How does the opening
of CSI: One Hit Wonder attract the audience?
In the CSI
episode One Hit Wonder there is a Peeping Tom who is spying on girls and then he
sexually assaults a girl in the opening and then starts to rape women later on
in the episode.
The
audience’s expectations of CSI are similar as all episodes begin in a similar
fashion because they use all the typical conventions of the horror/Thriller
genre this makes the audience build up their expectations and anticipation of
who might be the victim or who will be the killer in the current episode.
In the
opening of One Hit Wonder it starts in a high long shot view of Las Vegas to
imply that anybody in that area could be a victim then it uses a quick fade to
white then to another shot of the city to unnerve the audience. The diegetic
sounds are used such as the police sirens to symbolise fear or a threat in the
city.
The episode
then graphic matches the city to a table with bottles on it this makes the
audience think that the city is trapped in a way as the buildings are inside
the bottles and this means that the city can be moved at someone’s own will.
Quickly,
there is a fade to black and a fade up, this shows you a room with a red towel
which represents violence then it shows you a pair of trainers and the single
pair means that there is one person in the apartment. This shows that this
person is vulnerable and open to an attack. The camera then pans through the
rom the director uses this to suggest that someone else is there; the sound is
also used to create an eerie atonal sound. The audience would then think that
the woman in the apartment is the victim or something will happen.
There is
then a dissolve then the camera tracks towards the bed, the angle of the camera
is looking down on the women making her look Vulnerable and weak and as if
someone is looking down on her, the mise-en-scene adds to the scene because of
the darkness in the room making her more vulnerable in the dark because she
can’t see, the shot then fades to black implying that it is over.
The shot fades
up to a close up of the young women; this is used to make the audience want to
see the surroundings as they will be curious to the surroundings because the
noises add to this as you can hear the sound of a door unlock and then a patio
door or window sliding open. You then see her wake up and she slowly turns her
head around, the camera angle is high making her look vulnerable, you can hear
a low string sound which suggests that something is there or something is wrong.
Then you see her go down the stairs and as she walks down them you see the bars
form the shadow of the window this suggests she is trapped, you then see the woman
is dressed in her underwear to show that she is sexually attractive, young and
vulnerable making her an easy target. You see the door is shut implying that
everything is fine and or the person inside has left the apartment.
There is a
draught turning over the pages of a magazine this suggests there is an
intrusion in the room, she then looks at the fan and the director cuts to a
high angle shot through the fan making it seem as if someone is watching her
through bars suggesting she is trapped. She then turns to look at the fan
switch and there are marks on the switch suggesting that someone has turned the
fan on as a crescendo happening as well.
There is
then a cut back to the woman in a medium shot in the middle of the frame, this
will make her seem alone and vulnerable because no one else is there to help
her. The director then cuts to a shot from under the table looking up at her
looking at the table then uses a focus pull to the glass which has been spilt
and a crescendo builds up toward the glass suggesting someone who is not the
women has done this and to build up the tension. There is then cut to her framed
next to the door showing her reaction which is scared she shows this by pulling
her hands up to her head and gasps.
The director
then jump cuts/zooms toward the door handle and as this is happening you can
hear screaming in a crescendo as we get closer to the door handle another jump
cut happens and special effects shot to go through the woman’s lock to her
neighbours key hole and then another special effect shot happens though the
neighbours key hole this puts the audience on edge and continues into her bedroom where a
man is harassing her, the man is holding her down on the bed in an unreal blue
light then see the man jumping off of the bed and you see his shoe, this makes
the audience wonder who the man is as you have evidence to who it might be because
of his shoe sole.
