The sequence I have chosen to analyze is the first 3 and a half minutes of "SAW" by director James Wan. Through this sequence the audience not only gets introduced to the main characters, but is introduced to the location in which the majority of the film takes place. Adam and Dr. Gordon are chained in an old bathroom. At first, there are no lights. Everything is kept dark so that the audience is experiencing waking up in this room just like the characters. Finally, Dr. Gordon turns on the light where you finally get a better feel for where they are. Close-ups of Adam squinting and hiding his eyes, and the blurry, out of focus POV shot from Dr. Gordon, lets the audience know they have been in the dark for a while and the fluorescent lights are blinding them at first. As the tracking shot of the lights pulls back, the audience is now aware that this is not just a normal sized bathroom in some one's apartment, but rather a large room. The first wide shot you see is after they first see the dead body. This shot gives the audience an idea now of how big of a space they are actually in. Everything in the bathroom itself is old and dirty. In the middle of the floor lies a dead man bleeding from his head holding a gun in one hand and a tape recorder in the other. This indicates that they have been placed there for a reason and will now be going through something that has to do with each other, being chained in the bathroom, the dead man, gun and the tape recorder. In the beginning of the sequence, a close-up of a key is seen going down the drain of the bathtub. You are shown this before you see the characters are chained, however, you do not find out what the key opens until the end of the film. Other than the chains, gun, key, and tape recorder, there are no props introduced in this scene. Adam's wardrobe is simple, jeans and a t-shirt with an opened buttoned-down, while Dr. Gordon is in a buttoned-down shirt and suit pants. Throughout this sequence many kinds of shots are used to establish location, emotion, and the state in which the characters have been put in. Below is a link to the sequence. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAWK9V9Hk_A
