Film opening 5: Bridge to Terabithia (2007)

Director: Gabor Csupo

Release Date: 16th of February 2007 (USA)

Actors: Josh Hutcherson, AnnaSophia Robb, Zooey Deschanel

Production companies: Walden media, Hal Lieberman Company, Lauren Levine Productions Inc.

Genre: Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy

Budget: $17.000.000 (estimated)

The opening scene is an establishing shot of a house and a car and a greenhouse. An establishing shot is very often used by the director in order to give the audience a general impression and view of the setting.

The establishing shot keeps being on screen until there is a man coming out of the house. The camera zooms in a bit while the man moves closer to the car. Since, this is the first character we see in this setting, the audience could assume that this is one of the main character's.

The title comes up on screen as the camera zooms in on the house. It says "Bridge to Terabithia". As Terabithia sounds very exotic and imaginative it is like a contrast to the house since that looks old and simple.

Furthermore, the camera zooms in on a particular window which connotes that something is about to happen since there is so much focus on it.

All of a sudden, someone turns on the light in the room so the audience sees a shape of someone looking out of the window.

The following shot is a point-of-view shot of a young boy looking out of the window as the car is pulling out of the driveway.

The audience knows that the car is seen from a boy's point of view, since it is shot from a high angle of the window but also since the next shot is a close-up from the side of the boy looking out the window.

After the boy has seen the car drive away, the next shot we see is a long shot of him running out of the door and along a path outside of the house. Since the boy was waiting with running until the car was gone, the audience could interpret that the man doesn't like it when he is running or the boy doesn't want to let anyone know that he does run. As the title of the actor's name comes up on screen when e begins to run, the audience knows that he will probably be one of the main character's in the movie.

The next shot is an extreme close-up shot of a hand holding a pencil and drawing. The camera keeps fading or making a straight cut between the boy running and the drawings. Through this, the audience can interpret that it is the boy drawing.

As the cuts keep switching between the shot of drawing and the shots of the boy running, the character of the boy is being established, denoting that he enjoys drawing, but also that he loves running. The audience knows that he loves running, since he runs through rain, which signifies that he doesn't care about what weather it is. He just has to run.

As mentioned before, the shots keep switching between a long shot of the boy running and a close-up of the drawings he makes. The next two shots are close-ups of his drawings. In these shots, the audience can see that they are very unusual drawings of humans and animals that live in his imagination. This as well established the boy's character, by letting the auidence know that he has a very vivid imagination.

In addition, the second picture is a close-up of his drawing being "alive", again this emphasises that he has a vivid imagination and fantasy and could maybe even suggest that he considers himself to live in this other world that he creates.

As you see, the next picture is a medium close-up of his face. Very often these eye-level and close-up shots are used to let the audience put themselves in his position.

The next three shots are close-up pictures of his drawings. As mentioned above, he is drawing creatures that don't exist in reality. Furthermore he is drawing landscapes and a castle. This again emphasises that he has a vivid imagination but also that he is creating and maybe even living in his own world.

This can connote that he wants to escape his real life and feels safer in his own fantasy. The audience will later find out that the boy might actually be trying to escape his real life, since his family is poor and he doesn't have many friends.

After his long run, we can see him fixing some tape on his shoes on the front porch of their house. He then takes the shoes of when he enters the house, where there is a close-up of his shoes.

The shoes are very dirty and broken since he needs to put tape around them. This denotes that the family is poor and that he can't afford a new pair of shoes.

The boy then enters the house, where there is a long shot created of a kitchen with four children and probably his mother around the dining table. The mise-en-scene of the old furniture and the many children again emphasises that the family doesn't have much money. In addition, the audience can interpret that the mother isn't working since there is a baby sitting at the table, which could signifie that she probably takes care of all the children at home.

When the man we saw from the first shot comes into the house, we find out that he is the boy's dad.

This shot is mid-shot of the boy and his father. The boy looks full of disappointment, since his mother has just told him that she threw his shoes in the bin. Moreover, he tells his father that there is a race in school on that day and that he can't run without his sneakers. The fact that he can't run without his sneakers, denotes that he most likely only has that one pair of shoes. Again, this emphasises on the family being poor.

His father says that they need to buy him some new sneakers, whereupon the mother pulls him aside and tells him that they don't have the money for it. This again confirms to the audience that the family is quite poor.

The very last shot, is a medium close-up of the boy looking disappointed since he does know that they don't have the money. Lastly, this again proves our idea about the fact that he wants to escape into his own world since he doesn't like the way that his own life is going.

Throughout this entire film opening, there aren't many sounds except for the non-diegetic music in the background when he is out for a run.

This song is called "Keep your mind wide open" by AnnaSophia Robb, and contributes to the idea of the boy having a wide and vivid imagination.

During the film opening, the media producer uses fading and straight cuts. These editing strategy was used on purpose by the media producer, to show the audience the comparison of his imaginative world and his real world.

Film opening 4: Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)

Director: Sharon Maguire

Release date: 13th of April 2001 (USA)

Actors: Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant

Production companies: Universal pictures, Studio Canal, Miramax Films, Working Title

The very first shot we see is a long shot of a woman (later known as Bridget) walking through the snow. The camera is following her walking down the street though a tracking shot so that there is created a mid-shot of her.

When these shots appear there is a female voice over in the background establishing the first person narrative. She is saying:

" It all began on New Years day... on my 32nd year of being single. Once again, I found myself on my own and going to my mother's annual turkey curry buffet. Every year, she tries to fix me up with some busy-haired, middle-aged bore and I feared this year would be no exception."

This also helps the audience to establish a setting by knowing that it is New Years day. In addition, the character and genre are being established, due to what she is saying. Furthermore, there is a contrast since she mentions being single while there is a couple walking around and hugging each other in the background.

After this, the shot dissolves into an establishing shot of a graveyard, cottages and rolling hills in the back. This creates a very idyllic setting of the countryside.

When she again walks up to a cottages the garden is very pruned and again this emphasises how pretty and idyllic the countryside is. When walking up to the door there is an over-the-shoulder shot created when her mother opens the door.

The minute the mother opens the door there is a non-diegetic sound named "Magic Moments" by Perry Como. This song connotes that Bridget's mother has an eccentric and silly personality. There is also an intertextuality created since this song is part of a Christmas candy advert and therefore reinforces that it is Christmas.

This shot is an is a dutch angle in order to give the affect that the audience is observing from the staircase.

After entering the house, there is a dialogue between Bridget and her mother creating shot, reverse shots from both the mother's and Bridget's perspective.

During the time that Bridget is talking to her mother, the voice over keeps coming back in between conversations.

After having spoken for a minute or two Bridget's mother tells her to run upstairs and put on some other clothes.

On her way up, there is again an establishing shot with the light tilt, creating a Dutch angle, also denoting the sign of resignation on Bridget's face.

The next shot is a mid-shot of Bridget in the clothes her mother had put out for her. She is peering around the corner.

Film opening 3: Love Actually (2003)

Director: Richard Curtis

Actors: Hugh Grant, Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, Keira Knightley, Liam Neeson

Production companies: Universal Pictures, Studio Canal, Working Title

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Budget: $45.000.000 (estimated)




The opening scene is in slow motion and begins with a pan shot from 42 seconds to 55 seconds where there is a shallow focus on a woman with a backpack on her back. The pan shot follows her until she reaches a man who then kisses her, while the camera is zooming in on them. The mise-en-scene of her and the greeting in the airport denotes that she could have been on a long backpacking trip and that she hasn't seen the man for a very long time. Meanwhile there is a non-diegetic sound of very slow music in the background. Moreover, the mise-en-scene immediately helps the audience to establish a setting.

At 55 seconds there is a scene in slow motion where the camera zooms out creating a mid-shot of a woman opening her arms at 56 seconds.

At 58 seconds there follows a shot where she embraces a small girl with braces, big glasses and a bow in her hair. The entire mise-en-scene and the way she has been dressed, is used to emphasise on her youth.

Meanwhile the camera is zooming in again creating shallow focus and establishing a close-up of the girl hugging the woma. This close-up focuses on the girl's face and wants to emphasise on how happy she looks, but also show the audience the relationship between mother and daughter.

All of a sudden, there is a male voice over, that says the following:

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but ir's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of  love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around"

When the voice over hinted that the camera shots were from Heathrow Airport, we looked up whether they had been staged or not. It turned out that the director had decided to hide camera's at the arrival gate for a week in order to catch real emotions of people from all around the world on camera. We found out that after filming them they asked the people for their consent to add them to the movie.

During the time from 1.04 seconds to 1.53 seconds where the voice over keeps speaking there are several close-ups of many different people. These are all in slow motion. In addition the voice over is linked to what the audience is seeing on screen.

For example when the voice over is saying "fathers and sons", this is the camera shot that comes up:

And when he is saying "mothers and daughters":

And when he says "old friends":

Each and everyone of these shots is a medium close-up in shallow focus being shown in slow motion, just like every other picture we see in the first 2 minutes. In addition, the voice over creates an interlink between what he says an what the audience sees throughout the different camera shots. Furthermore, the speech of the voice over is meant to create an introduction to the movie and hint to the audience what it will be about. Throughout his entire speech the voice over keeps repeating the word "love" and keeps ellaborating on it by also referring to the terrible tragedy "9/11" that happened in America.

The last cut before the film jumps to another scene, is a shot of three people embracing eachother. This shot is again a medium close-up shown in slow motion.

The words "love actually is all around" show up the second the voice over says the exact same words. As the name of the movie is love actually, we could interpret that it was a certain word play that the director wanted the audience to link with the title. However, it was also a very clear and strong denotation that the movie would be about love.

In the next scene, there is a man singing the song "Love is all around". This is seen as an intertextuality since this song also emphasises on the word love and what the voice over has just said.

The mise-en-scene is in a music studio with a man singing together with his back-up vocalists. There is the diegetic-sound of the music he has to sing too. The entire scene is shown from an eye-level perspective. Through this shot the audience is involved and the director let's the audience feel as if they are part of the movie.

This entire setting is used to introduce the audience to one of the main character's. You can tell that he is a main character, since the camera is always focusing on him with shallow focus, followed by a master shot in deep focus of the entire music studio and the back-up vocalists.

In addition, there is a panning shot around the lead singer in order to show the audience the character from different angles and again introduce him as one of the main character's.

Lastly, we can see that all the names of the actor's playing in the film (such as the two names on the shots above) have their first letter written in red. This could again be a clue given from the director that the movie will be about love since red is the colour of love.

Film opening 2: Pride & Prejudice (2015)

Director: Joe Wright

Writing credits:  Jane Austen - Novel,

Actors: Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Rosamund Pike, Simon Woods

Production companies: Focus Features, Universal Pictures, Studiocanal, Working Title Films, Scion Films

Budget: $28.000.000 (estimated)

Genre: Drama, Romance

For my second film opening I watched Pride & Prejudice, which is a Universal Pictures and Working Title film.

Cinematography

The opening scene is an establishing shot of the countryside.

This shot is created to establish the idyllic countryside setting for the audience.

After this you see a timelapse within the establishing shot of the sun rising. The lighting is very dim. All of this evidence of lighting, bird's twitching and the sun rising let the audience know that it is dawn. In additon, there is a non-diegetic sound of a soft and melodic piano playing in the background. This piano play is useful to set the tranquil set of this meadow at dawn.

The next shot you see after the timelapse is a medium close-up and low angle of a young girl (who we find out is named Elizabeth) reading a book. This close-up is used to show the audience that she is one of the main character's.

Moreover, it establishes that her character must like to read, since the audience can see how focused and transfixed she is on the book.

The following shot is a close-up and an over-the-shoulder shot of her book where we recognise that it is the end of the book through the marked "THE END" words on the bottom of the page. This again, let's the audience know that she is a very interlectual character who finds pleasure in reading.

After this, there is a straight cut creating an establishing shot of Elizabeth crossing a small canal to a big house presumably her home.

The mise-en-scene and the chosen costumes e.g. her dress and her hair connotes that the movie is set in the past. Moreover, the diegetic sound of churchbells, geese and cows connotes that the setting is likely to be in a village and on a farm.

During the time that Elizabeth crosses the small canal to what we still presume is her home the camera follows her through a tracking shot. While it does, the audience is able to identify the setting and time a bit further due to the different camera shots seen through the tracking process.

For example, in the next two mid-shots she is walking accross the farm, and there are a lot of sheets hanging outside.

Especially in the second mid-shot, the audience notices that there are two women washing the sheets by hand, which connotes that the film is set in a time where there wasn't any machinery yet and it was all hand labour.

In addition, there are so many sheets, so it is probably only being done a couple of times a year when the weather allows it. Hence, one could interpret that the film is set in the summer season.

Furthermore, the audience notices that the two women are working but Elizabeth isn't, this shows the audience that she comes from a higher rank.

The tracking shot keeps following Elizabeth until there is a framing inside the frame of a girl playing the piano. So far, we believed that the soft piano in the background was non-diegetic. However, at this point the audience find out that it is the diegetic sound of a piano play of a young girl playing inside the house.

The camera is zooming in to the house in an eye-level shot. This mise-en-scene of the objects hanging around the house, such as portraits and the old fashioned candles, are again indicating the time period to the audience.

Furthermore, the mise-en-scene connotes that it is a wealthy family with enough money to afford a sustainable house and household.

The mise-en-scene of all the ribbons, clothes and the bonnet suggest that the family is about to go somewhere. Again this indicates to the audience that it is a wealthy family. However, it looks a bit messy since the clothes are all over the place. This could also suggest that there are a lot of people living there who are a bit untidy.

The camera keeps panning to the right until it stops and we see a long shot of the front yard of the house with Elizabeth coming back into the picture after she has walked around the house.

In the background of the shot, we see a worker feeding the geese which again suggests that the movie is staged in the countryside, and that she is coming from a higher rank.

After this, the camera zooms in on her and creates an over-the-shoulder shot while she is looking at two people in a room inside of the house.

Having observed them for a while, Elizabeth turns away from the window to walk inside of the house. At the same time, the audience can see that she laughs a little after having heard the women talking. Her laughing could suggest that she is used to hearing them talking and that they are probably someone who live their with her (e.g. friends or family).

At the opening scene of the movie you hear the diegetic sound of the bird's twitching. This sets a peaceful and calm mood in the audience.

During the timelapse of the sun rising a non-diegetic sound of calm and soft piano music is playing in the background. As mentioned above, the audience is tricked into believing that it is a non-diegetic sound. However, as the film opening continues we find out that it the piano play of a young woman inside the house.

Moreover, there are a lot of diegetic sounds when the scenes are shot outside of the house since it takes place on a farm in a small village. This we can tell since there are a lot of animal noises but also church bells ringing in the background.