This is about the use of sound, character, costumes and camera angles in the opening scene of Body of Lies.

1. Body of lies
Opening scene:
Plot: In the opening scene there is a dialogue spoken in Arabic with English
subtitles, this dialogue revilessome of the plot, it tells us that a group of Muslims
want to run an operation in Britain and Europe to get revenge for the American
war on the Muslim community. They will do this by caring out random attacks
across Europe and America.
Costumes: There are two main types of costumes in this opening scene, one is a
typical Muslim style of dress (shown by the person giving the speech) and the
other is law enforcing i.e the police officer and swat team. The swat team is all in
black whichusually represents something bad in stories, however we are led to
believe that they are the good guys, which is the opposite of the distancing effect.
Character: The characters coincide with the plot and the costumes, because you
are led to believe by the plot that the Muslims are a terrorist group and the
police officers are the good characters trying to stop anything bad from
happening.
Setting: You are told at the start of the film that the opening scene is in
Manchester. However if you missed this you would still know that they are in
England (with the use of the establishing shot) as you can see a English red
telephone box and a police officer in a British uniform.
Sound: This is a key factor of this opening scene, every little movement or
motion is enhanced by the fact that there is little or no back ground music. The
film starts of by allowing you to clearly hear the radio transmission (the
dialogue) this then ends and you get filled with the roar of trains passing by on
the near by tracks. You can hear the milk bottles clinking on the float, the clutch
being pulled up on the car as it comes to a stop, police dogs barking, the swat
team running, a civilian whistling and a door being unlocked. All of this helps to
create tension and suspense. It emphasizes how important each little thing is and
makes you wonder what would happen if they were to be noisy. Although there
is a suspense filled track playing in the background it is hard to recognize it as
you become so engrossed in the individual sounds and actions.
Camera Shots: At the beginning of the film, when the speech is being given there
is a close up of the character talking, allowing you to see his emotion and set the
tone. This is followed bya mid shot to enable the audience to become more
familiar with the speaker. Next a tracking shot is used to smoothly take you from
one room to another. Mid shot and close up shots are utilized, again to
familiarize you with another set of characters.
We are now shown an establishing long shot is as it provides information for the
location and indicates a time. From this we are able to tell that it is around early
morning in a highly populated area from the number of houses, for some reason
though there are very few people around. This builds suspense and makes you

2. think that it is going to be dangerous. If you look further into the background it
looks as though police barriers are keeping residence back. This shot is followed
by a low angle shot from a swat guy on the roof of a house, this shows you his
power and authority over the area and surroundings.
The motion of the swat team running is followed with a panning shot, followed
by a low angle shot again to show power; which leads in to more panning and a
close up on a member of the swat team. However his face is completely covered
so you cannot relate to his emotion, it does though create an uncertainty as to if
they are really the ‘goodies’ or if they could be the ‘badies’
Power is indicated again with a tilt shot from a swat man on the roof downwards
to ground level. This is followed by a fast moving ark shot which increases the
intensity of the action. A close up is used of the device placed on the window this
emphasizes itsimportance. This close up is used again when they are unpicking
the door lock. After this we have a series of close ups and mid shots to show the
characters and to give a reference point for the audience.
One of the most important close ups is on the phone/bomb detonator, this shot is
important because it frames an object of importance. When the bomb explodes
the full effect of the explosion is shown with a long shot (to show the height and
width of the explosion) and a point of view shot to help you relate to the emotion
and fear the explosion creates.
Opening credits
The opening credits are very short, they do not tell you of the actors, only of the
film title.
Music/Sound: There is a radio transmission/ computer sounds that make you
think of the army/ secret service.
Colours: there is a lot of blue, black, grey and green which again is quite army
like. The colours are also quite computer like in the sense of a satellite feed.
Transitions: The images are very jittery like a satellite feed with interference.
The film fits into the thriller genre with the possibility of it being a murder and
action thriller. You can tell it is a thriller because there are criminals (the
terrorist group) there is a narrative of death with a theme of revenge. These are
all typical thriller conventions.
The film uses a stereotypical ethnic group as the ‘badies’ I think they do this to
make the film easier to relate to. There is wars going on all over the world and
there are wars against Muslims, so to use them as a group of people who are the
‘badies’ is easier and more realistic to do than to create a new group of people.
The film communicates a message that it is wrong to threaten war and if you do

3. so, people will try to stop you. This is shown by the swat team moving in on the
Muslim house hold.