First fifteen minutes analysis of Donnie Darko

I decided to analysis the 2001 science fiction drama film, Donnie Darko. Even though it isn't classed as being a psychological thriller film, it does have a lot of psychological elements in it, which can be important for understanding how people work, especially with mental health issues.

The first scene starts of with setting the location of the film, by using a panned long shot of mountain area, and early morning sky.

 Beginning long shot, setting the location.

 The camera then starts to zoom in on Donnie, who is laying in the middle of a road.

 We get a shot, where we are able to clearly see Donnie's face, and facial expressions.

 We are then shown a Point of View shot, of the view which Donnie is seen from behind looking at it, in the next shot.

 The title sequence then rolls, and we are shown the neighbourhood that Donnie lives in, including shots of the different kinds of people that live there. When Donnie is cycling through the neighbourhood to get to his house, there is high key lighting to make the neighbourhood look bright and colourful.

In the second scene, Donnie is persuaded by a ghostly voice to "Come closer.", to which he follows the voice. When Donnie is following the voice, the camera is dollying into the door.

The ghostly voice leads him outside, and here, there is a shallow focus, which emphaizes Donnie, because everything in the background cannot be seen, and only Donnie is in focus, which shows the importance of this character.

There is then a dissolve, which shows Donnie looking at what the ghostly voice turns out to be, and an image of the ghostly voice in the same shot.

Finally, we have an eyeline match, to show what Donnie had been looking at, which is a strange rabbit.