The first shot that we see, shows off the location of the sequence, with an establishing shot showing off the mountains on the winding road. It is also a continuous long take, this could be used to make the audience feel uncomfortable or have a false sense of security due to the fact that is a psychological thriller set in a suburban neighborhood. We hear a low pitch non diagetic empathetic soundtrack which creates a disorientated feel to the scene. There is an original sense of enigma when we see a character lying in the middle of the road as we want to know who it is. As soon as the character sits up, we hear a piano soundtrack the music reflects that early morning beauty that we see in the background. It is soft and quite ghostly giving the effect of a character waking up. From the mise en scene, we can see the protagonist wearing pyjamas which also creates an enigma. His facial features are confused and there is a natural top light to show off his facial features. It make his character look more natural and appeals more to a female target audience, fulfilling the female gaze theory due to the main character being Jake Gyllenhaal whom is known throughout Hollywood film industries so is the key image in the scene being the most well known character in the film. The camera then pans across the landscape and the colour scheme is light blue and dark purple. The blue associations are of peace and harmony, while the purple evokes a mysterious and spiritual emotion on screen, This could have strong parallels with the protagonists emotions and ways as he could be mysterious and peaceful. We then see the natural light cast a shadow on half of his face due to the side lighting. This could show a split personality and could foreshadow future events to do with a split personality or problem.
After the title of 'Donnie Darko' comes past we hear a non diagetic soundtrack of "The killing moon" by Echo and the Bunnymen. This music is more upbeat and has more connotations of movement and activity. We get a tracking shot of the character on his bike, the fact that we get multiple shorter takes (shorter than the previous takes) could show a sense of urgency with the character or that he has to be somewhere. As he enters the town, the lyrics say "So soon you will take me." This foreshadows future events within the film where Donnie is killed. This has a direct correlation with the "Middlesex Halloween Carnival." As most of the set piece and violence occurs on halloween and multiple characters are killed then. The streets are seemingly bare and few cars are out, this could show that it is early morning and he is cycling into a suburban area showing that the character is middle class, which is what most stereotypical psychological horror characters are. Another lyric is "It must be killing time." and this lyric is synchronous to a shot with Donnie, this also foreshadows future events. We meet Donnie's family as it pans away from Donnie to his dad and sister, they seem more upbeat than Donnie and seem to have fun due to the antics with the leaf blower. The fact that the lighting on them is completely dark natural light could show that they have something to hide. Donnie's mother is sat reading Stephen King, whom writes various horror novels. The lyrics go on to say "The killing moon will come too soon." when there is a shot of his mother and his sister as they are in a plane crash towards the end of the film, foreshadowing future events yet again. Finally we see a note on the fridge saying "Where is Donnie?" which could show that he went missing, yet his family from their body movements don't seem to be too bothered that he is gone, this could show that there is a lack of care from his family.
We could try and use a synchronous soundtrack within our opening sequence to try and build suspense as it could foreshadow future events, as seen in this opening sequence. We could also add a sense of mystery through the use of different colouring and prominent colours throughout the opening. The use of tracking shots also shows a sense of uncomforting from the character so we could try and use that in our final piece to create an uneasy feeling towards a certain situation or character
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