Opening 5 Minutes: Red Eye

In the opening of red eye, non-diagetic music is used as the production companies names, the director, the protagonist and the antagonist actor's names and the title of the film are shown in text over a black background. Everything but the title is shown in a white text, whereas the title 'Red Eye' is shown in large red characters for it to stand out (right). The credits also seem to be 'flying' away from the screen, and an aeroplane sound can be heard, which relates to the main plot of the film. The music also gets to it's climax when the title is shown.

As the title immediately disappears, we see a close up point of view shots of photographs of a woman who appears to be in her high school years. From this, we get the feeling of voyeurism as it appears as if someone is viewing the images. There is then a jump cut where the shot goes to the cabinet that the photographs are standing on. We see, what appears to be from his posture and items, a man dumping his keys and wallet (left). From this we get the impression that he has just got home and that this is his house. The camera then begins to zoom into the items, with non-diagetic music building the tension, implying that the wallet could relate to later on in the film. As the music comes to a climax, we see another character's hand snatch the wallet, which gives the impression that someone unknown is hidden in the house. It gives the feel of voyeurism again, as well as anxiety. 

We see the wallet again after approximately a minute, as an unknown character is going through it, we learn from when the character goes through it, the owner of the wallet and who appears to be his daughter (shown in the photographs on the cabinet). The character does not seem to be interested in money as the credit cards in the wallet are thrown out of the wallet and into the bin. The close ups of the wallets and the photos in the wallet suggest that the character is more interested in the two characters in the wallet. 
 
About 2 minutes in, men can be seen urgently trying to break open a large delivery crate full of seafood. There seems to be a sense of panic as they open the crate, and are quite aggressive about moving the crate inside. The sense of urgency suggests that a crime is being plotted. 

The close up of another unknown character going through images of what appears to be a hotel and floor plans of what may be the same hotel can be seen. The images all seem to be being sorted on a desk, and the character's hand is going through the floor plans of the hotel (right). This supports the idea that a crime is being plotted. 


The hotel is used later on in the opening. First we see a low angle shot of the hotel (left), which we can relate to the images that were being sorted. As it goes to reception, the receptionist calls the manager of the hotel, a match-cut is used to show the same female character in the wallet (Lisa), in the back of a taxi. This introduces her character a bit more, with the fact that she seems as if she is always busy with work, even though she is away from it. After the phone call, Lisa gets a call from her father, and we see that it is the same character who is also in the wallet and who owns the wallet. Therefore, we know that the hotel, Lisa and her father all play a big part in the plot.