Durham County Textual Analysis

Durham County Opening Sequence

The opening shot is a zoom shot into a forest. No establishing shot is used leaving the audience feeling disorientated and lost.

The only sound is a piano playing an eerie tune that leaves the audience with discomfort.

The trees are without leaves and desaturated in black and white which shows that it is a cold, cloudy, unpleasant day.

The production credits appear in the bottom right corner of the shot, some written in capitals and some written in lower case showing the uncertainty and leaving the audience feeling confused.

The first thing that stands out to the audience about the second shot is the mise-en-scene of the bright red jumper that the doll is wearing. It stands out as the rest of the shot is desaturated and red is a colour that people normally associate with horror therefore relating to the horror genre.

The long shot of the doll also helps to portray the horror genre as you would expect the doll to be a person at first glance but because it’s a doll it is confusing to the audience. The background has also been blurred in this shot so that the audience isn’t distracted and has full attention on the doll.

This is the sort of shot that the audience would expect to see as an establishing shot as it given them a sense of location and helps them to give them more of an understanding of what is going on. However this shot is used as the third shot in the sequence instead of the first making the audience feel bewildered appealing to the psychological horror genre.

This shot is again desaturated and there is smoke in the center of the shot coming out of what looks like a factory chimney.

The writing that is in the shot is written in a mixture of capitals and and lower case letters.

This shot uses back lit lightening to show an outline of a bald man. Back lit lightening is used in order to show the outline of a person or object, so that features and details cannot be seen by the audience. Linking to the idea of being scared of the unknown this shot may have been used to either warn the audience of this man or make them fear him.

Then a shot is taken where the man turns his head to the side exposing his face but as a result of the back lit lighting his features still can’t be seen. The name of the actor appears to the right of him in the shot and is written in capitals standing out to the audience.

Similar to the second shot the first thing that stands out to the audience is the colour red contrasting with the black and white surroundings. However this time the red looks like blood insinuating the horror into the shot making the audience feel apprehensive.

The sound during this shot sounds like a chime whilst the piano is still playing. This music is quite uncomfortable music that would normally be associated with the horror genre.

This shot is a close up of what looks like an old hand hanging blond hair onto a nail in a damaged, ripped wall. This is quite confusing to the audience as it doesn’t make sense why somebody would be doing this and can come across creepy.

There are two actors names that come up here however they are written in black whereas all the others so far have been written in white.

This is a medium shot of a man that looks similar to the man showed previously where his features weren’t visible. The cinematography uses low key lightening making the man fully visible. It shows him sitting at a table across from an empty chair behind a window, which looks as if he is at the police about to be interrogated. However the audience are unsure whether he is good or bad drawing them in as they want to find out more.

This is a close up of the man and in this shot the audience get the first glimpse of what he really looks like. This man had appeared various times throughout the opening sequence suggesting to the audience that he is a main character in Durham County.

There is still low key lighting and the colours are almost black and white.

In both these shots the colour red is used again. In the shot on the right it is used to portray blood where as in the shot on the left it is instead used to show roses. This colour is a colour which is typically associated with horror and has a psychological affect on the audience.

In the shot on the right it is similar to a previous shot where the audience would expect the figure to be a human when in fact its just a model person. The shot is filmed by hand held and pans quickly over both model people, then stopping and focusing on the male model person lying on the floor with blood coming out their head and a gun on the floor.

The shot of the roses is quite calm with them floating in the water whilst actors names are displayed.

This is another establishing shot which is used to show location to the audience. This looks like an estate, showing the audience that this is where a majority of the TV show will be set.

The shot is desaturated and the sky is full of clouds looking like a gloomy winter day in England.

This shot similar to a previous shot is back lit so only the outlines of the two people can be seen.

This shot is different to previous as it is faced paced with a lot of movement as the two people in the shot are dancing compared to other shots which have either been motionless or very slow with little movement of the people in them.

This shot is a long shot of a man that appears to have a spot light shining on him. This shot is at night so the spot light is what is used to see the man as there is no other visible light. Night time is when most horrors are set as there is more fear of darkness then there is of the day, so this shot fits well with the horror genre.

This long shot of the man that has been seen in previous shots in the middle of a field suggests to the audience that he is either getting away from something or trying to find someone.

The trees are without leaves and the cold, cloudy weather relates well to the horror genre.

The final shot is the same as the previous shot, however the man isn’t there and the final title appears in the middle of the shot. The colour red is used in the title and has been a running colour throughout the opening sequence in a variety of different shots as it is a colour that is associated with murder and horror, which reflects what the audience should expect in the TV show.