Blue Velvet Analysis

The scene begins with a transition from a curtain of blue velvet into the clear blue sky, the transition used is fade in. This transition was used to show how calm the town is to create a tranquil vibe so the audience is unaware of what is to come, the fact that the sky is clear also continues that feeling as it completely clear which could be representing how the town/community is perfect and how nothing eventful usually happens.

The shot then pans down to a view of a white picket fence and some roses growing. This helps to continue the feeling of serenity as picket fences are usually associated with the perfect traditional family home, perhaps this is because of how fences create a sense of safety as they are stopping anything from entering, the colour of the fence also portrays a nice family home as white sometimes represents something of purity as it isn't tarnished with anything else or it could be viewed as clean as white is sometime the colour of something new and unused. Roses are occasionally used to show love which could be thought of as the innocence of the town as sometimes roses are usually given to people you love. Some flowers are shown not long after, however these are daffodils. Daffodils are known to have the symbolic meaning of temperance and calm, they were probably used to create this effect of the whole town.

The innocence of the flowers is continued as the scene, again, transitions smoothly into another to show a lollipop lady helping some children across the street, which has no danger to it all and helps to portray how the community is quite close to one another as they care about the children's safety, not all towns have this.  The non-diegetic music playing also helps to keep this vibe as well as serenity because its not very fast and just keeps to a very simple and basic melody that does not build up at any point. 

The non-diegetic music playing throughout the whole opening scene maintains the calm atmosphere as it has minimal layers, keeping the sound very basic and serene, the song does not build up and stays like this for the whole scene to keep the audience thinking that the scene will be uneventful but by the end of the scene the music and what is on the screen are contrasting immensely. Also there is diegetic noises of birds chirping which suggests that the town is very calm as birds don't usually like loud noises or feeling as if they are in danger, so for them to be chirping freely says that they feel safe.

Also during this section we see a red fire truck drive past houses with a man and dog waving whilst going past, this suggests that the town is quite happy and friendly as fire trucks are usually only used in emergencies but this one is just patrolling the town as there doesn't seem to be any trouble.

Then we cut to a lady sat in her house watching TV and on the screen is somebody holding a gun, this could be foreshadowing that something bad or to do with death is going to happen further into the film. Next the scene cuts to a man watering his flowers, we had actually seen this man earlier on in this sequence so him being shown multiple times could be suggesting that this man has some sort of importance to the movie, we get this idea because if he didn't have any importance its unlikely he'd be shown more than once (e.g. the man on the fire truck).


Where the hose is connected to the wall is then shown, it is spurting water out the sides of the tap which portrays that there is something wrong with it as this is not a normal thing for a hose to do, this, again, foreshadows that something bad is going to happen because the bad things/aspects keep building up. Then it cuts to a shot of the man pulling at the hose because it is caught on something. To carry on building the tension and suspense there are three shots that are shown multiple times: the man pulling/checking the hose, the hose being wrapped around something and the tap at which the hose is connected. This build tension because these three shots being shown repeatedly are also very quick and snappy shots which makes the audience want to know what is wrong. Also at this point the audio is also building suspense because the calm music is being covered up by the dramatic noises of the water hissing out the sides of the tap and what seems to be to water gurgling up to the tap.

After this the man then grabs his neck in pain and collapses to the floor. When the man writhing around on the ground he is also making gargling noises die the pain he is in. Once the man has stop moving and we guess is unconscious we also see a baby (which could be representing the man's innocence to whatever happened to him) and also a dog drinking the water from the hose.

Lastly we see what I assume to be a POV shot of something moving in the grass. At this point the non-diegetic music is very very faint in the background as its being covered up by the diegetic noises of the grass being moved by whatever we are seeing through the eyes of. This portrays to be whatever the thing is to be dangerous as the cheerful music has stopped in its presence, suggesting that this creature is not cheerful.