Don't Look Now- Nic Roeg Opening Sequence Analysis

We have been looking at the opening sequence for Nic Roeg's Don't look
Now. Nic Roeg directed art based films and has a background of a being artist and also of being a cinematographer so when we looked at the sequence we focused on: the use of colour and how he used his shots.
The first scene we saw was set in morning time in what appears to be a country wooded location.

In this shot we can see a white horse in the dark background. White is and colour of innocents and it  being in the dark suggests/fore-shadows something dark could happen to something innocent. In the centre of this shot is a little girl wearing a bright red coat. The surface of the coat is shiny , which give a look of blood and the girls hair is Blonde, which blondes are stereo typically used of the role of damsel in distress. The girl in, who is in the foreground, where the lighting is bright walks into the background where the lighting is dark therefore she is walking into the darkness. One of the props in this scene is the wheel barrel, which again gives us more information on the location, suggesting this could be a farm scene.

The next character we are introduced to is a little boy. We realise this little boy is the little girls brother as he is watching her to check how she is or what she's doing. The boy is riding a dark blue bike and all his clothes are dark colours aswell. This is to drawn the attention of his and on to the little girl who's wearing bright red, this lets us know the sister is the main focus of this scene.

This shot is really key to the storyline because it shows us even more about the setting. We see the little girl's house, which is very far away from where she is playing. The girl is on the more dominate side on the screen, however we are more drawn to the house as its in the light. This again shows the girl in the darkness. The girl is close to the water and far from the house which put the audience on edge as we know this could be dangerous. 

 

The camera then zooms in to the water and the shot changes to a shot of a fire. Water and fire are opposite and don't mix therefore fore-shadowing something that was not suppose to fit together could in the future, which could be dangerous, the elements are also both dangerous separately.

The next scene is inside the house, where the Father and Mother of the children are. They are both quite content on their own activities, therefore are not paying their children outside much attention.

 



 
   
    Back outside something has already gone wrong. Here we see the brother who has fallen of his bike. The brother attention is now taken by fixing the bike, when before he was looking out for his sister. The little girl (his sister) is playing with a doll and a red ball. The ball continuing the theme of red this sequence has. The red shows us the theme of danger, blood and deaf this sequence has.

One of the ending shots is the father hugging and crying about the dead girl. The proxemics of the characters are close to show that the father wants to be close to the little girl but is too late now the attention has come to late.
To conclude through out this sequence we are given clues to the ending danger. We are given these clues by the use of dark lighting, closeness in character placement and the colour red, which connotes danger.