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.