Blue Velvet

Blue velvet

In the start of the opening sequence of blue velvet you get the start of the very peaceful and relaxing music within the whole of the opening 2 minutes. You get a worms eye view of some kind of roses that are red with the blue sky plus the white fence. You get the serotype feeling of the old times America.  With the colour scheme you get the idea of the American flag and these colours are used through out the whole of the open sequence. The editing over the top of these scenes feel like they’ve made the speed minimal, creating a safe and peaceful environment for people to live in. The cuts and transitions are quite unique to the way that not many films cut so many times into different parts of the film but the director of this film makes it work to perfection.

In the next cut you get another feeling of safety due to the fact a stereotype American fire truck passes though the same neighbourhood, but if you look closely the fire truck alone gives you the sense of the Red, Blue and white. The slow peaceful music still continues. The neighbourhood you can see throughout the opening sequence seems to be a rich retirement neighbourhood, this is proven when all the neighbours are outside waving and smiling possibly at each other or the camera. You again get the sense of safety and that it’s a friendly and secure place to be in.

 You also get the hint of safety and security when the kids are walking across the road with a lollypop lady with no parents means that there is trust around the neighbourhood and nothing could do any harm. Even when it cuts from that scene to the house, when you get a look inside you can see the same colour scheme. Blue, White and Red. Where at the start it indicates either safety or could even mean danger.

When it shows the image of the gun on the TV it’s when the film starts to get intense and interesting. This is because it jumps from scene to scene with the music changing making you sure that something bad will occur. The sound goes over the top of the music giving you even more of a bigger indicator. Then of course he falls over because he seems to be having some kind of stroke. This is very good editing. It hooks the viewer onto the film to continue to watch. It is important to hook the reader within the first couple of minutes and the editing during this part of the film really does hook the viewer.

When the man has fallen you get a fear because of the way the music changes, it becomes more dramatic and normal sounds are heard over the music. You get a worm’s eye view through the grass straight to a nest which seems to be beetles. This could relate to some sort of danger that no one in the neighbourhood could control or do anything about. So even though the first few minutes you get a lot of hints of safety, nothing is ever safe.