The opening sequence starts off on a serious note, with it being dark and in a dense wooded area. There is a voiceover of one of the main characters- Flynn Rider or Eugene- speaking gravely about how this is the story of how he died. He instantly lightens his tone after that, and directs the audience's attention to the sun, a key part of this movie. It's a warm and bright factor in his tale.
He tells the story with a friendly tone, pointing out another key character- Mother Gothel. Whenever this character appears, she is seen in the darkness with shadows playing over her face. Stormy weather or the night sky is often displayed when this character is on screen- a form of pathetic fallacy. We know instantly that she is the 'bad guy' of this film and they use her manipulative characteristics to build suspense in the movie. She was said to have kept the flower a secret- a selfish act symbolic of her greed- but she slipped up and accidently revealed the flower to those that genuinely needed it.
The flower, the one linked to a drop of the sun featured in Eugene's tale, was used for good, its magic powers healing the pregnant queen and gifting her daughter, Rapunzel. The baby is shown in warm and bright lighting with wide, innocent eyes and blonde hair that fell about her childish features. Her looks remind us of who she is and the lighting played over her shows us that she is the protagonist. There are two key things in highlighting that she is the princess- the first one is her father placing a beautiful tiara on her head that doesn't fit and slips slightly over her face, to which she laughs at. The second thing is that, 'each year, on her birthday', the royals release thousands of floating lanterns into the sky in hope of her return.
Gothel kidnapped the child after finding out about the powers she inherited from the magic flower and the last we see of her is a billow of a dark cloak into as she vanishes with the child. She raises Rapunzel as her own, another sign of her deceitfulness and we see her sitting with the child a few years down the line, brushing Rapunzel's hair as Rapunzel sings the song required to activate her healing powers. They sit by a fire, Rapunzel in the homely light while her 'mother' sits further back, in the shadows and using Rapunzel's gift for her own selfish requirements. She does not allow Rapunzel to go outside, we discover following a question by the curious child. Gothel is further contented to see herself younger and this is displayed with the use of match-on-action, cutting from a side-shot of Rapunzel to a close-up of Gothel's hand as it loses the signs of aging. The side shot of Rapunzel could be to hide her identity, as Gothel had done for years by this point and will continue to do so for years to come.
We do see Rapunzel's face towards the end of the opening scene. She creeps down the stairs while her 'mother' sleeps- we see Gothel lying in her bed through a door past Rapunzel. We know that if Rapunzel's hair was to be cut, it would lose it's power, and this point is emphasised by how long her hair is as she sneaks downstairs to a window where she gets a perfect view of a sky full of floating lanterns. She does not know they are for her, but feels as if they are special and you can tell this by the wonder on her face as the scene ends on a close-up of her expression.
I could use similar lighting techinques within my own production. The heroes in my short film could be established in a warm, bright light- maybe sunlight through the window, depending on the weather. This will show them to be the heroes that they are and to further that point, I could use a low angle shot to highlight their super hero quality.
For my own villian, I could have a darker light about her, such as shadows across her face. This would be ideal alongside a high angle shot- looking down on her- to signify that, although she is screaming for help, there is something about her that is not quite right.
Mother Gothel seen as old, angry and hooded dark figure |
| Baby Rapunzel with tiara |
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