Opening Research - Collateral

Collateral Opening Sequence

The scene start with an open frame inside an airport, it is very crowed and busy, which you would expect. The camera switches shots of two men walking towards each other both shots start as a mid shot and slowly become close-ups. The sound during this point manipulated as the background noise is turned down whereas the footsteps of both men are greatly enhanced. When the two men collide into each other the sound becomes atmospheric as you can hear everything going on around them but the sound of the briefcase hitting the floor is greatly enhanced and along with the close-up on the briefcase the audience knows it's importance.

After the men walk away with the others briefcase there is an over the shoulder point of view shot of Tom Cruise's character while up beat, pulsing music begins to play in the background. Now a montage begins showing close-ups on several  items in the taxi-depot these include newspapers, the taxis, people doing crossword puzzles, eating or repairing their taxi. These give us an insight into the life of a taxi driver, which helps you connect with Jamie Foxx's character whom you see when the camera tilts up after a close up on him doing a crossword puzzle after the montage ends. As he is wearing glasses and not doing the same thing as all the other cab drivers by doing a crossword puzzle, you get the idea that he is smarter than everyone else and there is more to him than meets the eye.

After he climbs into his taxi, the scene becomes closed frame. The first thing he does when inside is start to spray the windscreen and dashboard and check that the taxi is working this shows us he is clean and respectful, further establishing him as intelligent this is shown via a series of close-ups on the different sections of the car. As soon as he closes the taxi door, the atmospheric sound from the depot stops, which is telling the audience that this character has just entered his 'own little world' away from everyone else. He also puts up a picture and stares at it which shows to the audience that, that picture is his dream and will be relevant to the story at a later point. To end the scene, the camera stays on a point while he drives away.