How does the sound and camera work help create a sense of tension in 'A Mother's Son'?

'A Mother's Son' is an ITV drama that was first aired on Monday 3rd September 2012. It is a narrative based on a teenage girl being murdered in a quiet coastal town. A mother finds a stained pair of trainers and suspects that either her son or stepson had something to do with the death. The opening sequence lasts for one minute fifty-five seconds and has many camera angles/shots and sounds to create a sense on tension.

Primarily, the sound and camera work are used together to build a sense of vulnerability and isolation; two typical thriller conventions. The extreme long shots and establishing shots clearly convey that the female character is alone in the beach environment, despite the fact that she keeps looking behind her to see if anyone is following her. What's more her vulnerability is reinforced by the close up shot of her stumbling feet; this creates tension as the audience recognise that she is not able to walk properly and would therefore struggle to run away from someone/something. Moreover, the camera shots are used with diegetic sound to create tension as one can hear her breathing. This gives the audience the impression that she is out of breath and therefore vulnerable to a further attack if she was to collapse. So, the sound and camera work helps to create a sense of tension by making the female character seem vulnerable and isolated (away from help).

Furthermore, the hue/colour wash also helps to create a sense of tension. This is because the clip has a blue-grey hue effect on it; this makes the audience feel as though the female character has been washed out and creates a sense of danger as she looks pale. Also, this colour wash helps to emphasise the bright red blood on her white shirt later on in the sequence. Clearly, this would create a sense of tension as the audience are unsure if she will die or not; therefore anticipation is built. Not only does the colour wash represent the female character in a certain way, but the high angle camera shot also portrays her as weak and inferior. Crucially, this could suggest to the audience that whoever attacked her before is still lurking in the tall grass (which looks like a maze) as she is still being seen as the weaker character.

Significantly, from the outset the sense of tension is built using diegetic sounds. The initial sound of the waves makes the audience feel calm as the wave sounds have connotations of relaxation, holidays and fun. However, when the seagulls begin to squawk the audience's calmness is broken and they feel on edge because it sounds like the seagulls are laughing. Additionally, when this is paired with the low angle shot of the sea gulls the audience feel inferior to them - enhancing the fact that the sea gulls are laughing at them (or the female character). Conversely, non-diegetic sounds are used to create tension; there is a sombre sound of the flute playing which gives one the impression that something sad is about to happen; thus tension is built for the audience. The music then increases in tempo to indicate that anticipation and suspense is being built and the audience can feel the tension created. Again, the increase in music tempo is then mirrored in the editing and the jump cuts become faster to make the situation seem more panicked. One notices that the music then stops when the female subject falls down; this allows the audience to hear the gradually nearing footsteps and the sense of tension is at its peak. In this break in the sound scape the audience hears the female's weak and quivering voice for the first time: "I'm sorry". Essentially, this helps to create a sense of tension in a large way due to the fact that the audience are unsure what she is apologising for and if the attacker will do anything to her.

Finally, one can identify that the female character is not seen fully for a good amount of time in the opening sequence of 'A Mother's Son'. So, when the extreme close up of the eye is shown that is the first time that the audience can connect with the character. Significantly, the eyes are the most emotive part of the face so the audience were able to clearly read what she was thinking. The director has chosen to put a grey scale effect on the shot of her eye; this could be so that the audience really focus on the terror and shakiness of her eye or alternatively so that the reflection of the person is clearly visible. However, it is this new connection that the audience has with the female character that creates tension as they are left to wonder what happened to her.