"Pan from the Sky" Beginning

How do you know when to stop panning the camera when the sky and the sea are made of the same material?

This trope is when a work, or an installment of a work, begins with the point of view starting high up in the sky (whether in the clouds or in space) and then zooms down onto the main setting.

Perhaps the work is themed around space or the sky, or the specific installment does (maybe it's a Space Episode or Alien Episode) or they're giving us a birds-eye view of what the setting looks like, but sometimes, it happens "just because".

Often precedes a Theme Tune. Sub-Trope of Pan (horizontally rotating the camera to get a grasp of the panorama). Contrast "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending. Often involves Astronomic Zoom, Falling into the Plot, Logo Joke, and Establishing Shot. Compare Weather Report Opening which is another atmosphere-related beginning.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Luminous Witches:
  • The Distant Prologue of "WONDERFUL WORLD — Nice to Meet You" begins with a shot of a cloudy sky before the camera shifts down to the Dunkirk Evacuation.
  • "The Reason for the Sun" begins with a shot of the night sky as the Luminous Witches' plane flies towards Orussia.

Fan Works

• The Loud House fanfic A Cold and Chili Day is written like it's a TV script'', so it mentions that we "open" on the sun obscured by clouds and then "tilt down" to the power plant.

Films — Animation

• Some DreamWorks Animation films and shorts start out with this trope, including several in the Shrek franchise. Often combined with a Logo Joke.
  • Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa: The boy in the moon logo dissolves into a blue sky, from which then the camera pans down on the African landscape until it stops at baby Alex playing with his dad.
  • Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted: After the usual studio logo of the boy on the moon, the camera pans down to Africa, where monkeys are winding up a plane with the penguins on it.
  • Shrek the Third: Played with. The camera pans down from the boy on the moon in the opening logo, which is covered by storm clouds, dissolving into a stormy sky, which reveals a beam of light. Then it shifts downwards to a forest and descends upon Prince Charming supposedly riding on his valiant steed, until suddenly... The camera slowly zooms out to reveal that he is actually performing in a dinner theatre play with a hobby horse.
  • Scared Shrekless: The short begins with the boy on the moon, only he nervously hides behind the moon, and then the camera pans down to a Shrek-like pumpkin with the title carved onto it.
  • In the Shrek short "The Pig Who Cried Werewolf", after the title appears on the screen, the scene cuts to the clouds and the camera shifts down to Horst and Dieter pushing Heimlich (who broke his leg sometime prior to the short's beginning) on a wheelchair.
• This is also a popular trope used in Disney-Pixar films as well:
  • A Goofy Movie begins with a shot of the sky, then panning down to Max, who is in the middle of a dream about Roxanne. The movie ends with a pan up to the same sky.
  • Hercules inverts this: After "The Gospel Truth" opening number, the scene switches to a shot of ancient Greece from which the camera pans up through the clouds to the top of Mount Olympus as the opening titles appear.
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame opens with a view of the tops of clouds, with the mighty spires of Notre Dame cathedral poking through, like a granite island in a misty sea. The camera pans downward to a view of the common streets of France as Clopin sings "Morning in Paris, as the city awakes / To the bells of Notre Dame."
  • The Princess and the Frog begins with a view of the night sky, before panning down to Charlotte's mansion.
  • Simulated in the first Toy Story film. The first scene is a field of azure blue with crisply defined white clouds. The pan down reveals that this "sky with clouds" is actually a pattern of wallpaper in Andy's bedroom, where he's playing with his toys.
  • WALL•E begins in space with "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" playing, then it zooms into Earth from above, on which we see WALL-E moving along, then it zooms down to the ground and we see that he's cleaning up and playing the song on his radio.
  • In Turning Red, the scene in which Jin is seen cooking begins with a pan down from the sky to a shot of the Lee house.
• Anastasia, much like The Hunchback of Notre Dame example above, following the opening prologue, opens up with the opening titles appearing in a view of the tops of clouds with the spires of the Imperial Palace poking through before panning down below to the dingy streets of St. Petersburg showing how much the city has changed for the worse in the ten years since the prologue.
• In The Loud House Movie, it zooms in from above on a younger Lynn Sr.
• My Little Pony: Equestria Girls: The film starts with a shot of the moon and three stars before panning down to reveal a bird's eye view of the Crystal Empire and the train station.
• My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) starts by following a team of Pegasi flying above the clouds before they dive towards the ground. The camera then follows them as they fly to the city of Canterlot where everypony is arriving for a celebration.

Films — Live-Action

• Back to the Future Part II: After the opening recap of the end of Part I, we then cut to a shot through a cloudy sky as the opening credits play to Alan Silvestri's title theme before panning down to a sky freeway as the Delorean arrives in 2015.
• This is how Bad Times at the Battle Royale starts, with a quick camera pan down from the clouds to the parking lot outside the institution building where the movie takes place.
• Forrest Gump opens with a Long Take of a bird feather falling from the skies (with the camera initially pointing at the clouds) and eventually landing at the title character's feet.
• Ted 2 has one, leading right up to Ted's wedding.
• Star Wars: The mainline films traditionally transition from their Opening Scrolls in outer space by panning down to an orbital view of a planet, a startship, or both (except in Attack of the Clones, where it pans up instead).
• Red Dawn (1984) begins above the clouds before moving downward to show the town of Calumet, Colorado. The unspoken implication being that it's showing the flight path of planes carrying paratroopers it's about to drop into town.

Literature

• At least one Discworld novel begins this way, with the reader invited to contemplate the majestic star-turtle, elephants and flat world making their way through the ocean of space. Then the perspective shifts with a plummet onto the flat world and through the clouds, narrowing down further and further until the perspective of the reader is drawn to a particular character.

Live-Action TV

• Doctor Who:
  • The first episode of the revival era, “Rose”, begins with a shot of Earth before we zoom down to Rose Tyler’s bedroom in the Powell Estate, East London.
  • This is repeated in "The Christmas Invasion", although this time, it eventually zooms down into Jackie preparing the presents in her living room.
  • Again repeated in “The Runaway Bride”, with the zoom going down to a church in Chiswick, West London where Donna Noble is about to get married.
• House of the Dragon starts with Rhaenyra flying on her dragon among the clouds above King's Landing.
• Every episode of Mork & Mindy begins with a shot of outer space with Mork's egg-shaped spaceship zooming through the sky, then it pans down to Earth.
• The pilot of Stranger Things opens with a shot of the night sky and then pans down to the secret lab at Hawkins.

Puppet Shows

• Sesame Street: The "Madlenka" cartoon segments begin with a scene of outer space, then it gradually shifts down to the eponymous girl's apartment. This fits in with the lyric in the theme song: "Madlenka, Madlenka, lives in the universe. Madlenka, Madlenka, lives right here on the Earth."

Video Games

• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!: The intro cutscene starts with the camera pointing at the Helios Station in the sky, and then zooms out of it into Pandora, and a Skag appears. Cue the theme song.
• Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity: In the opening cutscene (prior to the title screen), several Pelipper are flying in the sky and the scene zooms down from a birds-eye view into Post Town.
• Shantae: Risky's Revenge: A new game opens into the sun in a cloudless sky and pans down through some clouds into a scene of Shantae in front of her lighthouse and fighting 3 scarecrows.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 opens this way, except when the camera pans down, all it reveals is more clouds — the Cloud Sea, and a lone Titan.

Webcomics

• A video trailer for Vampire Girl's second season utilized this in an interesting manner by using the comic's first panel, which was a long shot of the Vampiress' castle. Both of these are rectangular, but while the comic panel is vertically rectangular, the video trailer's aspect ratio is horizontally rectangular, which gave the panel something of a pan-and-scan effect from the moonlit sky downward.

Western Animation

• ALVINNN!!! and the Chipmunks: The opening for Season 3 begins with the Bagdasarian Productions Logo in the sky, which is wiped away by a plane before we go into Dave and the Chipmunks jumping out of said plane.
• The opening to the obscure cartoon BB3B begins with a shot of the planet Earth before cutting in further on a plane going from the UK to America with Lucy and Louie's grandmother on it.
• Big City Greens combines this with In-Scene Title Text:
  • The episode "Tilly's Goat" begins with the title spelt out in the clouds before panning down to the Green house.
  • "Football Camp" begins with the title appearing on a blimp before it pans down to Bengal Stadium.
  • Though not really in the sky, "Heat Beaters" begins with the title displayed as a thermometer against a telephone pole with the sky in view before panning down to Keys' car.
  • "Winter Greens" begins with the title on a snowflake falling from the sky.
  • Due to the double-length episodes beginning with a Cold Open, "Green Christmas" starts with a pan down from the snowy sky to the Green house on Christmas Eve. In a case of Book Ends, the episode ends with a "Pan Up to the Sky" Ending with that scene played in reverse.
• The Dragon Prince starts the introduction this way, as an Establishing Shot. The magical nature of the world is immediately established by weird-looking, brightly colored flying creatures. Then a shot-reverse-shot reveals the perspective character: Thunder, the Dragon King.
• The Jetsons: Every episode begins with a shot of Earth, then it pans down to the family in their Flying Car.
• One Little Princess episode begins in the sky with a closeup of the flag and the narrator notes, "The flag's up; that means the family is at home".
• The Mr. Men Show:
  • "Rainy Day" begins with a shot of the sky before storm clouds begin to cover the sun. The camera then pans down to the ground, where the Mr. Men are doing things in the rain.
  • "Sun and Moon" starts with a shot of the sun in the sky (hence the title) before the camera pans down to Mr. Bump and Miss Sunshine laying down beach towels.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The intro starts with Twilight Sparkle in her hot air balloon, then Rainbow Dash flies past, then Twilight lands.
• Ready Jet Go!: Almost every episode begins with a brief shot of the sky before the camera pans down to whatever the characters are doing. This is fitting, considering that the premise is about Jet and the gang going to space.
• Rolie Polie Olie: The intro begins in space, then pans down to Earth, to go along with the theme tune lyrics "Way up high in the rolie-polie sky".
• Rowing Across the Atlantic: The opening shot shows seagulls flying around in the sky, before the camera pans down and shows the abandoned rowboat as it washes up on a beach.
• The Simpsons: Each episode begins in the sky with the title being sung by a chorus as clouds uncover it written in the sky. Then, it shifts down to Springfield Elementary where Bart is Writing Lines.
• Tamagotchi Video Adventures opens with a view of outer space that pans down, eventually reaching the surface of Tamagotchi Planet. A Flying Saucer is then seen zooming by before the scene cuts to a panning shot of a town on the planet that slowly approaches Tamagotchi Museum, one of the video's main settings.

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