Shutter Island Intro

Shutter Island: during the opening credits, the text is grey and grainy, with a
high pitched, yet quiet ringing sound throughout; this may have been used to make
the viewer feel somewhat uncomfortable.
The screen fades to black, then a different font text and colour (white now) shows
up, showing the location and year of where this film is set, this establishes the
viewer, preparing them for what could be a change in clothes, speech and/or other
variables due to the time period.
A grey screen appears, shortly after a boat appears; we can now see this is an
establishing long shot of a boat at sea, letting the viewer know the character is at
sea, also the factor of being at sea synergises well with the fog, creating a somewhat
eerie experience for the viewer.
The camera cuts to a medium shot of a man retching over a toilet, the camera pulls
in closer into the mirror where the man looks into the mirror and speak to himself, he
looks to be agitated, the mise-en-scene provides this by his clothes being scruffy, his
hair wet, tie being crocked and his face red and sweaty, this poses the audience with
the question “who is this man? Why is he in this bad way ?”
The non-diagetic music in conjunction with the sound of the bows of the boat
shrieking added by the Foley artist create a creepy vibe to the entire scene, perhaps
letting the viewers know that something isn’t quite right.
The camera zooms out to a long shot of the bathroom the man was in, revealing
chains and metal buckles hanging from the ceiling could be showing the viewer that
the man is trapped, perhaps not physically, but emotionally.
He walks past the chains putting on his jacket, the pan at this moment is at equal
level, showing the viewer this character is nor high status or low, he is an equal to us
as the viewers.
He walks out onto the deck, showing a man in similar dress, the man stumbles
across as shown in the track of him, he looks out on to the water, as the music quiets
the men begin to converse, the first man known as “teddy” begins to yet again feel
nauseous.
The camera pans out onto an island, acting as an establishing shot showing to the
audience that this is the place in which our characters are approaching, with tense
deep music playing, yet again providing a creepy feel.