Film – Life As We Know It
Genre
The
genre of this film is a romantic comedy.
You can tell this because the opening scene is the woman getting ready
for a date, which implies the romance. Then, it starts to show the comedy side
when the male character enters the scene.
Target
audience
The
target audience is women over 12. You can tell this by the way the woman is
getting ready for her date that It is not something men would fine
entertaining. I think there is still some boundary for under 12 year olds
because they are still too young and it could be a bit confusing or mature for
them.
Characters
and plot
The
opening title sequence portrays the man as quite laid back and not really
interested. The woman seems a bit excited at first when we see her getting
ready, but suddenly drops when we find out he was an hour late. You can tell
that they are only going on the date to make their friends happy. You want to
continue watching because you want to find out what happens between these 2
people and if they end up a couple later on in the film.
Text
There
is no text on screen whilst the opening scene is taking place. This allows the audience
to completely focus on what’s going on. If you didn’t have this opening sequence,
you wouldn’t understand parts of the film.
Sound
At
first the music is quite girly and catchy. It starts with a non digestic source
of sound. The music adds a romantic atmosphere. The music suddenly stops when
the door knocks. It then turns into digestic sound elements. This adds a tense
atmosphere, which tells you that something has gone wrong or that the date won’t
end well.
Mis-en-scene
Costume
The
costume that the woman wears is quite a sexy look. She is wearing a tight
fitted dress, heels and make up. The man is wearing casual clothing, showing
that he is not that interested.
Setting
The
setting starts in the woman’s apartment. You see the base of the apartment and
then it goes to the door. It is then taken outside to the street.
Lighting
The
lighting is quite dark to show that the scene is taking place in the evening. When
they go outside it is natural lighting, however there are a few street lights around.
Camera
use
There
are close ups to start with so we don’t actually see what the character looks
like. There is then an establishing shot to show the character and the whole of
the room that she’s in. Next, an over the shoulder shot is used when the two
characters are at the door. After that the shots go from long shots to mid
shots.
Comments
The
sequence is really effective and draws the audience’s attention. It makes you
want to continue watching so you can find out what happens between the two characters.
The
conventions of the genre are that they are mostly aimed at women because it is
known that women are more emotional in relationships than men are. Also, there
is always a happy ending in romantic films. Furthermore, it’s always the boy
meets the girl and they end up falling in love. With this film, Life as We Know
It, the do meet but there is a twist which adds more excitement to the film for
the audience.
What
makes an effective opening sequence is catchy music which goes with the idea of
the scene. This is to straight away catch the audience’s attention. If the
music is bad then it will become boring and not very interesting.
