2001: A SPACE ODESSY – opening shot analysis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-QFj59PON4

The long-shot begins behind the moon, in the empty and lifeless part of space. The shot is very dark and only the top half of the moon can be seen. The camera pans upwards, Earth can now be seen, and the sun is rising above it. The shot resembles the dawn of mankind, and creates a general plot idea for the audience; the shot is not of a character or a group of people, it is of all civilisation, therefore allowing the audience to recognise that this is about humanity as a whole and not only one human being.

As the shot continues the sun rises up from the earth, the sun is important as it is the only form of light in the shot, and is a symbol of life. As an audience member, you are watching part of the cycle that happens every day. The sun rising in the shot doesn’t only represent the start of the day, but the start of mankind.

The music (composed by Richard Strauss) gives an epic and large scale sense of weight to the shot, highlighting that as an audience member, you are an outsider looking in on earth from the perspective of space. As the camera zooms closer in, the view of the moon is lost and focuses on the earth and sun. This shows the film is focused on earth and not just space as a whole.

As the title appears onscreen, the audience knows from the word ‘ODESSY’ that the film is about a journey; possibly the journey that mankind has been through. As the climax of the music reaches, the sun fully rises above the earth and becomes the main focus of the shot.