Camera
The opening scene begins with a medium shot looking at the back of Tupac and it slowly zooms in at the back of his head and upper body. The lighting in the scene is quite low apart from a beam of light shining down on Tupac. This could suggest that Tupac Shakur was looked at by his fans and other people as a god of rap and therefore this religious symbolism reinforces this idea. Although, Shakur wasn't religious, he still believed in God and a lot of people looked up to 2Pac as a god. After this scene, the opener finishes and through the sound of a gun shot it transitioned to the film titles: 'All Eyez On Me' .
The next significant in the film opener is a tracking shot of Tupac being escorted by a prison guard for an interview with someone who appears to be a journalist or news reporter. This shot is quite significant because it then leads onto the news reporter talking to Tupac about how he wants to be remembered if he dies. It also significant because both the news reporter and Tupac feel like they are 'brothers' or equals due to feeling like society singles them out in a negative fashion.
The third significant shot is of an over-the-shoulder shot of Tupac sitting for an interview at the prison with a journalist/news reporter talking to the camera. This is significant because it shows that Tupac and the news reporter are equal as they are sat facing each other while the camera is filming them. It also shows that 2Pac wants to do the interview even though it may look like he is being forced to do by the prison.
Editing
The opening scene of All Eyez On Me uses a lot of editing techniques to create different effects. Despite most of the editing techniques being quite simple, they are still quite effective and create an impression on the audience.
The first significant editing technique is when the first camera shot of Tupac standing in front of the audience transitions in to the titles of the film. This is effective because the screen goes completely dark after the first part of the scene, which was also dark in lighting apart from a beam of light and Tupac. It then transitions to the titles which are the words "All Eyez On Me" and red cross behind those titles. This continiues the religious symbolism from the opening shot and continues to suggest that Tupac was quite a spiritual person that did believe in a God but not religion.
The second piece of effective editing is when tracking shots of a prison bus cut to a quick collection of shots of a prison. This editing is effective because it shows that the bus is going to that prison. It also suggests that Tupac is on the prison bus because one of his songs is playing in the background which is reflecting his childhood. This is common as most people reflect on their lives when they go to prison.
|The third and final piece of effective editing in this opening scene is quick transitions between shots of the prison and medium and close up shots of a journalist looking outside the window to see if he's entering the building yet. This is effective because it shows that journalist cares enough about Tupac to be looking out for him from a window because he is his interviewee. These transitions stop before a section of the scene when Tupac finally walks in to the room while being escorted by a prison guard.
Sound
In this opening scene, sound is used effectively in a number of ways. In this section, it will be seen how effectively sound is used and how it creates a lasting impact on the audience.
The first effective use of sound is during the production titles when the non-diegetic sound of a man repeating to the crowd that "We will not give up the fight". Furthermore, this non-diegetic sound of a man also talked about how African-Americans are treated and how on behalf of white political prisoners they won't give up the fight. This introduces the themes of the film really well and it also gives us some background information and knowledge to keep in mind while watching the film. This is probably the most powerful use of sound in this entire opening scene from All Eyez On Me.
Another effective use of sound is the non-diegetic sound of one of Tupac's songs playing while he is on a bus on the way to a prison. This use of sound is effective because it is reflecting on his childhood when he went to elementary school. It is effective because it shows that he is reflecting on his life before going to prison.
The third effective piece of sound is the diegetic sound of the journalist talking to Tupac about how he wanted to do the interviews but he wanted people to know the true full story about his life and didn't want to hide anything from people. This shows that according to the film, Tupac was quite open about what he wanted the general public to know. It's an effective use of sound because it tells us more about the personality and mindset of Tupac.
Mise-en-scene
In this opening scene from All Eyez On Me, mise-en-scene is used effectively used a number of times throughout. It also helps to create a lasting impact on the audience throughout the film and this opening scene.
The first effective use of mise-en-scene is when Tupac is being escorted through the prison with the rest of the prisoners. This is effective because it shows all the prisoners as equal dressed in orange jumpsuits and fenced off with barbed wire fences. However, Tupac gets a special privilege to be interviewed by a journalist which other prisoners wouldn't get. This shows how much of an important figure Tupac is.
The second and final effective use of mise-en-scene is when Tupac is being interviewed in a solitary room by a journalist in front of a camera. This is effective because Tupac is the only inmate wearing a green jumpsuit, signifying that he is special and more important than the rest of the prison population. The seats being placed opposite each other suggests that the journalist and Tupac are equals as they would be facing each other. Therefore, it also shows that they have to be transparent with each other as there is no way they can cower away from each other.
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