Scene One: An establishing master shot is used to set the scene inside the opera house with an old fashioned styled font setting the date of when the action within this scene occurred - this automatically conveys the wealth and status of the people who will be in the next shot due to the time period in which this opera house was attended. Cuts to close ups are then shown of the orchestra, before switching to medium shots. An extreme close up then occurs to show the way in which a cello is played to convey the talent the orchestra have and heighten the belief of the upper class society being present. A cut to a low angle shot of the conductor is done to portray his dominance over the orchestra, and his control to lead the piece - if he conducts wrong, everything falls to pieces - he has a lot of responsibility to uphold. The mixture of seemingly irrelevant shots occur before a crane into the audience happens, to end on a close up of a blinking male - an eye line match occurs in a shot reverse shot to show the audience what the protagonist is directly looking at, before returning to the close up. These shots make the audience question why the flute player is being watched by the protagonist; therefore suggesting the flute player has the most unfortunate luck of being prey to the watching predator, as the protagonists actions reflect that of a wild, animal who it watching it's prey, ready to strike. This is quite a paradox as wealthy, upper class males, such as the protagonist - implied by his suit and hobbies like attending events at opera houses - are not usually associated as immoral, 'bad guys' within society.
Scene Two: A cut is used to an establishing master shot of the protagonists abode. Hannibal - the protagonist - has an upper class, white, American home with pillars and expensive cars outside, emphasizing his wealth further. A sound bridge occurs before a cut into the dinning room which shows where the persona's are speaking from, this is done to automatically add to the scene at hand, and help the audience connect with the words before they see where/why they are being said. The dinning room conveys further Hannibal's wealth due to the props on the set such as the red wine, the candelabra lit dinner for his guests, and the cultured Victorian wall decor - the red wine shares the same connotations as the red writing, and the candle lit dinner conveys his place in social hierarchy. He makes his way around the myriad of guest sitting at his dinning table, with a low angled camera, as if he is herding them like a shepherd, and they are his sheep - therefore showing his dominance and control over the guests. One of the guests even quotes: 'speaking for the rest of the herd' which conveys his control over them all. Throughout the dinner sequence dialect is used which would not be recognized within today's society such as: 'cribbing the lines' - this conveys the time era, and also the sociolect of the persona's. One of the subjects at the dinner table converses about the missing opera house member, as if it is a laughing matter, and not as serious as a missing person really is - this shows their haughty nature and ignorance, fully supporting the pompous, upper class image they convey. It is implied that the guests are eating the missing person, as an upper class lady asks Hannibal to confess before swaying the conversation onto the food where he replies that if the guests knew what was on their plate, they would not eat it. He smiles quite a sickening smile when, through an over the shoulder shot, he views the guest eat their 'divine looking' prepared meals.
Scene Three: Once the dinner date had commenced, a knock is heard from outside the front door - Special Agent Graham is greeted by Hannibal with an over the shoulder shot - it is ironic that Hannibal already knows Graham, and suggests they have had previous meetings in the past but why? Hannibal invites Graham inside before they share a series of over the shoulder shot reverse shots in a close up framing whilst Graham confides in Hannibal about his discoveries into the murder cases. A subjective point of view is used to show the contents of Hannibal's shelves from Grahams eye line - soft flowing, incidental sound playing in the back ground behind this to create tension; the items on the shelves suggest his intelligence, and his religious views due to the elephant statue he has on show therefore implies his facade. The pace and pitch heightens when the book is picked up where the shot cuts from a POV to a medium side shot, a POV is used to show the contents of the book - zooms in are used on the book to emphasize the contents, with cutaways of Graham in close ups to show his focus and his piecing together. The final cutaway shows he's figured out the real murderer from a shift in his eye focus - this is where the music is the loudest before Graham turns around into a medium shot of Hannibal stabbing him. An cutaway to show Graham's reaction is used to emphasis his pain, and the immoral act in which Hannibal performed, thus emphasizing Hannibal's criminality. Shot reverse shots are used between Hannibal in a close up of his face, and medium shots of Graham being held into place by Hannibal where Hannibal's face is not seen. Hannibal speaks quite sadistically to Graham explaining what will happen to him, showing his sickened mind. He lowers Graham down, before Graham stabs him as his last attempt at helping himself survive - a high angle shot over Hannibal shows his vulnerability here as he stumbles backwards. Vertical downward tracking is used to show the wound before reversing backwards to Hannibal's face as he starts to stumble forwards to yet again attack Graham. Shot reverse shots are present here, between different frames such as close ups of Hannibal, yet full body shots of Graham. As Hannibal falls onto the desk, a downwards vertical track is used to to show Hannibal's seemingly dead body. Yet, is he really dead, the audience asks themselves?Scene Four: We cut away to a black screen before the actors names appear upon the screen in the same style as used on the previous title screen - red forename, white for their surname. A fade into a scrap book is used, as the names continue appearing and disappearing. The scrapbook contains articles about Hannibal's injuries, and Grahams - these are emphasized by extreme close up vertical tracking of their faces, zooms in, forward tracking, zooms out, pans, and horizontal tracking. The scrap book reveals the time period change since the incident with Graham and Hannibal as it reveals information about Hannibal being found guilty, and being jailed in his iconic orange jumpsuit signifying him paying justice for his actions. Indecent images of adults and children are also viewed showing the scrapbook owners's perverseness due to the exploitation of people: especially the children. Other interesting images which appear are found in the book of revelations, and are quite religious figures, representing his remorse, maybe, or the paradox between the two personas from the opening scene- religion representing the detectives morals, and Hannibal represents the lacking of them. It could also signify that death is not his punishment, that he will continue living his life with the haunting memories of his actions, his torture and punishment, rather than him dying and not having to live with the consequences. The scrapbook could also foreshadow the latter of the movie - that some immoral subject idolizes Hannibal and therefore keeps note of all of his actions.Indecent images of children appear making us question the motives and the thoughts of this retrobate.This results in the audience being intrigued to continue watching to find out which one of these theories, if any, is the correct one.
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