The Silence of the Lambs Opening Sequence Analysis

Enigma Codes: Questions that are posed by a film, intended to capture the audience’s interest and attention.
Action Codes: Often answers to the questions posed by the enigma codes. The audience learn something new.
Character: What somebody is like.
Characterisation: How the audience know about the character.

In this opening sequence we are introduced to the protagonist Clarice Starling. The film begins with Clarice running in a forest, and the audience begin feeling as if she is running away from something. This creates an enigma code as the audience want to know who she is running from.
There is then a tracking shot that looks like the point of view of someone who may be chasing her, which creates tension as the audience may think she is in danger. We then find out that she is not running from anyone but in fact training for something, and this is shown by the use of a visual action code of the rope apparatus.
Another enigma code is then created because we want to know what this character is like. The audience can tell that her character is hard-working, because she is shown with a sweat collar which means that she obviously has been training hard. We also know that she is doing extra training because no-one else is around her.
A man then calls ‘Starling! Starling!’ so the audience know that her surname is Starling, by the use of dialogue. He then turns around and he is wearing an FBI hat, and this answers the enigma code of what she is training for. This shows that her character is strong as she is working for the FBI.
We then find out that her name is Clarice as people say her name as they say hello and one person gives her a high-five and says her name, which tells the audience her full name so we get to know her character a little better.
Then we get a shot of her standing in a lift surrounded by men in red. The men are dressed in red to make Clarice stand out from them all, showing that she has been training by making her sweat collar more noticeable and because she is the only women shown out of them all, it shows that she is at the same league as them and is a counter typical.
A distinct but small enigma code is then used as she is seen looking at something on the wall. The audience want to know what she is looking at and an eye-line match is then used and shows what she is looking at, which is lots of newspaper cuttings of somebody called ‘Buffalo Bill’ and showing that he is a serial killer. This then creates another enigma code as we want to know who this character is. Her reaction to these images shows that she is smart and curious, and her body language shows that she is cautious.
We are then introduced to Crawford, who says “Starling, Clarice…I heard you’re the top quarter of your class.” This shows that she is good at her job, as she is the ‘top 5%’ chosen to be selected for the mission she about to be set on. This dialogue was only used to tell the audience more about her character because she knows herself that she is this good, so Crawford only says this for the audience. As Crawford speaks to Clarice we learn her ambitions, as he says she wants to work for him in behavioural science. This means we know more about her character and what she aims to be. He asks “you spook easily Starling?” and she replies with “Not yet, sir”. This shows that she is brave as she does not get scared easily.
The name ‘Hannibal’ comes up in the conversation, which will be the subject for her mission, therefore because we haven’t seen him it creates an enigma code as we want to know who is is and what he looks like.  

From writing this analysis of the opening sequence, I learnt more about character and characterisation and how enigma codes work and the action codes that follow. In this opening I found out that visual codes can give more information about a character or situation than any dialogue that was used, which can help me when it comes to making my own opening and how this can make it more effective.