A Mothers Son Analysis

A Mothers Son was shown on ITV as a 2 part drama thriller.

Summary:
It's about a mother who finds a pair of bloody shoes that belong to her son. She tries to figure out if her son had anything to do with the murder of school girl Lorraine who was stabbed and found dead in the moors. In the end the son confesses to killing her because she wouldn't have sex with her. 

Analysis:

In the opening sequence we are greeted with a dark isolated atmosphere. The location is set on a beach at night, the waves crash against the rocks which symbolises death and danger. We can hear seagulls screeching which sounds a bit like screaming. The camera is put in a high angle shot showing she's lost, alone and helpless. This adds tension and builds up as she runs, and stumbling which shows her to be weak and helpless. The colours in the shot are all bland dark colours: blues, black, grey. 

50 seconds into it we get a close up of why the girl is running and why she is stumbling. The stumbling is adding suspense to the climax to come. The blood in the image is brighter and stands out against the other colours. It emphasises her injury and makes her stand out which means she is significant to the rest of the plot line. You can hear her trying to breath. The shot cut faster as the music builds up and gets faster. 

When the girl falls we get a Point of View shot (POV). We can see it from her eyes and the way she is running. How badly injured she is. It lets us relate to the character and we can see how vulnerable she is. She's running away from something or someone. You can hear her footsteps against the stones and the wind is causing the grass to rustle which is giving it that dark, eerie tense atmosphere.  

She falls over for the final time and we focus on her eyes. You can hear heavy footsteps coming towards her. Her eyes darting because she's scared and panicking, this gives us a hint that who's following her is the person that stabbed her. We can see the reflection in her eye of a person but can't make it out. The colours once again are dark and eerie. The extreme close up emphasises how frightened she is and the panic in her eyes tells the audience how she is feeling. (Anticipation)   

We cut to a crane close up shot over the girl. She is portrayed as even more of a victim. Her eyes are looking up at her murderer. She says "I'm Sorry", suggesting that she knows the person who stabbed her. The grass in the moor is out of focus showing she is hidden in the grass, that she will not be found. She's alone and helpless once again. The colours used are consistent through out. 

It cuts to black before back to the scenery which reminds us where this took place. The camera tills up from the moors and to the dark night sky (Same colours used). The music simmers down from the build up as the climax of the tension has been reached. The titles are introduced and the location has calmed. Pathetic fallacy was used through the build up (the wind). Within two minutes of the introduction, the scene has been set and been introduced to important characters.