Camera (FAM)
In the opening the first visual thing you see is an Extreme Close Up (ECU) of a 'Stop' sign. The camera starts far away then zooms in to give you the ECU. This can resemble the fact that they want the fighting of gangs to stop and to be out to an end as its tearing lives apart. As the children are walking across the street you have a long shot as you can see there whole body. To keep up with the kids walking the camera was panning from right to left. When the kids stopped and were talking there was a close of of Trey's face.
Mise En Scene
Costumes- in the opening scene there is a real mix of costumes. When all the 4 children are walking home from school,they are all in typical school wear for the stereotypical American culture. However when Troy was in class he was very smart in comparison, wearing a buttoned up short and trousers. Linking this to his mother as well who also looked very sophisticated and looked like they had some wealth in comparison to others in the area they live in. This could foreshadow that they are a well off family caught in the midst of violence and poverty surrounding them.
Lighting- the lighting was consistent throughout the opening scene. You didn't get a frame when the light had dropped, every frame was in daylight. This goes against what you would expect that crime is only going to go ahead when it's night. It clearly isn't the case in this state.
Actors- the majority of the actors are black. However the teacher who you see teaching all the children isn't black. She is the only white person. As a result of this she doesn't really treat the children with any respect at all. Due to her showing them no respect, the children show her very little respect as all, as there is a fight between Trey one of his peers in the middle of a lesson. Maybe they think this is normal from the background they are brought up in?
Makeup- Yet again I find it hard to pick out any specific make up that is used. The woman teacher is quite a pale tone, this may emphasise the fact that she is the minority in this area.
Props- there are props all over the first opening scene. Rubbish is all over the streets suggesting they are living in some form of poverty. Then there is the police tape covering the crime scene and the children don't read the notice saying 'stay away' suggesting this is a usual occurrence for them. Then in the classroom there are posters on the walls of blacks being the minority and always in the wrong.
Setting- the setting of this opening scene is in a state of America where poverty is thriving. Litter is all in the streets and people are fighting and getting murdered as an everyday occurrence. This just shows the shocking lifestyle all these Americans are living in back then and to this day.
Sound
There was both off screen and non-diegetic sound that you could clearly identify in the opening scene. The off screen sound was at the start when the screen was all black and you could hear gym shots going off and a little child crying whilst saying...
'They shot my friends,they shot my brothers'
Also an example of the off screen sound were the dogs barking in the background. This suggests the area is very unstable as there are stray dogs wondering around, looking for good.
An example of non-diegetic sound would be when the children came across the poster at the start if the opening scene. As you saw the poster you saw the camera zoom in and there were gun shots going off for just the viewers to hear. This could suggest that they want this person on the poster to be assassinated.
Editing
There wasn't a great deal of editing that I could really pick out from the opening scene. However there was one clear bit of editing used. When the children came across the blood plasma on the floor they were not sure why it had turned yellow. When you saw the yellow colour of it , the picture then dissolved and converted into a child's picture that they had drew from their summer holiday. This was effective as the picture had a yellow colour to it so the dissolve was smooth.
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