12 Years a Slave Opening Scene Analysis

The first shot in the sequence shows the rich white males hight up on the horse and cart. The black males are low working on the ground. This suggests the difference in power at this time.
The sound in the shot is minimal but effective. The diegetic singing from the black males, gives the aspect of sadness, and bordem. This also gives the viewer something to think about and it adds to the aspect of reality and what it would have been like to be a slave in the 1930s. There is a shallow depth of field therefore everything being in focus. This makes shure that the viewer looks at the whole picture, not just focsing on one individual thing.

The shot then cuts to a closeup shot of the central protagonist. The angle of the camera is looking down on the character, which suggests roles of power in the situation. In this part of the extract the diegetic sound turns gets quiter and becomes muffled, fading to non-diegetic instumental music. This give the aspect of the central protagonist is switching offf from what he is doing and thinking about other things. This also helps to keep a time scale and to pass through this part quickly. The non-diegetic music has a very slow temp therefore connoting sadness or loss, therfore denoting the whole sistuation of slavery.

Whilst the music is playing, the shot cuts to the other charcaters who hold the wealth, the angle of the camera gives the perspective of the black male slaves, therefore looking up, therefore the slavesless powerful. The clothing on the charcater also shows wealth compated to the clothing of the slaves. The whole film has a very old, warm tinge to it. Although the film shows and represents a very cold, racist time in the past, using old filters helps to give the film an old look to it.

This closeup of the food has a very blue colour to it. This connotes sadness. Thes non-diegetic sound track playing behind also adds to the whole picture. With both the visuals and sound added together, it creates this whole picture of sadness. The food on the plate is very minimal which suggests that most of the food given to the slaves is simple, and mainly wild. This shows the where the wealth is going in this part of the film.


Later in the film opening, it cut to the title of the film, By using old fonts and colours it gives the effect of the setting and the past. By using fancy fonts helps to show the era and display extra meaning for the film, if the viewer has not guessed the time already. By lighting up a bit of the paper, (the background) helps to present the era. Also the creases in the paper helps to show that it is not well looked after, like the slaves in the film. This can signify and foreshadow the conciquences and actions from the white given to the black. Therefore giving the viewer a realistic representation of what actually happened. Because the filmed was based on the book, which was based on a true story, making things more realistic for the viewer helps to represent how bad things were in the those times, making sure that it would not happen again.