Punch Drunk Love

In the movie "Punch Drunk Love" the opening scene uses wide shot to establish the personality of the main character.  The wide shot captures the emptiness and the darkness of the place. The only light we see is focused on the desk of our main character Barry Egan (Adam Sandler) who is sitting at his desk. Paul Thomas Anderson chose not to use the close up shot to emphases the reflection of our main characters personality through the environment he is in, not his face. By doing so he carefully introduces Barry's lonely,closed up personality to the audience. That dark, empty office space serves as representation of Barry's escape and shelter from the outside world. When Barry stands up from his desk the camera starts to pan as he starts walking out of the frame in to the darkness. We see him opening the door and coming outside of his "box" to the reality of the bright day light. Instead of cuts between shots, the use of transition by camera panning from a total darkness to the light was used to show the dramatic shift in Barry's life. The camera starts to follow our character to the outside, moving behind his back with a wide angle shot. Very carefully placed shot behind his back was used to keep viewers away from Barry's appearance but concentrate on the world around him. The shot starts to pan showing the empty street through Barry's perspective, camera is flowing with a long point of view shot out on the street from the alley to the distance. Suddenly the car crushes, a van pulls to the side walk dropping of the piano. Then a close up shot of Barry's face finally introduces his reaction on the world around him.