Preparation: Reason For Selection: Describe the opening

 The scene begins with an Organ instrumental. This dramatic music is reminiscent of music that one would hear at a funeral. The strength of the instrument and the loud volume enforce the idea of a sad or haunting past experience; for example Sweeney Todd getting imprisoned for life on a false charge. This sets the quirky and serious tone and the viewer is plunged right into the gloom of industrial 19th Century London; with a sweeping view of dark,ominous-looking skies thick with dripping rain and the backdrop of silhouetted chimneys and billowing dark smoke.

To the right: Storyboard outline plan and pictures of the opening sequence!

 This dark, swirling smoke links to the smoke that comes out of the bakehouse and is complained about as being "an awful stench" and an unbearable smell at night, later in the film. At night Mrs Lovett bakes the remains of the victims into pies, hence rotting flesh is the reason of the bad smell. There is a connection between the dirt of the chimney and smoke remains to the idea that the people who inhabit London live in a filthy lifestyle. Sweeney Todd has a strong view on this, as is shown in the lines "There's a hole in the world like a great black pit, and the vermin of the world inhabit it, and its morals aren't worth what a pig could spit and it goes by the name of London." I will talk about this later on, in the technique analysis.
 
Even from the very beginning of the opening sequence the viewer is exposed to violent and inauspicious imagery. The camera zooms up close and angles over the window to the attic of Mrs Lovett's pie shop.This is where Sweeney has his barber shop, and all of the murders take place. There is a flash of lightening and bolt of thunder as we see the iconic barber chair, that was once Mrs Lovett's " poor Albert's" chair lit by the illumination. A blood splatter lands on the pane and slides down, beginning the appearance of the symbolic substance. It sits in isolation; decrepit and forgotten; almost as Sweeney has been.The camera zooms into the room, to the far wall where two portraits hang.The silhouetted shapes are of two different women; one Mr Todd's wife, and the other, Mrs Lovett. A rusty looking substance trails down over the face of the first portrait, and then the second, marring the Victorian frame and image.

Below: the carved lion on the arm rest; you can see the blood running over the face and a small bit of the armrest above the lion's head.

We are then introduced to a thick,sticky-looking, plastic-like blood. It slides down the barber chair and over the arm rests. It slinks over the stone lion carving on the end of the arm rest, looking as though it were a tear that the lion were shedding. The blood continues moving until it drops onto the large cogs of Sweeney's modified chair, which could also be a cog on Mrs Lovett's mincing machine. It appears to be made of a thick, old-fashioned stone.The weight of the blood forces the creaky, heavy cog to move, where the blood starts to run down the cog and hit the floor. The floorboard falls away ( or Mr Todd's inventive trapdoor) and the blood falls down to become the title "Sweeney Todd" in a bright, artificial red. The idea of following the blood over the chair and down the trapdoor gives the viewer a sense of being one of Sweeney's victims falling to their demise/ to the bakehouse. It also allows the viewer to gain insight into what the plot line is roughly about.

 To the left: Part of the title of the film  " Sweeney Todd" in vivid blood red, stark contrast to the rest of the text which is in white. Stands out on the dark, repressive blue/black background. (which is where the bodies were discarded of and fell to the bakehouse below. The text moves down as though it were a body in the clip.)

This transitions to the meat of " unknown origin" being pushed out of the mincer/grinder in worm-like strands. The music at this point becomes more urgent and the movements of the blood increase in speed. As the meat strands get pushed down they fade into droplets of blood. There is then a thick swirling pattern of blood that begins to bubble around, before yellow and orange blazing flames, which contrast with the dark night sky; lick up from the bottom of the frame, cooking the pie mixture. This links once again to Mrs Lovett, her business, baking and bake oven, where the prepared pies are cooking.

The artificial, gooey blood boils on the tray, once again showing the link between the baking and the use of human flesh in the pies. The camera moves out of the oven, the door automatically closing as the camera moves to the left, where we see gutter grates and the sewer passage. The blood then makes its way down the gutter and into the grate, where rats alongside the blood connect to the thought of the people of London being "vermin". As the blood mixes with the sewerage and water the magnitude of Mr Todd and Mrs Lovett's actions becomes clear; the whole of London is affected. The blood fades out of the water, which flows out of the tunnel and into the sea. This transitions into foggy grey mist, out of which comes Anthony and Mr Todd's ship mast.