The Birds-Alfred Hitchcock-1963

Posted by Charlie Aldridge on 21:23:00

 Throughout the opening titles of The Birds the camera's position doesn"t change, neither does its angle. The names of the production crew and the cast appear on screen in  front of the audience in the centre of the screen. Also in the shot are a swarm of scared or frustrated birds frantically flapping and flying across the screen in all directions. It seems as if the birds are trying to escape something or they are hunting, or casing a prey. the birds are silhouetted causing binary opposition against the white background, connoting good, white background, against evil or bad, the dark, black birds. once the cast has been introduced the shot cuts to a long shot of the character surrounded by tall, overpowering buildings. This enforces the vulnerability of the character, so insignificant in a location of such overpowering and dominant surroundings.
    The sound used in the opening sequence is non-diegetic and parallel to the action on screen. the sound helps to understand how distressed the birds are in their surrounding. the squawking and the flapping of the wings reinforces the action on screen. when the titles cut to the city scene there is alot of ambient sound added. this non-diegetic sounds helps to create the ambience of the busy city life again reinforcing how tiny and insignificance of the main character in the city.
The titles use a blue, serif font. the colour of the font is a cold blue connoting harshness of the birds, like a harsh, ice, cold winter morning.

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