Sin City

The opening sequence to 2005's 'Sin City' by Robert Rodriguez connotes that it is a Thriller by the use of low-key lighting, and a slow pace at the beginning. This film does not have an opening sequence like most other thrillers do. It starts with an establishing shot of the city skyline, where one woman is smoking on the roof of a tall building on a cold windy night, this is iconic of this genre of film, the screen is in black and white apart from the woman’s red dress and red lipstick, the colour red symbolises lust and passion but in the meantime could also represent danger. These simple indexical sign's reinforce that it is a thriller; because right away the audience is wondering why the director has chosen to this and what will be happening soon. A woman smoking in thriller films is often seen as quite sexy, but can denote a powerful dangerous woman, this reinforced the colour red representing lust, yet also danger. On the other hand, the way in which the colour of her dress symbolises power, contrasts with the backless design signifying vulnerability
A man appears in ELS and gradually walks though centre into a mid shot, the man and woman are level on screen this denotes that the genders are equal in the shot.
Throughout the scene the pace is slow and steady and there are various long-held straight cut's and jump cut's of the two characters, CU's, ECU's and zoom's of the cigarette and of the kiss and their faces, this makes the audience not only see the continuity but also to connect and interact with the characters.
The director also decided that he would occasionally cut to a shot of a comic book, in silhouette which reinforces the genre as silhouettes are used alot in thrillers. This also establishes that this is a fictional comic book story.
Alot of the scene is established through sound, non-diegetic jazz music sets the passionate, romantic scene, the ambient sounds of the city night reinforces the location, along side the sounds of rain and wind. Also the voice over helps explain the narrative, and makes the personas inner thoughts known.
The man in the suit with a gun is iconic of the classic hit man look in typical action thrillers, e.g. James Bond. Once he shots her, she falls off centre and lower than him in the shot, signifying that she is now a weaker character. The opening extract finishes with a close up of him half in the light symbolises the mystery of his character, highlighting the genre of thriller.