Looking into Drama #1

Looking into drama I have decided to focus on one of the most dramatic and intensely emotional films I have ever watched; Titanic. The opening has no dialogue in it what so ever however I personally believe that it is immensely powerful. 

The scene starts with the sound I can only describe as the shore on a stormy beach, this sound lasts for about 3 seconds before we hear a very low base instrument and a woman who begins to sing. As she is singing one note she goes into many keys, however on the third as they are getting higher a sound of a base drum hits.

On this base note, a sepia film appears where we see a cruise ship (the titanic) thats about to depart as there are masses of people waving goodbye on land- they are the first thing we see as the camera zooms up to the boat and the people on it. Knowing the the tragic story this film follows, a sense of irony appears as the camera zooms up, in an upward shot as this would usually signify importance and high status of the people on this cruise ship - which in order to afford this holiday they thought they were, however we know the real end, which is even more upsetting.

The shot then moves to masses of people on the boat waving goodbye, with joy and their hats in the air and then focuses on more specific parts of the boat for example the deck, then the corner, then people at a stairway and so on. I believe this is because the film shows how this disaster affects many people, old couples, upper class, lower class and young families. One very well done thing in this film opening was showing people waving goodbye as a close up rather than many in a widescreen makes the film become more personal, making people emotional and causing them to connect more with the film.

The opening carries on with music throughout and its significance is almost beautiful when shown in an emotional light. Everyone knows titanic is an emotional and romantic film, revealing a beautiful, tragic, heartbreaking yet heart warming storyline. It is a juxtaposition. Just like the film, the music can be portrayed in this light too, the background instruments are low and convey an underlying sadness that is about to come whilst the higher singing voice can be seen as calming and happy - together they create something very bittersweet. I think this is definitely a positive as it immediately gives off this atmosphere letting us indirectly know how this film might make us feel as the audience

This opening also talks brings history into the scene, as it is also common knowledge that Ireland was the titanic's last port of call, the tune being sung particularly up until 11 seconds is extremely comparable to traditional Irish music. The sepia effect (filter) also emphasises that it is an old event as this and black and white were the colours people would watch the tv in, in the olden days - almost making us feel as though we were back there with them.

Another thing noticeable with the music is that it is very in time with the camera movements, at many of the higher notes there is a transition, either from masses of people or individual people. This is particularly meaningful as soon after the shot moves from daylight to darkness of the sea where we can see its movements in the wind and can guess that this disaster will have something to do with the water, which they show for 11 seconds all together after finally revealing the title of the film above this water 'TITANIC". As this appears the woman singing is at her highest note in the section of that song as well as the song all together, this is highlighting the importance of the actual titanic in this film, almost honouring it or the people inside it, again rising emotions.

As the womans voice continues we hear the sound we heard at the beginning again beginning to almost overpower it, and we see that the shot has moved into the deeper parts of the sea with a submarines lights as the shot gets higher and begins to be a downwards shot looking down on the submarines. After a few seconds, with now two submarines with many lights on them almost looking for something under the water it becomes clear to us that this is due to an accident and the voice then drowns out for almost five seconds before continuing and coming to an end as these submarine become further and further into the distance.

This five second pause also portrays a message of silence, respect and -you could say- sympathy. Similar to the two minute silence, it is almost something honorary and it is something whereby people feel connected to what has happened and feel the sorrow and effects of the accident through this emptiness.

Overall I think it is an outstanding opening and can not be competed with. I can genuinely find no fault whatsoever apart from that I would have liked to get a glimpse of the shipwreck at the end of the opening as it could add to reason and complete and answer the question we've been contemplating throughout the opening - if there was a disaster, what was it? However I believe the producers decision to not put this in was clever as it doesn't reveal everything right away, it lets us wonder and fear and feel for the people we saw at the begining more for a while longer.

Any inspiration I would take from this film would be the use of angles to portray different kinds of emotion and contradictory/ironic emotion as explained above, and the use of music to deliver the message of the story. Both of these are very powerful.

A brief plot synopsis idea for a film in this genre
Two 11 year old twins who are also the best of friends find out that they're being evacuated, but separately as it is the only way they can be safe. They live for 5 years with no contact allowed and both go on a desperate journey to find one another at last.