an essay based on an opening sequence

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.