In this opening scene we can see the very well known actress Natalie Portman performing a ballet routine in soft white lighting with a very dark room. This connotes that Natalie's character is the protagonist in this film because the soft white light has connotations of something angelic or pure, so if this character is maintained within this light, it could be reflecting her personality. Also, the fact that there is nothing but black shadow around her could give the negotiated reading that everything surrounding this girls life is dark and evil (because black has connotations of danger and uncertainty e.g. the uneasy feeling that people tend to get at night time as opposed to how you feel ion the day time) and it is closing in on her.
Conventions:
Thrillers and horror films tend to focus mainly enhancing shadows and dark lighting in order to set the mood for the genre and give the audience an idea of what to expect from the film. Also, the convergence between the white light on the main character and the dark surroundings is conventional to current media products to suggest something about the plot - if the character in frame is being connoted as an angelic and 'good' character and her surroundings are bleak and dark, it will suggest that she will be the 'damsel in distress' of the 'victim' in this horror film. This would also be why her character is a female as women are stereotypically seen as weak and easily afraid, therefore easy targets for many conventional features in horror films (which is why these characters are conventionally played by women in current media films) e.g. paranormal activity, aliens, monsters, gangs etc...
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