City Of God's opening deconstruction

The opening begins with a clip of city, fading to company logo 'Miramax'. Then fades through onto several companies, relating to the film, and sponsors.

Knife sharpening, then cuts to black screen, cuts back to knife, this is repeated several times, creating enigma and a sense of mystery. Cuts are used most of the time through this clip, to show the different characters, and events going on. Keeps cutting back to the sharpening of the knife, showing it has a significance to the clip, as it later shows the chickens, linking to their food, and them being killed with the knife.

Cuts between the knife and the chicken, to slowly show its sign of panic as it begins to become uncomfortable and attempt to escape from captivity. A contrast is used here, as the chicken is panicking, yet the people around it are cheerful, dancing to the music and playing with the instruments.

A close up of a man shows his importance, not for what reason, but shows he is an important figure within the film, a sense of enigma being created. He has a sense of order, as he lifts his arm out and points towards the chicken, the people then follow where he pointed to chase the chicken. When he then pulls out a gun, we begin to realise that he will be a bad guy.

Two characters are introduced as they stroll down some stairs, the camera pans across as they walk down, this also creates a sense of enigma as we don't yet know what importance they have.