Once Upon a Time in the West - Opening...

Once Upon a Time in the West is a western film which is a sub genre of Thriller. Genres allow films to be categorised they are helpful to the film industry and audiences. Audiences use genre to help make a guess of what they will and won't like. So if someone in an audience liked westerns then they may chose a film of that genre. A sub genre is a genre within a genre.

The film starts with sound of strong wind which builds the tension already as you normally get strong winds in desolate empty places. Then you hear the sound of the door creaking open very slowly which creates anticipation as you want to know what or who is going to come through the door. At the beginning of the film it has a lot of digetic sounds which is sound that is natural to the film for example there is bird that you can here in the background and the door creaking open. Non-digetic sound is the sound that isn't natural for example music that is just being played and is not actually in the film and has just been added.
The next thing you see is an old man, who looks like the station ticket collector, writing on a chalk board and you hear the sound of the chalk squeaking on the board this sound isn't i nice sound and makes you cringe, this may be warning us by telling us something bad is going to happen to him. The camera then goes back onto the door and you hear the loud footstep of the cowboy walking in the camera stays on his feet and then slowly pans up so you see the whole of the cowboy and what he looks like. This shot makes the cowboy seem powerful and the way he entered the station and the sound of his footsteps also make him seem powerful. The camera is then zoomed out and you see other cowboys around the station this shows that the old man is surrounded and there is no where to go.
Throughout the opening there isn't much talking all that is used is digetic sounds to help build the tension and makes you wonder why are the cowboys there. The camera angles and different shot help the opening by having quick share transitions to show where most of the different sounds are coming from.