How is dramatic meaning created in the opening scene of The Day After Tomorrow

The movie that I will be talking about is called “The Day After Tomorrow”.
What makes a good movie? Although a movie has a number of different camera technique, it doesn't always necessarily mean that it would be a good film. What makes a good movie doesn't just come from filming one person and giving them lines to say-that will bore the audience. Neither does it come from the famous people starring in it-Just because the actors are famous, and he/she has been in great movies in the past, it won't always mean that the rest of his/her movies will be as successful. For example, Blake Lively plays one of the main characters called "Serena van der Woodsen" in a very popular TV show called "Gossip Girl". I think that TV show is amazing, but she also stared in a movie called "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants", and I really don't enjoy that film. There has to be the right music playing, good props, the right scene settings (Dark? Bright? In a garden? In a graveyard?), and so on. There is one thing that makes a movie original and unique though- Creativity. A movie isn't just about the camera movements, or the angles of it. However, without all the camera technique, the film would look very messy, and no one will watch it. So its a matter of balance between the two.

It all starts off with a high angle shot, but its also moving, showing the water and the ice melting. At the same time, I know that its not a happy scene or maybe even movie judging by the music- Mysterious creepy lady singing sharp different tones, at that point I can tell that it wouldn't be the most happy, cheerful movie, but it gives off a feeling more like “oh no! Something bad is going to happen soon...” . It gives the feeling that we are flying with them, as if they are trying to bring us some place, to lead to the next scene. The start of a movie, as well as the music, gives off a specific impression of what the movie is going to be about, and catches the audiences attention. The signifier here is the cold sea water with broken up ice floating around-melting.

When watching, I realized that what's in the background of the scene does really help to describe what's going on. Around our first few classes of film, I remember watching a small clip of a girl and her brother singing about love. In the background, it wasn't dark and gloomy. No, it was bright with love pictures in frames hanging on the wall. In this movie, one of the guys opens the door and walks into their trailer (as the camera uses the camera movement: pan) and we see another guy. He is looking into a microscope, and behind him I can see all these tubes, and other tools, while outside, there is a big drill. Judging from that, it gives me some sort of idea that these people might be a kind of scientists, that they were working on an experiment. Since they showed us that, it gives me an idea of how old these men are, what they do for a living, and a little bit of their personality.

The next part is where the guy is drilling into the ice, and then using the camera movement: tilt, shows us the ice slowly breaking and splitting, to create suspense. By this time, the film has a suspenseful music playing in the background that gradually gets louder, and the sound effect of ice cracking does too. It then turns to a high angle shot, as the person stops to drill and looks all around him to see what's going on. I think the reason why they used a high angle shot here was so that it can show the audience more clearly on what is going too- the ice is about to fall.

Given the fact that at the beginning of the movie, it shows the audience melting ice caps, it already signifies that the movie has something to do with that, and i was right- Later when the guy is hanging over the cliff of ice, the camera angle turns into a birds-eyed-view, to show all the ice blocks falling into the deep freezing water below. I think they did this because they wanted to scare the audience, and show them how instead of the ice, it could have been the man falling down into that icy water. When the guy jumps over the gap of ice to save their experiment, the camera turns again to a wide angle, to show how he jumped over. At this point the suspenseful music is loud and clear, and so are the sound effects of falling ice. The guy holding their experiments is looking for a way to jump back, but sees his friends (with a point-of-view angle), and then shows a close up of his expression (afraid to jump back).

Although i've only watched around five minutes of this film, I could already tell that this movie's genre is somewhat action. Maybe if I continue to watch, the genre might expand, but for now I can see action. I also learnt that when you film, everything you do/ have must be balanced in order to make a good film. If you are filming a scary thriller scene, then the background must be dark, the angles have to be in a certain way... etc. But no matter what genre you are filming or what topic you are filming about, you have to stick with it or else it will look very messy.