Opening

• Del Toro begins the film with a powerful combination of a diegetic soft humming + frantic breathing + wind and a fairy tale score (Javier Navarrete) to form this mysterious and intriguing aesthetic.

  Layering the different sounds creates atmosphere and directs the audience attention.
• A cyclical pan spirals closer to Ofelia as she lies on the ground, the reverse shot revealing deep red blood, standing out against the cold tonnes, returning to her nose - this reverse initiating the supernatural, dark fantasy elements.

  Introducing the audience to the idea of nothing being as it seems.
• The camera them zooms into Ofelia’s eye and there is a brief fade to black before ELS pan of the underground, the non-diegetic male narration VO (genre convention for fairy tales) is also symbolic of the male domination in fascist Spain + Falangist.
• The camera pedestals upwards, trucking the cars on their way to the base whilst VO says 'perhaps in another body' introducing the idea that Ofelia is Princess Moana, before cutting to a CU of Ofelia's book, introducing and defining her character as associated with the fairy tale world.
• Pushing out from Ofelia into a medium two shot introduces Carmen: the image of the tragedy that is women under the fascist rule: she is pregnant, unwell and dismissive of fantastical beliefs (Del Toro masculinity = disregard of imagination. )

  
  

  MLS has an ever-present looming doom surrounding pregnancy: from the first time pregnancy is seen it is associated with sickness, fore fronted by the audience.

  
  

  Communicated with distant diegetic 'water for the captains wife' defining her by her husband.
• The handheld steady cam gives the scene a floating and kinetic aesthetic, again contributing to the fantasy genre combined with the fairy like specs of dust seen in Ofelia's presence.
• As the camera crabs right, before dropping to Ofelia's eyeline, tracking her as she wanders away from the car and into the forest, the stone seems to fall perfectly at her feet: it is her destiny to begin the quest.

  This sequence makes it clear that Ofelia is the hero of the story (propp theory) and the protagonist we are going to follow.
• Eyeline match ELS / est shot of the golden glow of childhood wonder aligns Ofelia with the forest, the gold and flakes of 'fairy dust' only appearing in her presence.

  
  

  This natural forest location becomes prominent in the film, the fluid, handheld camera work blends the real and fantasy world together.
• In a camera arc the stone statue is revealed as O places the missing piece in, solidifying her as the hero about to begin her quest - fantasy iconography.

  
  

  Slow push into the statue, a creature jumping out the mouth, (first monster), MS of Ofelia as offscreen Carmen calls 'Ofelia' it flies away (adulthood destruction of fairy tales), the off-screen voice appears for a moment to be said by the fairy.
• The insert shot of the segment of the statue, an eye but possibly a yonic shape, introduces the feminine energy that is associated with the fantastic elements of the film.  

  
  

  Replacing the eye acts as Ofelia awakening of the magic (rebirth, relighting the magic, beginning of a quest)

  
  

  Del Toro introduces an non-diegetic deep score when brought towards the statue – connoting ambivalent, unreliable and dangerous feelings
• The alignment with the insect leaving the cameras POV hanging back furthers the alignment with the unknown rather than reality - indicating it's significance.
• Using a J-Cut with the diegetic ticking of a watch effectively to smoothly transition between the forest and Vidal's base, highlighting the strict nature of vidal and his obsession with recreating the past (his father's legacy)
• Cutting to a POV, CU of the broken watch encased in his black glove (intertextual reference to the Mad Hatter) before LA profile Vidal critiques '15 minutes late', immediately establishing his strict, cruel (broken watch connotes violence) nature
• MLS Vidal greets Carmen for the first time, immediately placing his hand over her stomach - symbolic of the masculine control he exudes, and Falangist, asserting his power over the unborn child
• The camera pans down to a wheelchair Vidal is signaling Carmen into, he is taking total agency over his wife, disembodying her, she represents a repressed femininity and he the oppressor.
• LA medium shot of Vidal towering over Ofelia, a match on action as he grabs her hand, the pleonastic crunch enhancing his cruel nature as he harms her for doing wrong as well as indicates the brutality of the fascist regime on children + Spain.