Analysis of film openings

Love Actually (2003)

This romantic comedy is directed by Richard Curtis. It follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives, and is set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England. The separate story lines all intertwine at some point or other.

The first 1:19 minutes sets the genre of the film without revealing the storyline at all. There is a sequence of montage shots, which focus on different people expressing their love for another in someway.  At 25 seconds the voice over begins which gives an outline if their views on love. We are made to believe that this character could potentially be the protagonist.
The background music has no words to it and has an airy, heavenly vibe to it which represent peace, hope and happiness. We can come to this conclusion due to it being played in a major key.

At 1:19 the title of the film appears, reading ' love actually' which is then joined by 'is all around us'. Some of the words are written in red which has connotations of love and passion and therefore this sticks tot he conventions of the romance genre.

Below is the opening sequence for love actually:

Inglorious Basterds

In class we analysed the film opening for Inglorious Basterds. This is an action film with an element of black comedy. It was made as a parody for WW2 movies made in the 50's. Inglorious Basterds was directed by Quentin Tarantino and was released in 2007.

 

This is a storyline plan for the opening of this film. On here I have written down when the different titles came on screen, actors, and the rest of the visuals. When context was introduced, parts that created enigma and anything to do with sound or soundtracks.

 

Here is a rough break down of the opening:

 

• In the opening of this film it begins with an old version of the Universal logo. The old version may have been used to create context and give us an insight to the time period it was set in and that it is based on a historical event. This lasts from 3-12 seconds and is placed on a black screen with no sound.
• The Weinstein logo then appeared from 12-20 seconds and has the same features.
• The soundtrack then begins to play at 20s and is a traditional piece of music for that time period and therefore it set the context.
• At 24s the production company titles begin and last for 12s
• At 36s the directors name appears
• At 40s the film title appears which is in a different type face and colour which informs us that this is the film
• The names of the actor then appear in the order that they appear most- starting with Brad Pitt. There are 8 starring actors followed by co-starring actors and then guest starring. Lasts for 1 minute.
• At 1:48 the soundtrack is still playing and the titles for chapters appear- forms context. 'Nazi occupied France' at 1:53 and '1941' at 2:03
• At 2 minutes the soundtrack fades and then stops.
• At 2:03 the characters are introduced through a wide shot of a man- this also sets the scene.
• A chopping sound is then heard
• The woman character comes into shot at 2:14
• At 2:17 the sound of an unseen vehicle comes in which creates enigma

We stopped watching the clip at this point.

 

In this opening I liked the way that they introduced context from the very beginning in the Universal logo and continued it to the point that we stopped watching.

 

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