The Birds

The opening sequence the thriller 'The Birds' by Alfred Hitchcock beginnings with a shot of squawking wild black crows fluttering rapidly across a white sky, this is an example of binary opposition. Silhouettes like this are used frequently in thrillers as it symbolises the evil, represented by the crows being iconic of death, contrasting with the plain white background representing pure and good. It is a very simple opening, but as are most opening sequences to thrillers. The titles appear on top of the black crows in simple font too, but the cold blue writing dissolving on and off screen reinforce the coldness of the scene and scenes to come.
Also, the non diegetic sound of birds annoying high pitched squawking sets a quite uncomfortable mood, which emphasises the genre of the film. The frantic flocking birds speed up and the pace of the non-diegetic sound does too in parallel until it fades to black. At this point it has no relevance to the plot so far, but it will stay in the audiences mind and leave them curious as to what it meant, this is iconic of the thriller genre.
Then an establishing shot of a city dissolves through the shot of the birds. The camera pans into a long shot following one woman in the centre as she crosses the road, this signifies her importance. This becomes apparent also once the narrative continues to see her in centre mid shot. The off screen music is quite soft and calming which is a juxtaposition from the previous scene with the uncomfortable squawking sounds, this reinforces the fact that it is a different scene in a different location.