Filming The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Opening shots typically are the most important part of a film. They establish not only the look and feel of the entire film, but can also set up crucial themes and ideas. The Godfather had a shadowy medium close up of a man who says "I believe in America", Raiders of the Lost Arc has a silhouette of Indy making his way through a South American rain forest. Having not seen the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, I'm going to fathom a guess as how the director would choose to open his film based off the first few pages of the novel.

I would slightly change the order of action on the first page. Instead of having the first shot be the man waking up, I would choose to show the dream sequence. A long shot of the man and the boy walking into a dimly lit cave (maybe carrying a touch) hand in hand. As they enter the shot cuts to a medium tracking shot of them walking forward, before cutting to a shot of a dark lake in a room of grey stone. There is movement at the far end of the lake, as the creature raises his head and reveals the white eyes. Cut to an extreme close up on the mans eye as he opens it. The only light in the shot would be the white in his eyes. Cut to a medium shot of his upper body fumbling around to feel for the sleeping child, and he relaxes as he feels him. This shot holds for a few beats. Then cut to a med close up on the boy with the mans hand on him as he rises and falls with each breath. Cut to a long shot of the man slowly getting up from under the tarp as the lights rise from darkness to grey to slightly reveal the wooded area around him. As the lights come up, the man leaves the shot and then the shot cuts to a high angle extreme close up tracking shot of the mans home made shoes as he walks through the woods. As he walks the shot swings to be behind him as he reaches the cliff that he looks out over. As he reaches the edge the shot pulls out to reveal a vast wasteland with the road running through the middle of it.