Analysis of existing openings

April 4th 2001

• The opening titles to this romantic-comedy mainly uses two shot types, long shot and close up and only changes shots ten times throughout the sequence. This creates a slow pace and doesn’t enable the audience to find out much except for what her house looks like, that she lives alone and that she is obviously upset about something. The opening starts with an extreme long shot from the outside a house cutting to Bridget inside, this produces the idea that she lives there.

Analysis of shots

• A long shot is used to show Bridget laying down whilst smoking. This encourages the idea that she’s unhappy and causes the audience to sympathise with her. Her costume in the opening of the film is fairly childish pyjamas which could represent her as immature.

• A close up of her singing and pretending to play the drums along to the soundtrack(all by myself) creates a comedy effect for the opening titles and also makes the audience like the character more as she is funny and trying to enjoy herself despite her depression. You see that because she has drank a bottle of wine she is drunk and that her loneliness is making her do it.

Soundtrack

• All by myself – Celine Dione.

• This music creates the mood that the main character (Bridget Jones) is depressed and upset the song also mimics her thoughts. This allows the audience to learn about her personality which is important in the opening of movies as it will allow the audience to sympathise with her.

Titles• Bridget Jones titles in order of appearance: o 3 main characters names at the start of openingo Costume designer o Production designero Editoro Director of photographyo Executive producero Credits the author of the book its based ono Screenplay nameso Producerso Director • Each title is on the screen for 3 seconds.

• The font is soft and curved- creating a relaxed/romantic atmosphere.

• The font colour is a light, soft lemon colour.• The font for names looks as if its been written whereas

the role title is an obvious typed font.

Target audience

• Mostly females aged 18-35 years old.

June 1st 2009

Analysis of shots

• The editing of the fifteen shots used throughout the opening titles is fairly slow paced and majorly uses tracking shots following both characters through their mornings. The audience picks up the idea that the two characters are linked as the camerawork flicks between the two of them throughout.

• This medium close up is juxtaposed with the shot of the main female role exercising and working at the same time. This shot also has an alarm clock in it which shows the time and causes the audience to pre-judge him as lazy and they may think he is unemployed, before they see the rest of the opening sequence. This part of the opening could make the audience like the female character more as she’s a working woman.

• This over the shoulder, close up shot shows the main female character looking in the mirror at herself. The fact that she is pulling her face about could suggest she is insecure, which could be seen as a convention of women in romantic-comedies, or a stereotypical representation of women that they care a lot about how they look.

Soundtrack

• Find my way- The Gabe Dixon band• This soundtrack creates an up-beat mood for the

film and implies that the characters may find something out that they didn’t know, hinting at the storyline of the movie. The music has quite a motivating feel to it, which fits with the main female character as the opening suggests she is a successful business woman. The music isn’t very conventional for romantic comedies as usually the soundtrack in the openings are slower paced and/or acoustic.

Titles

• Each title is on the screen for 3 seconds

• The font of the titles is white and the names are in capital letters which isn’t very conventional for romantic comedies because it gives quite a harsh ‘shouty’ tone to them.

March 13th 2007

Analysis of shots

• The opening to this film involves lots of shots bringing together lots of peoples life’s. This implies to the audience that they will all be linked up in some way.

• This shot automatically shows that romance will be used in the film but, also introduces the personality and jobs of some of the main characters as it shows that he works on films. It’s also as if he’s playing the music that plays throughout the opening.

• This medium close up is used to represent who the voiceover is talking about and the acting of the characters helps us know that this is who she’s referring to. It also implies to the audience that these characters stories will inter-link at some point during the movie. This shot, joined with the voiceover also makes the audience sympathise with the female character.

• This long shot introduces the main character and what the audience begins to know is the lady doing the voiceover. This is an important shot as it introduces the main character and shows about her personality because you see where she works and that she is kind as the next shot you see her wrapping a present.

Soundtrack

• The first music that you hear in the opening is classical music with birds, whilst she is watching a film that she’s made. The film she is watching is a romantic scene, this sets the mood.

• A voiceover from the main character (iris) then begins at 01:00 talking about love, and her misfortunes.

• At 01:46 the voiceover continues but more upbeat music is playing in the background as the camera travels through different characters in the film.

• The music and voiceover in the opening is very effective as it sets the mood for a romantic comedy, and the voiceover hints at details to all the other characters love life’s, in which the audience automatically become interested. The sound used is very useful to make the audience want to watch and enjoy the film.

Titles

• The titles appear throughout the opening. The font is fairly soft, but the main names are in capital letters whilst the descriptions of them are in lower case letters.

• The font is white which sets a relaxing, peaceful mood.

• Each title is on the screen for 3 seconds.

Target audience

• The target audience for this movie is wide as the film is a 12 movie, but romantic comedies also target audiences up to middle aged women.