{The Best Of Me

Amarita Kharaud

During the opening scene, the production credits are of ‘Relativity’. Relativity Media is an American media company headquartered in Beverly Hills, founded in 2004 by Lynwood Spinks. Having production credits in the opening sequence supports the conventions of an opening sequence. The production credits are styled to be futuristic which may suggest that the movie is going to be a sci-fi however the movies actual genre is drama/romance.

Production Credits

Straight after the production credits, the audience are shown a scene of the ocean with a oil rig in the middle, this signifies that maybe something is going to happen to the oil which will create drama. The next credit is ‘a NICHOLAS SPARKS production’, this creates producer appeal as sometimes the audience may be watching the movie due to the writer/producer appeal. With the casts name, they are put in order of main characters which catches the audience eyes also due to star appeal.

Names of Cast and Crew

The Films Title

The films title ‘the BEST of ME’ is shown in the opening scene due to the appearance is one of the main conventions of an opening sequence. The typography appears to be very sophisticated which foreshadows that the movie is going to be classy and elegant. The background where the title appears is an oilrig in front of a sun rise. The sun rise signifies that the movie is starting, the sun rise could also signify hope and also foreshadows that maybe something bad is going to happen at the oilrig. And the oil rig signifies to the audience that may be the first place the audience is going to be shown. The use of the sunrise juxtaposes the genre of the movie as sunrise shows the beginning of something whereas the genre, drama, signifies emotion.

Sunris beginning of something

Introduction to the Main Character

The first character the audience is shown is a man opening a fuse box. As he is the first character the audience are introduced to, it may appear that he is one of the main characters. He also is the first character with dialogue. The shot that is used is a close up, this signifies to the audience that they need to pay attention to this character as he may be important. The close up shot is also used to illustrate the facial expression that the main character has. In this case, the expression is a concentrated look which signifies that the character is a working class man who is devoted to his work which creates a role model figure to the audience. This is also shown through the costume worn by the main character as he is wearing a construction workers outfit to emphasise that he is working at an oilrig. The helmet which is worn is hard to protect the character from anything that happens which foreshadows that something might happen to the main character, this connotes that the main character’s characteristics as being bold, hard and strong. The life jacket he is wearing foreshadows that he may fall into the ocean soon.

There is a non-digetic sound playing in the background while the workers were packing up at the end on the day. The soundtrack playing in the background is lively and magical. This could represent that something bad is going to happen in the next few minutes but the music could represent hope that everything is going to get better soon.

Music

Straight after the scene of where the workers are packing up, the scene that the audience is shown is of the oilrig at night. This is portrayed through the use of the black background with white lights which represent stars in the night sky. The place is smartly disclosed. On the mail box is says ‘US MAIL’ which tells the audience that the movie was shot in America and that the setting of the movie is in the US.

Reference to Time and Place

Straight after the scene shows the main character looking up to the sky, he hears a rumbling sound coming from behind him which makes him look back. This is called an over the shoulder shot, this allows the audience to see what the character is seeing in the movie. The use of having the oil cans also in the shot signify to the audience that maybe that’s where the sound came from. The smoke shows that something bad is going to happen, this is because when the audience see smoke they automatically think of fire. This foreshadows that later explosion the oilrig has. The use of the colours yellow, orange and black exacerbates the explosion at the oilrig. The black shows a silhouette of the main character presenting to the audience that the main character got hit.

Opening Sequence Climax

The use of facial expressions allows the audience to see what the character feels. In this case on the characters face is portrays him to be in pain while by looking at the whole scene the audience get to know that the character is actually in pain due to the fact that he just got hit by a fire gas cloud. The sound that is playing in the background is of a high-pitched bleep, which is uses to represent that the character is really hurt. The high pitch sound sounds like someone is flat lining/dying, this could be interpreted that if the main character gets hit again they might not survive. The black silhouette of the character shows him getting hit by the fire cloud once again and like the previous point, it says that the main character might not make it and possibly die. In the next 3 seconds the audience see the main character falling, maybe, to his death as it is impossible to fall from such a height and still survive. In the next few seconds we see the character underwater as if he has just drowned in the ocean and is just sinking.