The first thing that is put on the screen within the opening of Prestige is an eerie, fog-covered field, which has been scattered with top hats. This is hard for the viewer to see at first and makes the eyestrain adding to the mysterious allusion that is being created continuously.
There is also now sound at all in the shot once again building the anticipation of what it is we may see next and thus building enigmas that the audience are desperate to find answers for... Whose hats are those? Why is high class working men's hats so casually in a field? And most importantly, where are the heads they once sat upon?
A voice over, (non diagetic sounds) of a British man then overlays a gentle howl of wind, giving the audience simple instructions, to 'watch closely.' This immediately engages the viewer with the film.
There is then a very quick shot change, and as the audience is doing as the voice told, gives the audience a quick jolt of shock, following the typical conventions of a thriller, by adding a thrill.
This then stops and we are taking to cage full of little innocent birds that are sweetly tweeting the day away. The lighting is bright and seems very inappropriate for the genre of the film.
The bird sound is then added to with the voice over continuing to explain about how to create a magic trick. This is very skillfully done as the although magic tricks and birds all seem very innocent and child like, the mans voice seems unsettled and worried about something, therefore creating a contrapuntal sound. Once again spinning enigmas into the very deep and complex web of the thrillers story line. Which again follows the conventions.
The viewer is then taken to yet another surrounding, this scene again does not seem any thing out of the ordinary. The camera angle is a simple mid shot, head on, with what we can only imagine as the magician, in the center. However as we have already seen the hats lying on the ground it makes us very weary of every one. In addition the scene is very dark and thus has connotations of a very sinister atmosphere.
We are then told that most magic tricks are fake and are exactly what they say they are. Tricks.
The man that we first assume is just a random member of the public soon becomes a con artist and is in fact part of the production, adding to the suspicious nature that the film has given to the audience.
Whilst this is going on there are quick changes of shots from the stage trick to cute bird trick with old gentle looking man, showing both ends of the spectrum.
Once the old man has made the bird disappear, the man on the stage looks to be electrocuted and is also made to disappear creating a parallel with the other more calm environment. However unlike the bird which is somehow placed back into the hand of the old man, the performer is plunged into water, which is then locked (this s shown in a close up shot ensuring the viewer knows this is the end of his life, adding to tension.
A man is then shown simply watching the other one panic and slowly die in pain. This again makes the viewer feel uneasy as in this day in age this would be classed as inhumane.
So in the opening alone we told that there has been a large mass killing/kidnap resulting in the loss of the men’s tops hats that could have happened in the past or will happen in the further of the film. That magic is inevitably part of the story, there has been either an accidental or intended death of a man and that the old man may not be as innocent as we would have first thought as he is willing to put the secrecy of tricks before the justice of a dead man.
Along side these assumptions the audience have made there are still many more questions that they hope will be answered in the course of the film.
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