This is the opening sequence of the romantic comedy film, The Holiday.
The film begins with Columbia Productions and Universal with their opening to show that they are the production companies behind the production of this film. After they fade away, the first titles begin to fade in. When the titles fade in, the background is blurry however as the titles fade away, the background becomes clearer. Then as the titles fade away the first shot occurs. This shot is a medium close up and shows a male character kissing a female character. This instantly shows you that this film will include romance which is supporting the genre of this film, which is indeed a romantic comedy. You know this as kissing and showing affection is a clear convention of the romantic comedy convention. The opening sequence instantly starts with a piano playing soft, long notes which fluctuate in notes to create a romantic atmosphere from the get go. This helps add to the fact that this is a romantic film so this helps the audience get the romantic feel. At 0:28 seconds as the young couple are shown kissing, their is a background noise of birds tweeting. This is an ambient sound intentionally included to add to the romantic atmosphere.
This then continues for a few seconds with the titles fading in and out whilst the couple dance. The male looks like a male in his late 20's whilst the female looks more like she is in her mid 20's. There relationship judging by this affection shown, looks like they are a couple.
The next shot is a zoom out from the young couple. As the shot begins to zoom out you can see that what has been shown so far is only on a television screen monitor being viewed by a new character. This character looks like a 40 year old man, whom has a messy look to him. He is a recognised actor named Jack Black. He is widely known for his appearances in comedic films, therefore adding to the fact that this is a romantic comedy film. This shows the audience that because Jack Black is in the film, they know what type of film this is. The character he is playing looks like a recording artist/producer as his occupation due to the fact he is playing the keyboard with a musical tab on screen. The fact he is playing the keyboard may suggest that the piano sound which in the beginning opening was played by him.
A few seconds later, a voice over begins to play of an woman's voice, sounding particularly delicate in a story like manner talking about love connoting the fact this is a romantic comedy. She quotes William Shakespeare, who is a well known 16th/17th century English poet/playwrite who's poems/plays are largely associated with love/romance which furthers the connotation of this film being romance based.
As the voice over continues, it jump cuts to a shot of a newly introduced character. The character is a female, roughly 25-30 years old. When she approaches the character played by Jack Black he kisses her hand showing that there is a potential relationship which we as the audience, do not know yet.
As the shot continues, the woman is about to walk away but the male character does not let go of her hand suggesting that they don't want to let go of each others hands. This is a similar event in the film 'Titanic' which Rose says she will never let go of Jacks hand. This was down to love. So this suggests that these two characters in this opening sequence may be in love.
As the character leaves, the shot changes. The shot changes by a transition which slides the screen the left.
After the transition the shot changes to a medium shot of a new character. This character is a blonde woman who is approximately 30 years old. The shot then changes to a dark haired man who is approximately in his mid thirties. The woman and man have two separate shots individually but by the way they look at the camera, it makes you think they are looking each other which then the shot changes where you can see the woman and the man sitting in a car next to each other.
This quickly changes to a shot of the car pulling away and as you can see the car is a Porsche 911 Carrera S, suggesting the male driving the car is particularly wealthy. This is the second part of evidence to suggest the males wealthiness as the first part would be that the gentleman is wearing a suit showing his formality.
The scene then does a jump cut to a completely different scene. This shows an elderly man with his walking stick, approaching his bed. As he goes to sit down, the camera focuses on a picture on the desk which shows a black and white image of a woman in a wedding dress. This instantly gives you the impression that this is a picture of this gentleman's wife but since it focuses on the picture it gives the impression that she had passed away. Also the fact he then holds the picture in distress whilst the voice over says 'For some, simply love is lost' adds to the suggestion that she was his wife which has now passed away.
This then cuts to a different scene of a new character with an alcoholic beverage in a bar walking up to his friends. This then focuses on a woman who looks at the gentleman who then they catch each other's eye. Suggesting romance is possible and connoting the aspect of love and romantic comedy even more.
This then cuts to a different scene of a new character, this character is a blonde woman, Also in her thirties, she is formally dressed sitting in a chair at a desk. This suggests that the woman is at her workplace. The fact she is with no male suggests she has no male in her life. So far in the opening sequence every male has been with a female suggesting they are in love however this woman is alone suggesting no love.
At first you can't see the female but as the camera pans round so can see that the character is actually played by Hollywood actress, Kate Winslet. Kate Winslet is a well known actress who is mainly known for her role as Rose in 'Titanic'. Titanic is a romantic based film, and because Kate Winslet was the main role in that film gives you the impression that this film is also romance based suggesting that this is a romantic comedy.
This then cuts to her running out of what looks like her office into a hall based area where she stares at a new character. This character is a man aged around 40 who has dark hair. The relationship from this point we can gather is that she loves this man however he does not take notice. We can tell this through the way the camera is worked. The shot itself shows the woman staring which then cuts to a shot of him talking socially unaware of the fact he is being stared at. Showing that this could be a love which he is unaware of.
The next shot is a medium close up where you can see the woman is distressed/upset for some unforeseen reason that you do not know yet. The frustrated character walks off but every so often keeps staring at the male character showing love that has been broken. Due to the voice over you can tell that the woman speaking is the woman in the shot as she tells the audience that, that is her and is describing her endless love for that gentleman who then catches her eye whilst staring. So all the love shown in the opening sequence really shows that this film is based around romance and the relationships but also because of all the different characters it focuses on the fact that love can be found by anyone and anywhere no matter how rich, good looking, old etc. Love can be found and in the opening sequence this message is clearly showed.
No comments:
Post a Comment