Silence of the Lambs deconstruction

Release date: 1991

Director: Jonathan Demme

Budget:$19,000,000

Opening weekend,

USA: $15,179,676

UK:£292,592

Denotation of the opening 2 minutes.

The establishing shot is a mid angle and a mid shot through trees. The sky featured in the shot is grey. At the bottom right of the screen there is anchorage/exposition of the location: 'Woods near Quantico, VA'. The abbreviation of the state also anchors that it is in North America.

There is non-diegetic classical music with a subtle horror tone and diegetic noise of birds. Titles appear over the shot in bold, black capital letters and serif font. Pans down through forest. Someone in the distance seen climbing up a slope. The character approaches the camera as she climbs and then the camera moves with her and zooms to a close up, her gender is now notified.

It is a grey and very foggy day. The woman stops and is panting. Her track suit provides anchorage as it features an FBI academy logo on it. The woman is sweaty and pauses to catch her breath. This shows she is running for fitness, not away from someone.

The second shot is a mid angle and mid shot. The camera follows her from behind. She runs into the mist, this changes from a mid angle to a long shot. 

Close up on her face with a determined facial expression and sweaty. The fog all around in the forest connotes mystery or an element of eeriness. 

There is then a mid shot of her running from the side. The pace of her run is sped up. The camera shot is through the trees as if someone is watching her. Close up of her running shoes.