Analysis of my Best Friends Wedding

Analysis of the opening scene of My Best Friend’s wedding

Genre

The genre is a romantic comedy

Narrative

 

The plot of the film centres around a woman’s long term friend who tells her he is engaged. She realises at that moment that she loves him and she sets out to get him, with only days before the wedding.

Setting

The whole scene has a Hollywood feel – exuding glamour, love and romance. It has a slightly old fashioned feel –maybe a feel of the 1950s or 1960s. It creates a fantasy church wedding which every woman would love to experience.

Themes

The themes are love and marriage

Character

We initially feel sympathy for the character of Julia Roberts but we lose this as she becomes rather devious as the film progresses. The character of Cameron Diaz is warm and loving.

Atmosphere

The opening scene is pink – a stereotypical colour associated with girls. The camera tilts down to show three women dressed in white – the traditional colour for purity and weddings. A fourth woman enters, dressed in a white wedding gown. She is to the fore of the scene and is shown very much as the main character in the scene . This connotes her importance over the other characters. She is the personification of happiness, goodness and warmth. The entire scene gives a very traditional, conservative view of gender. It shows women as believing tha weddings and marriages are their big goal, desiring marriage above all else.

The mise-en-scene is bare apart from the pink background and the four women. This focuses attention on the characters and denotes their importance. The costumes all point to the theme of weddings.

The whole scene has a Hollywood feel – exuding glamour, love and romance. It has a slightly old fashioned feel –maybe a feel of the 1950s or 1960s. The dance routine is highly choreographed. There is an element of comedy in the sequence. It is full of a posing bride and bridesmaids and is full of exaggerated movements and gestures. This foretells the genre of the film – a romantic comedy.

The camera angles are in the main long shots although there are some cuts to show their individual facial actions to fit in with the song. The women are performing – they look like they are on a stage. At several instances, the women pose directly for the camera. There is a lot of use of props associated with weddings such as diamond rings, bouquets and lacy garters.

When the bride throws the bouquet she is standing on a chair. This signifies she is married and above the others in importance. When she throws the bouquet she catches it herself. This is a break from what we expect to happen and perhaps foretells a twist in the plot of the film.

The overhead shot shows the woman lying on the ground with their heads together. It is almost reminiscent of a synchronised swimming sequence.

The bridesmaids give the bride their bouquet. They kneel in front of her. They are admiring her. She has achieved a higher status through marriage. The camera zooms in to show her face in an almost heavenly light shining on her. There is a real religious feeling connoting a real success. However the scene is rather unreal and false. It holds a sense of irony and the audience knows perhaps it is not real.

Sound

The women begin to sing “Wishin and Hopin”, a track originally recorded by Dusty Springfield in 1964. It tells how to get and marry your man, and fits in with the mise-en-scene focusing on weddings.

Titles

The credits that start to play are written in a hand written style of font. This connotes intimacy and family. Julia Roberts is the first name on the credits and we realise she is going to be a big star of the film.

The non-diegetic sound of the gospel singer adds to the religious feel.

Catch Me If You Can film opening

Genre

Catch Me If You Can is a comedy drama thriller directed by Steven Spielberg.

Narrative

Frank Abagnale has seen his family torn apart and destroyed by a child abductor. Throughout the narrative of this film, he strives to put his family back together. He is a confidence trickster and enters into lots of high spirited drama throughout the film.

Setting

The opening scene is a very memorable animation of Lowrey type figures who run through different environments which symbolise key elements of the film.

The different settings include an airport and a hospital which gives us a taste of the environments that the main character will trick his way into and the lifestyle that he will follow.

The opening shot is an establishing shot of an airport. This connects to the storyline of the film as Leonardo Di Caprio plays a con man who tricks his way into becoming a pilot. It is a long shot which shows there is a distance between the character and the airport. The airport connotes travel and distance. The two are not intrinsically connected. The character has his hand in his pocket and is adopting a very casual stance. A bright yellow arrow shows us the character. We know he is going to be an important figure in the play.

Themes

The theme of broken homes runs through the film. Throughout the film we see how a very troubled childhood can affect the rest of your life. Frank's parents divorced when he was 14 years old, and he decided to stay with his dad. Because of his broken family, he started to act in ways that demanded attention. He began to steal from local shops and hung around the wrong people, and so began his life as a con man.

Frank does not enjoy living on his own when he is on the run and he struggles with pretending to be different people all the time. The film explores the question of identity.

During his life on the run Frank becomes addicted to money and beautiful women, and addiction is another theme of the play.

Character

Leonardo Di Caprio was introduced in the opening scene as he hides between the strokes of the letters. Tom Hanks is introduced with an arrow. His body language connotes an air of importance and authority. He chases Leonardo Di Caprio and gives further hints of the storyline. The idea of chase is present throughout the sequence.
 The characters are silhouetted against a really colourful background giving a light-hearted feel. The costumes of the characters add to the 1960s feel of the sequence.

Throughout the scene, Leonardo Di Caprio takes on many different roles denoted by the change of costumes. There are lots of females which could indicate romance.

Atmosphere

Saul Bass is the graphic designer responsible for the animation. It was made by cutting out hundreds of paper body parts for the characters and then scanning them onto a computer generated backdrop.  The film does not take itself too seriously and this opening scene sets the mood for the story and encourages the viewer to engage in the story of the film before it starts. The whole scene is actually an animated reproduction of the whole movie.

 

Sound

The opening scene is played out to the  non- diegetic music from John Willows which is floaty, jazzy music. It has a 1960s feel about it. It links the subject and style of the film and creates the mood and creates a sense of suspense. The finger snaps link with the jazz style of the music and introduce a new credit or scene.

Titles

The writing is in long black lines which extend up and down from the letters. These lines cleverly create part of the scene, and the character can hide behind them, connoting a devious and cunning character. He is not quite what he seems. As the character changes, the audience is given a hint of the story to come.

Trailers and Opening sequences

A trailer usually consists of a montage of clips from the film. This montage gives key pieces of information about the film. Trailers usually start off at a very slow pace and gain speed as they near  the conclusion in order to grab the audience's attention and draw them into the film. The trailers usually have a tag line (memorable message/phrase) which the audiences will remember which will make them feel part of the film. It also identifies the companies and actors involved at the start to give a general overview of what you can expect form the film. Some trailers also have text during the transitions between each clip. These are usually a question or a quote from the movie which also grabs the audience's attention and makes them look to the deeper meaning behind the film. The text can also show reviews of the film and so allow the audience of the trailer to determine whether the film is worthwhile seeing and if it will appeal to them. An example of this would be the Expendable 2 trailer.
Film trailers are an important part of film making. They are very much like an advertisement for the film. A trailer is often given a big budget by film makers because it is such an important way of generating interest in the film before it is released. They are designed to give the audience a taste if the film and make them eager to come and see it. Trailers often include key moments from the film but do not give away any intricate details of the plot which would ruin the film for its audience. The title of the film often comes at the end of the trailer. often the film is linked to other successful films which the audience may have enjoyed. Many have powerful voice overs. Music is essential to add to the atmosphere and style of the film.

A film opening sequence of a film is the first opportunity that the director has to make a good and lasting impression on their audience. It introduces the audience to the tone or genre of the film by employing key conventions of that genre, for instance, a key of anxiety in horror/thriller films. It gives the audience a taste of the themes that will run throughout the film. It very often gives clues to the setting by opening with an establishing shot and cast of the film by introducing the audience immediately to the characters. It shows the audience the costumes used throughout the films. Some opening sequences superimpose opening credits over the opening action. It introduces the title and utilises both visuals and sound. The opening sequence will be designed to engage the interest of the audience

The companies create a music video which introduces all the cast with their characters and the main production companies along with the director. This identifies the key companies and the actors involved. This music video intro is usually positioned after a short action sequence at the very start. this immediately touches the audiences interests in the film and encourages them to watch on.  The Music intros always end with the director of the film.

As film intros play on they can also give an idea of the overall characters that will be met throughout the film.

Overall, film opening sequences are a key part to a film as they are what spark the audiences interests and are what captivates the audiences attention. All film intro sequences always show the title of the film either at the start or at the end in a large font with effects, which help to impress the audience and draw the audiences in.

Preliminary task shot list

Shot type	Shot Length (seconds)
Mid shot showing the school clock ticking.	2
Mid shot of two students sitting at a table	2
Mid shot of teacher sitting at desk	1
Mid shot of students sitting at the table	2
Mid shot of teacher sitting at the desk	2
Mid shot of students sitting at the table	2
Close up of one student as he looks up	2
Mid shot of two students at the table	8
Mid shot of teacher at the desk	5
Mid shot of the two students at the desk	3
Mid shot of two students standing up	2
Close up of one student with pencil	6
Mid shot of students and zombie around table	4
Mid shot of students leaving the room	13
Close up of student rolling over table	5
Mid shot showing the students walking away from the classroom	Rest of film

Preliminary task Evaluation

While we were filming we encountered several difficulties. The main difficulty was that we were unable to maintain the same room that we were filming in. This caused some complications as we had to film in a second room in which the layout had changed causing discontinuous editing to become apparent.

The equipment we used was rather simple to use however it did take our group a while to learn to use the editing software on the mac computers. However once we had learned how to use it we soon were able to edit more efficiently. The editing skills we used became more complex and the flow of the film was improved. An example of this was when we were inserting sounds into our film. At the start we were unable to quieten down the main audio from the clip. As our skills improved we were able to rectify this.

While we were filming we discovered that our original storyboard was confusing us as we were unsure of which shots we were going to use. When the story board was first drawn up we had shown what the final piece was going to look like. This caused concern as to what shots we needed to use. However we redid our storyboard and everything became much more clear and we were able to complete our film.
 

After editing our film we found that there are some parts that we will have to re-film as the story doesn't make much sense unless it has the shot in it. These shots include some close ups and our match on action which was not up to standard. Once we have reshot these parts the film will be of a better quality than it is.

Our group worked well as a team. We corrected each others' mistakes and we helped each other with the understanding of how to create films. When we were editing we each explained to each other how to edit and so improved our knowledge overall which aided in our skills.

preliminary task video

Description:

our video is about a zombie walking into the room where a school detention is being held. the students try to warn the teacher and end up taking matters into their own hands. after a short 'cat and mouse' sequence the students escape the room and save themselves unfortunately they forget the teacher and he gets eaten by the zombie.

story board