EDITED 27/10/16 - A PowerPoint on how the director established character in Back to the Future

Back to the Future still images by Reece Slater on Scribd

Why does the director not show any character's face in the opening sequence? 

     There is many possibilities as to why the director choose to not show the face of this character until the end of the first scene. The main reason, could be that the director does not want you to make presumptions about this character. Even though the mise en scene allows the audience to understand the age and the traits about this character, they can be easily manipulated by showing other traits of the character. My point is that, if the audience have a face to a certain characters actions, then it’s difficult to then change that characters meaning and purpose. Furthermore, another reason could be that the director wants the audience to be captivated from the start, so with the ever growing intrigues towards who this character could be will do this. Finally, the director could be suggesting that this character has something to hide, with only the lower half of his body showing. Either that being disfigurement, or an item.

How does this add to the sense of characterisation and anticipation?

     The way in which the character moves within this sequence, a knowledge of the surrounding, confidence- this creates a sense of what this character is like. Also with the dress sense and mode of transport, skateboard, you can assume the age and social status of this character. With the director not showing the characters face, we can assume that this has to link with characterisation, it could be so that the audience focuses on what this character persona is, not judging a book by its cover kind of scenario. Finally, this adds to the anticipation of the scene as there are ever growing amount of questions directed towards this character throughout. Helped by the unknowing of who this character is.