merchant ship, Showing rebellion in that time period. The Candles and lanterns set a frightening atmosphere along with the fog and mist. The Medallion, the heart of the film, stands out from the dull surrounding with its golden glow, emphasising its power in the film.

The Opening titles to the film has “Pirates of the Caribbean; Curse of the Black Pearl”, the writing then fades to black, this then dissolves into the main, opening shot. There are clean transitions cuts between the shots so it runs smoothly into each shot and the audience don’t get confused. When Elizabeth wakes up, she closes her child eyes, then re-opens the, here, the audience see that it was a dream, since we now see her adult eyes and face, the sudden cut to black, then to her adulthood face, in a way, proves that it was a flashback, and that she is coming back to reality from her dreams.

 The rich are represented as having a lot of money due to the big ship and big house as can be seen, also the way they dress is highly anticipated as they have very big gowns. The poor are represented as having to work jobs that the rich wouldn’t do, or have no job at all and become pirates. There is no balance between the two no middle person. There is only upper and lower class.The upper class look down on the pirates, saying they are dangerous and cannot be trusted. They are seen as dirty and unhygienic, whereas the rich are seen as perfect beings, with maybe a bit to much arrogance towards others . That sort of thinking gets them into trouble in many films...

The Narrative starts off in the past with a flashback. However, the audience don't know that its a dream of Elizabeth's history until she wakes up after seeing a sinister looking pirate ship. It Teaches us what they think of pirates and how the first two main character met, including their relationship and status. After the flash back, everything seems to be of a Linear storyline, flowing cleanly through a chronological time period, shown by the clean scene changes.

Thanks For Listening.