Film opening research - Legally Blonde (2001)

Legally Blonde (2001)

Legally blonde is an American romantic comedy release on the 13^th July 2001.

The film was produced by MGM and directed by Robert Luketic featuring lead actress Reece Witherspoon. The film received many positive reactions, resulting in a total box office of $95,001,351 as of October 2001. The movie also gained positive reactions from award shows too, taking home a total of 6 awards, three of which were mtv movie awards.

With the genre being romantic comedy, the target audience would most likely be young females aged 12 – 18, however this doesn’t mean that its childish, as it contains some more adult jokes that only older people watching the film would understand, so the film is widely popular for any female over the age advised on the movie.

The narrative that we can see right from the opening is that the storyline is going to be following a popular blonde girl in America. This is a conventional romantic comedy of the time, and the preferred reading for the opening would be that the girl is somewhat ‘dipsy’ due to the emphasis on the colour of her hair, and people stereotype blondes who are obsessed with glamour to be dipsy. And this can be shown through the mise en scene of beauty products.

Right off the first matter of second on the opening of the film, we can see the film fitting the codes and conventions of the genre through the use of the typography. The writing it luminous pink, and like that of a teenage girl, which helps to set the tone for the film as being happy and girly.

The first visual shot that we get to see is around 20 seconds into the opening, and it’s a close up shot of a female brushing her hair. This is the first the audience will see of the character so is setting the first impression, which in this case appears to be trying to represent the stereotypical American teenage girl who will most likely be a daddy’s girl.

The following shots consist of long shots, tracking the character as she rides her bike around the town. This does two things for the view, it helps to establish the main character and the background characters, but it also helps to establish the location as we can see the areas the character is riding the bike. The girly mise en scene is carried on through the use of the character wearing all pink with hultiple pink accessories in the basket on the bike.

As for the sound, the sound is completely non-diegetic, being a up beat cheerful song. This is helping to set the mood for the entire film, and gives the preferred reading that the film is going to be light hearted. This is also fitting in with the codes and conventions of rom coms, as they all appear to begin with a happy song at the beginning with next to no diegetic.

The lighying in the scenes are all high key lighting which helps to add emphasis to the blonde, and carrying on the light hearted mise en scene to continue to give the audience an understanding as to what to expect from the film.

Once the shot has cut between the long shot of the character riding the bike, and the close ups of the character getting ready, we’re presented with a shot of the character on the bike riding past a group of boys. This connotates to the background of the storyline with it being college, as from the opening scene, we are presented with multiple groups of young teenagers, all of the appeared same age.

The opening scene very quickly establishes to the viewer the main characters, as well as the background to the storyline. This is successfully done by the quick succession of shots from the main character riding her bicycle around the town, back to the girl preparing herself for the day, so the audience can use stereotyping to guess what sort of person the main character is likely to be as well as what sort of story line they can expect. Overall the opening scene to this film is very effective as of the way it follows the codes and conventions of film openings, but also gives connotations through the use of mise on scene and props of what sort of film it is going to be, and the audience can expect to see what they were looking to watch, a romantic comedy.

Film opening research - Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010)

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010)

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows (Part 1) is the 7^th installment in the movie franchise that’s been adapted by the books written by j. k. Rowling. The Movie was produced by Warner Bros and Hayday Films, and was directed by David Yates. In its opening weekend, the film had a box office of £18,319,721 in the uk alone. The film also won a total of twelve awards from award shoes such as the mtv movie awards, teen choice awards, empire awards and more.

The film appears to be a mixture of multiple genres, with these being Adventure, Family, Fantasy and Mystery. The target audience will be mainly 12 – 20 as the film has mature films. However a secondary target audience will be harry potter fans. This would be because the first film from the series was released in 2001, so over the ten years of the series, the fans of the series would have been growing, and this wouldn’t just be a certain age as the film appears to be suitable for anyone over the age limit on the film.

For the first 12 seconds of the opening, were presented with an extreme close up of someone’s eyes who is talking into the camera. The lighting in the shot is very low key, which fits the codes and conventions of a mystery film; this also is helping to give a preferred reading to the audience for the rest of the film being dark and mysterious. The sound at this point is completely diegetic, with the only sound being what the character we’re presented with is saying. At the 12-second mark, we’re presented with a mid shot of the same character from the same angle, however this time we can begin to see what’s happening in the location. By having the background dark and blurred, this helps with the setting of the mise en scene of the film being dark and mysterious. The lighting in the background is also still low key. Another thing that is notable from the shot is the fact that we can see part of the costume, this gives the mise en scene of the opening a more serious/ dramatic feel due to the fact the character appears to be wearing a dark coloured suit.

 The opening of the film is somewhat unconventional as there is nothing establishing the story line which leaves the viewer intrigues, as were presented with a mysterious character, talking about an unknown scenario to us. There is also the lack of typography to help set the narrative of the film, which is also unconventional of a films opening sequence.

The next notable part of the opening would be at 0:39. At this point in the opening, we’re presented with a different shot which is an extreme long shot. Not only has the shot changed, but the angle also and we are now presented with a high angle shot from behind the character we have just been watching. This shot is helping to establish the location to the audience, which in this case appeared to be some very large underground tunnel. Once the camera shot changed, we were also present with the sound of cameras flashing at a fast rate; this is an abrupt change from the silent sound of the room while the character was speaking, to the echoing sound of flashing cameras. By having an abrupt change in shot like this, it helps to create an atmosphere for the film being tense and continuing with the mysterious feel.

The film doesn’t seen to introduce and establish the characters or the narrative of the movie very fast, as it isn’t until 1:00 that we even get our first glimpse of the main character, harry potter. This is unconventional of film openings, however it does successfully help to create the mysterious undertone for the audience, as at this point, they will not have any idea what is going on.

Unlike the first minute of the trailer, the second minute is a lot better at establishing the set and characters, as in quick succession; we’re introduced to the main characters in the film, as well as a quick look into their background. The atmosphere of mystery and suspense is successfully carried out for the duration of the opening with the high contrasting low-key lighting, as well as the slightly eerie non-diegetic soundtrack being added.

The narrative of the film never really gets fully established due to the lack of typography in the opening, as well as the seemingly quiet opening, with the exception of the beginning speech from a unknown character, non much dialogue is carried out though the rest of the opening. However we do et a fairly good insight into where the film is being set through the use of the extreme long shots of the characters houses, as well as their apparently British accents, showing the film itself s going to be set in the UK