This is how to start a film. The first shot (Fig. 1) establishes a peaceful backyard: swing set, playhouse, brick BBQ, and a bench with two chairs. Children live here, and the chairs were likely added when the family grew. The garden borders with a cornfield, so we know this is a farm, and probably an isolated property. A safe place to raise a family. The image is still.
Fig. 1
But then the shot pulls back through glass (Fig. 1.1), briefly distorting the image and disturbing its presumed safety. A porch comes into view, then a window ledge, and Shyamalan finally rests the camera inside the house, gazing out as one might on a calm Sunday morning (Fig. 1.2). A frame inside a frame, like a photograph. Safety is restored.
Fig. 1.1
Fig. 1.2
A cut, to the bedside, and an actual photograph (Fig. 2). The family depicted look happy: a mother, father, and two children. The father is a priest. Safety and unity. Shyamalan holds the image for a beat, long enough for us to register the faces and the contours of the picture frame; its edges are crosses.
Fig. 2
Suddenly this shot is disturbed too, as the man shoots up in bed and his panicked face seizes the whole right side of the frame (Fig. 2.1).
Fig. 2.1
Shyamalan cuts again, to a wide shot of the bed (Fig. 3), revealing that the man is alone. The life he has woken up to is not the same as the life in his photograph. Another disturbance.
Fig. 3
We have learnt everything about how to watch the film from its first three shots. Perception is not reality. Not all realities can be perceived by sight. Trust nothing and question everything. The name of the film is Signs.
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