In Shadow of a Vampire (Merhige, 2000) the film conveys its story with a chronological third person narration and a closed ending. The story relies on information given in the opening narrative caption, as well as some inferred elements. The plot is driven by a third person's account of one director's manifestation of a vampire film. The narrative form and closed ending of Shadow of a Vampire assists in portraying the story of a director's passion for creation of film.
In the beginning of Shadow of a Vampire a caption is presented that gives the viewer information about the story. The caption is crucial to the story as important information is given and is relevant to the rest of the film. The caption provides us with a historical context and the subject matter, a director's production of a film. Also, the protagonist of the film, the director, Murnau, is given a slight biography in the caption. In the caption, the German filmmaker, Murnau is said to have created the most realistic vampire movie of all time establishing him as one of the greatest directors of all time. Shadow of a Vampire's opening scene plays into the information of the caption as the film begins in media res with a director actively dictating a scene of a film. With the opening sequence we learn that this is a very passionate Murnau directing his career defining movie, Nosferatu. The captions presence is needed as it provides the subsequent context of the story and allows for the movie to begun in the middle of a scene putting emphasis on the tools of filmmaking of the times and Murnau.
The beginning segment of Shadow of a Vampire provides the viewer with an exposition of parts of the plot, but the key aspects of the story are related latter in the film. Other primary characters are introduced and by the scene of the film crew boarding the train to begin more filming, we find out that the director knows a lot more than he is telling the rest of the crew.
