Textual analysis: Blade - Lewis

The film blade starts with an opening montage that leads in to the initial action sequence. the montage has two sections the first section is a montage of the city that the film is set in and the second part is a party section where we follow a man trough a rave full of vampires.
we follow a single man through the a crowd that shuns him. blood then starts to pour and we discover that the rave is full of vampires.

The initial camera work is used to set the scene and create a sense of mystery, this is done by using many long shots of a large bustling city. Many drawn out long shots help to set the scene of a typical big city and draw us into its less policed areas. this starts to change when we come to a building, long swooping shots follow an man and woman through a factory with hanging animal corpse, this is very suspicious and leaves the reader with many questions. It is important to note that all the shots up to this point of the character we are following have been high angle looking down no him, to create a sense of vulnerability and he does not belong.we then take the place of the character and are beckoned through the doors into the rave.
The camera work used in the opening sections is used to make the audience curious as to who the characters are and what is happening, this is easily seen in the rave segment. the shots now change to many fast closeups and the occasional slower mid shot to show the whole crowd. the camera work makes the male we follow seem to not fit in and be at odds with the others in the crowd. shots that make him look trapped by walls of strange people create a great sense of intrigue and danger.
throughout all this the opening credits and institutional information is playing.

the lighting between the two segments help to create a sense of juxtaposition of the world of vampires and humans. In the first section it has bright happy normal lighting however when we enter the club the lighting undergoes a drastic change. the rave is dark grimy with only low levels of red light, this adds to the sense of intrigue but also to the claustrophobia and hostile atmosphere.

the sound used in this scene is mostly the club techno that fits into the rave setting and adds to the sense of an overwhelming atmosphere. however there is also an occasional threat or hiss from the crowd directed at the character we are following, this increases the sense of not belonging but also create intrigue as to who they really are.

from here it leads into the initial fight scene between blade and the vampire crowd, this is a strong way of opening a film and setting the protagonist.