Vampire Diaries Season 1: Ep 1 "Pilot"
Symbolism:
In this scene in the episode, Elena is at the cemetery visiting her late parents after school (scene too long to be uploaded). She is seen with her diary next to her, meaning she was entering a log of that day. White fog creeps into the shot, creating an eerie mood. After she looks up it cuts away to her vision of a black crow on top of a tombstone, cawing. She then hastily jumps up and shouts "Shoo!", as she flails her arm at the crow. It then cuts to a side close up of her saying "That's what I thought" in a shaky voice, then her turning around to the crow squawking at her, again. Fog is still present, dispersing notably slow. Even before she arrived at the cemetery, the crow was shown to be creeping around her perimeters. This crow symbolizes some threat or menace, as Bonnie stated later in the episode. Each time the black crow appeared, ominous music rendered the menace, including the fog creeping in.
Leit Motif:
This scene starts out with Stefan's forehead wrinkling and his mouth open in a scowl. Based on his face, he is experiencing some type of danger or dilemma. It cuts to Stefan turning his head away from Elena, blurred in the background. His eyes distort into a foggy, crimson red and inky veins convulse under his eyes. His voice begins to tremble and palpitate as he struggles to tell Elena to leave. Due to her injury, her blood has awakened this dilemma in Stefan. Elena is then seen rolling down her jeans, only to meet silence. Throughout this scene, an odd ringing tune is playing in the background, the tempo constantly increasing and decreasing. A shriek-like tune is heard and as the scene continues, it builds up creating a sense of eeriness. This contributes to the queasy situation and Stefan's blood control.
Contrast:
This scene begins with Vicki looking for Jeremy with an uneasy face. The lighting is dim and overcast, strictly unveiling her facial features. The white fog from earlier is seen clouding behind her, motioning that something or someone is behind her. Throughout this scene, similar eerie music is being played. She is last seen frantically looking around, her eyes darting in every direction. She turns around and screams and she is simultaneously attacked by some creature. After a fade to black, another scene opens up to a bright, packed bonfire area with a shot of Elena's activities. Compared to Vicki's scene, party music is blasting. This shows contrast in not only the choice of music but the different usage of the color tone and brightness.
Simultaneity:
This scene opens up to a close up of Bonnie, seeming to have a serious conversation with Elena. In an urgent tone, she says to Elena "That it's just the beginning". It then cuts to a close up of Elena, with a rattled expression. From what has happened earlier in the episode, with the crows and fog, it seems those two connect. Right before a switch in scenes, a sound bridge of Damon is heard saying "She took my breath away". The scene then switches to Damon talking to Stefan, having a very stiff conversation. Damon then clears up he is talking about Elena, comparing her to someone named Katherine, assuming someone impactful in the brothers' lives. This shows that as the girls are talking about some "beginning", and that "beginning" ends up to be the sustained conflict between the brothers, as they are talking at the same time.
Parallelism:
This part of the episode shows Elena sitting against her window, writing in her opened journal from earlier in the episode. It then switches to Stefan's journal, showing Katherine. He then abruptly closes the journal, getting off of his bed. Stefan's voice-over occurs in this part saying "I had a plan. I wanted to change who I was; Create a life as someone new, someone without the past." It then switches to Elena's voiceover saying "Someone without the pain." Then it has both of them saying "Someone alive". simultaneously. This is parallelism because it shows both of them viewing their journals back to back.
No comments:
Post a Comment