I think the beginning of Blue Velvet is very effective openning,
it's setting is in a stereotypical America suburbia. This reflects to the audience a certain type of lifestyle, such as white picket fences and neat, tidy lawns. Blue Velvet uses motifs, in the opening shot it uses white picket fence and beautiful roses which symbolises romance, passion and blossoming families. There is a long shot of the street, to show every day daily life. It almost seems fake and surreal the way everyone appears content such as the waving fireman on the fire engine. The music reflects the
atmosphere of the neighbourhood, it is a 50s style song and in the lyrics it uses the phrase ‘blue velvet’ to reflect the title of the film. It has an upbeat tempo which enhances the surreal atmosphere. There is a shot of a man hosing his garden which then cut to a lady watching television. On the screen there is an image of a gun. The gun connote something bad is going to occur as the audience recognise the gun as a symbol of death. Typically of a thriller the peaceful setting is disrupted by a distressing turns of events. The man hosing his garden gets his hose stuck on a bush and then he has some sort of attack and dies. The hose getting trapped represents his veins or arteries becoming tight or blocked to cause his death. Using music is an important convention of the Thriller genre as it is used to increase tense and suspense. The upbeat tempo and the style of music create a tense and surreal atmosphere. The ending shot was a zoom from a long shot of the man lying on the grass to an extreme close of worms and bugs under the surface of the grass. This is very effective as it keeps the viewer engaged. It makes them curious as to what is happen as it is disturbing and makes the audience uneasy. From the opening conventions the viewer realsies this is not a mainstream production but more of an independent film.