Max Payne Opening

Max Payne Opening

The opening motif starts with 20th Century Fox and then we see visual darkness but we hear a voice over of deep tone, this is a soundbridge. The next scene is visual aswell as containing voice over, the diegetic sound of heavy breathing and gasping for air aswell as underwater sound, this being bubbles and the swaying sounds of the deep sea; as we get a good vision from beneath the water. It tones down as background noise while the voice over continues at the same pitch. Furthermore it continues to a quick scene change to a dark shadowed door and we hear a baby crying in distress, the visual dullness makes the sound parallel, the darkness and music confirms that the crying is bad.

In the same scene we hear a clock ticking with a repetitive beat, this builds tension and makes the audience feel on edge, highlighting the theme of time. Again the scene quickly changes to the first visual scene of Max Payne's in the underwater, with bubbles. Overlapping the scene is non-diegetic voice over. The opening changes again from panic in the sea to a relatively quiet house environment as Max Payne opens a squeeky door, this sound is commonly used in horrors to make the viewers apprehensive of what is about to occur.

Furthermore, we then hear the clock ticking again in a dark room where a woman is lying silently, the sound is repetitive and daunting outlining the negative image. It then moves on to an outside scene with Max Payne in a close up, the background is dark and silent. We continue to hear the sound bridge of the clock ticking as we see a slow image change. The image scene is of baby toys around the child's room, with a soft high pitch tapping noise from the slow clashing of the toys. Again the scene goes back to the underwater, however the sound this time is a lot more peaceful like Max when he is slowly sinking, this is an example of parallel sound. During the there is still a voice-over. Next the soundbridge from the opening is repeated with voiceover with exact tone. The last few seconds are a lot more understandable and the story practically begins as the busy street sounds of diegetic police sirens wail.