Research into an Action Opening scene

 Research into Charlies Angels (2000) Opening scene

Charlies Angels (2000) was directed by McG.

It stars Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Li.

I think that this film could be aimed at younger women as it is very empowering to women and female led. This is implied in the opening scene as the three main characters we are introduced to be the protagonists, and we find out near the end that they are all female. We get the impression that they are saving the world. 

The genre of the film in introduced when we see the bomb attached to the man. Immediately this presents violence. From this point there is tension throughout the scene as we know there is a bomb ticking and are not sure what will happen and when it will go off. 

The first main character that is introduced is what seems to be a male, who looks very confident and powerful. This is presented through the way he is walking and the camera angle, the camera is tracking as he walks and following him, whilst he is walking we don't see his face, and it is just focused on below his shoulders. This presents him as very mysterious and intimidating. 

As he is walking down the isles a lot of peoples heads turn, and some people move out of the way as he is walking, showing that he is being noticed and the people seem to be intimidated by him as they look at him, therefore connoting he has a lot of power over them. 

When this character tries to enter the first class area he is looked down on by the flight steward, showing that he is doubting the mans importance and thinks that he is not a first class passenger. From the way the flight steward looks at the man, we can connote that he is judging him by what he is wearing, we know this as from the over the shoulder shot, we can see that he looks the man up and down when he is denying him access to the first class. 

When he walks in and sits down we see his importance from how unfazed he is, he is sitting very upright and looking straight forward. This shows dominance, especially next to the person who is slouching and looking intimidated. 

The camera techniques show his importance, for example the tracking behind him shows that the action is following him. 

Another key moment of camera work is when the bomb is shown for the first time, and the camera suddenly cuts to a close up of it, this adds tension as it makes us shocked at how dramatic and suddenly we see this. The soundtrack is quite calm, and quite constant, showing their mood is staying the same throughout. It presents the characters as being quite sly as they are relaxed about the fact one of them has drugs and the other has a bomb.  

The shot of them before and during jumping out the plane is a very long shot, and instead of cutting it shows the camera turning around. This presents more tension as it makes it more long and drawn out therefore making us want to know what will happen next and when it will cut to something else.

In conclusion, I think that this is a successful opening scene as it creates tension very well, therefore hooking the audience and making them want to know what is going to happen.