In this film opening of Harry Potter, the first thing we see as the scene fades in from black, there is a medium shot of a lamp post and a sign (Privet Drive) with an owl on it. We can see straightaway that it's night time because they have the street light on and also because the camera is doing a sort of low angle shot looking up at the sign, we can see that the sky is dark. The owl shows us that something strange is going on because owls are usually in trees and are not normally seen but this owl is out in the open which is an abnormality.
The camera pans right and the owls flies the same way the camera is panning. Some trees come into view and we can see that the setting is quite misty and gloomy which, without the light from the street light, would make it seem scary. A man walks out from the trees and onto the street and the camera pans left to follow where he is walking. The man is wearing what looks like to be robes and a pointed hat which would stereotypically be associated with a wizard, we can relate this back to the owl as they are also associated with magic and wizardry. The camera then stops with a close up of a cat as you see the mans feet in the background continuing to walk. Because it paused on the cat it shows importance and that this cat will mean something and it's not just randomly there. The cat also add to the mystical atmosphere because black cats are stereotypically on the back of a broomstick with a witch.
There is then a medium shot of the man as he pulls out a device and begins to hold it up in the air. A close up of the device is shown which enables the audience to see more of this object. There is then an over the shoulder shot of the man as he begins to absorb the light from street lights with the device and there are several extreme long shots that are used to show which lights he is putting out and also to show the setting. We know the street is called Privet Drive from the sign at the start of the movie but now we know what the street looks like.
After the man has put out all of the street lights, the camera focuses back on the cat as the man turns and looks at it. A high angle shot is used at this point to make it look like you're seeing this cat from the mans perspective. The camera the pans to the left and a bit upwards to show the shadow of the cat as it transforms into a human. From this, we know that the cat is now a human and the camera pans left slowly as the woman walks into the shot from the right so we can see a close up of her face to see what she looks like. We can see from this shot that she is also wearing a pointed hat and some robes so we know she is also a wizard or witch of some sort and the way the man greets her shows that they already know each other.
There is a tracking shot as the two people start walking and talking with each there and the shot switches sides to show each of their faces. The two people turn around and the camera switches to a shot behind the people so we can see what they're looking at. We can see that it turns out to be a bright light in the sky which is getting closer and as the film continues, we see that it's a man riding a flying motorbike. and as he lands, he greets the two people to show that he knows them both. Even though we didn't know that they knew each other previously, we could have probably guessed it because if h is riding flying motorbike then he is probably a wizard. I think he greeted them to confirm that he knew them because he, unlike the others, is not wearing a pointed hat and robes, he is just wearing a big coat and some goggles. We know something has happened because they have all come to the same place and it can't be a coincidence, it's we don't know what has happened. This is called the enigma code, there is a question that is unanswered that makes you want to keep watching to find out the answer and in this case it's what are these wizards and witches meeting up for?
It turns out that the man on the motorbike was delivering a baby so he picks the baby up and passes him to the other man. They then walk towards a house while the camera is using a tracking shot and the man places the baby on the doorstep with a letter. We then get a close up of the baby and the most noticeable thing is a cut on his forehead. The camera then zooms in until there is an extreme close up of this cut and it shows extreme importance of the cut. A light then shines from this cut and flashes white and when the light goes away you can see that we'e at a title screen (Saying Harry Potter and the philosophers stone) which was zoomed into but is slowly zooming out.
Because of the importance placed on the baby, the fact that everyone is there just for him, we know that he is a very important baby and we can also tell that this baby is the main character because of a few reasons. Firstly because everyone is there for him just to see him go to a new home which shows he is important and because his name is Harry Potter (we know this because the man called him that) and that is also the title of the film.
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