Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller film, directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, and Mila Kunis. The plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet by a prestigious New York City company. The production requires a ballerina to play the innocent and fragile White Swan, for which the committed dancer Nina (Portman) is a perfect fit, as well as the dark and sensual Black Swan, which are qualities better embodied by the new arrival Lily (Kunis). Nina is overwhelmed by a feeling of immense pressure when she finds herself competing for the part, causing her to lose her tenuous grip on reality and descend into a living nightmare.
The scene starts with a tracking shot of a black crayon which could be symbolic of the genre, thriller as black connotes darkness and danger. Furthermore the black crayon could also allude to the narrative as the protagonist, Nina leaves reality and enters into what is described as a living nightmare (darkness and the unknown). As the crayon is made to travel freely on paper enigma is created for the audience as they wonder whose hand is drawing. Titles appear on screen as the music evokes a melancholy and strange emotion from them. The titles appear accordingly and are all the same typeface and colour. As the crayon moves faster (pace becomes faster) the music intensifies a little and effects are used to demonstrate as the crayon passes over the titles they disappear or rub out. Noticeably, as the Natalie Portman the protagonist's title appears the music reaches a climax and the crayon depicts a double line on the paper establishing to the audience that the character is significant. At 2:03 a montage of crayons crossing out and lines are presented and then at 2:17 a clear cut to the "BLACK SWAN" is illustrated along with the dramatic change of the music, sound of glass smashing communicating the genre (thriller and some elements of mystery). There is a lot of missing parts for the audience creating enigma as the film opening is not really conventional excluding on establishing the character, narrative, setting and time.
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