Opening One: Love Actually (2003)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D46oPJuqrbo
- Modern titles - Introduce institution first
- First apart with the voice over concentrates on romance and love, whilst second part contrasts and introduces the idea of comedy - showing the sub-genre of rom-com.
- 'Christmas' in lyrics of the song being recorded signifies the time of year that the film is set.
- Title if film is integrated into what the voice over is saying. It then comes up with title with 'Love' in red - connoting love. This theme is continued to other titles with the first letter of the actors name appearing in red. This helps the two contrasting parts of the opening to flow into each other.
- Titles only come up when music plays for the recording in the storyline. This helps to integrate theme effectively and creates more of a flow overall.
Opening Two: Four weddings and a Funeral (1994)
- Classic non-diegetic background music, which sounds expensive and lavish.
- Title of film comes up almost straight away. It appears on weddings cake which reflects the name of the film and the iconography of the wedding cake indicates the possible theme of weddings.
- Simple titles and transitions (fade in/out).
- Shows a range of characters - possible main characters.
- The old fashioned font of the titles is reminiscent of old story books with stories about love and fairy tales.
- Hugh grant playing his character is seen first - he was the main star of the film and him being seen first highlights and reinforces this to the audience.
- Background music lyrics directly talks about love - showing the genre.
- The narrative is ambiguous - we don't really know what is going on which leaves the audience questioning and wanting to watch more.
Opening Three: The Holiday (2006)
- Institution is shown straight away followed by the other production companies involved in the film.
- Slow, romantic music that is played is fitting with the opening frame of the man and woman kissing - we automatically presume this to be the start of the film.
- The voice over introduces ideas from rest of film and refers to problems that the characters may find along the way.
- Quite old fashioned title font could represent the idea of the old fashion 'happily every after' - this contrasts the actual plot line.
- Each main character is seen separately - suggesting that their paths may cross as some point in the film.
- Title of the film comes up quite early on in the sequence.
- The opening is more focused on the romance side of the genre as oppose to the comedy.
After watching and analysing these 3 openings it has become apparent that many conventions are followed. The title almost always comes up very early on in the title sequence. This is then followed by actors names etc. In all 3 there is non-diegetic background music playing which reflects the romance side of the genre - indicating almost immediately to the audience what the genre is. Often many clues about the storyline are given away through voice overs or simple references. I have found that titles that are integrated a little more into the film e.g. in love actually work more effectively and are more noticeable. It seems that films made at an earlier date i.e. Four Weddings and a Funeral are much less integrated as oppose to the more modern films. Also, the main characters that are introduced are often the ones that the story will be focused on. These introductions also give an indication that these characters may have something to do with each other later on in the film.
Overall, by doing this task it has allowed me to look at how professional opening sequences in my genre have been created. I can now take into account the points I noted and refer to them when creating my own opening in order to make it more effective.
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