The film opens with a high angle, wide shot of the city, making it appear very large and powerful. The dark shots are juxtaposed with the contrapuntal audio, an electronic, almost cheerful song as well as the hot pink font of the actors names plastered across the bleak cityscapes. We then see an over the shoulder shot with a very shallow depth of field of Ryan Gosling driving through the city. The shot appears to be naturally back lit, creating a silhouette effect, hiding most of his face. We then see a close up of his face, building the emotional connection between him and the audience.
There is then a synchronous shot change to another high angle of the many overlapping roads in the spaghetti junction, making the city seem like a maze where you could easily get trapped. We then follow Gosling into a car park with a strong blue tint, matching the outside shots. The shot then changes to an over the shoulder shot where a women walks out of the lift into the key light of the shot, hinting that she will become important later in the film. Then there is a close up on the lift door closing, reinforcing the idea the man feels trapped here. This shot is brightly lit from both sides creating a vibrant orange, the other colour seen throughout the opening, directly contrasting the blue.
As Gosling enters the hotel room we can see immediately distinct contrast between the warm orange light outside to the darkness inside, showing how isolated he is from the rest of society. There is no lighting coming from inside his room, the only light is provided through the windows and door. There is then a series of mid shots most of which are backlit, shadowing the man from the audience.
The opening then ends with the another set of wide cityscapes, after one final shot of the man from a low angle placing a bag in the room. The camera pans down showing the bag before it too, like the rest of the room, is hidden in darkness as the light is flicked to off.
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