Looking into Romance #1

Looking into the Romantic genre, I have chosen to do a brief analysis of the opening for 'The Vow'. I have chosen this because I think it is a very powerful opening and the entire film was outstanding.

The producers open this film very well with calm slow and happy music being played as an overhead zooming in shot is used to show a couple coming out of a theatre as it is snowing, as they're linking arms we can tell they have a romantic relationship, and the falling snow adds a magical and romantic effect to it.

There is then a pan shown of the setting around them, one big blanket of snow as they are talking about how beautiful it is. The music is taken down a notch to a gentle and magical almost christmassy feel with slight jingling sounds and a piano playing high notes and he is shown kissing her head as they almost cuddle up. This tells us these two are very much in love and the beautiful setting could be a metaphore for their relationship.

As they enter the car we have a back seat view of the two which I think makes the viewers feel a part of it more as though we were in the car with them.

Emphasising the romance further, Leo, turns on the radio singing along to 'I would do anything for love' and as they're laughing and having a good time Paige says 'I'm married to a cheeser'. This shows us that they aren't just a fling, their relationship is serious and real, they're at one of, if not the biggest step in a relationship which shows the audience its depth. The fact we are shown a close up clip of the radio being turned on shows us its diagetic sound - the characters can hear it too.

As the car stops, the music does too and the fun atmosphere has almost disappeared as we can only hear the running engine and wind wipers in the background.

Paige then starts talking and begins the sentence with 'I have a theory", its still a light hearted atmosphere as she goes on to say "a girl will get pregnant if she does it in a car". The two characters begin to get intimate with each other and we see a close up of Paige releasing her belt.

Suddenly the story line gets dark, the noise is turned to a tense sound slowly getting louder as we see headlights of another car in the back mirror of theirs. Then a voiceover comes on of a present day Leo as we see that the sound isn't diagetic, he says he has a theory too. This is powerful as we can tell from the tone of his voice that this is serious, the reason we feel something bad is about to happen is because of a theory his wife had so hearing he has one with a deeper meaning as we see the two cars getting closer together builds tension and emotion in the opening.

As he tells us his theory is about "moments of impact" just after the last word the cars collide, we see the impact the collision had as the glass windows instantly smash as sad music plays in the background and as the only other thing we can hear is the smash of the front windscreen as Paige fly's through it - again because of the impact.

This all happens in slow motion and after Paige has gone through the windscreen, time speeds up, the glass falls and there is no more noise except for the intense instrumental sounds being played in the background as another overhead shot is used this time zooming out as the snow falls.

Not only is the performance and direction very good for the opening in this film, but also the techniques used and opposites, for example Barthes code of binary oppositions, the very begining of the opening shows an overhead shot zooming in with the snow with beautiful scenery and happiness, however the end of the opening is an overhead shot zooming out with the snow, but this time not so beautiful scenery, and a devastating accident. This is 100% a pro to this example of a romantic opening.

I also like how we were given an exactly perfect amount of information just in the few minutes, the intensity of their relationship (they were trying for a baby) and that something was about to change due to a fatal accident, which is inciting because we don't know what that will be or the effect it will have.

I really liked the voiceover, as from that point on, it managed to change the mood and direction of the entire opening from just the tone of the voice in the first sentence. I think voiceovers are very powerful, especially when it is done in such a way that it is a present day character referring to something that happened in their past - it shows growth. I would take inspiration from this in particular if i was to make an opening in this, or any genre.

There's nothing from this particular opening that I didn't like, one con if I had to pick at it would be that the voiceover did not carry on in the opening, it didn't come to a final sentence for closure expanding his theory on impact, however this can be seen as a good thing as after the opening the voice over may continue throughout the film - it can be a reason to keep watching, so it is bittersweet in that sense.

A brief plot synopsis idea for a film in this genre
Rosie is 25 wanting to settle down and wondering why every relationship she has been in has never worked out, she takes a trip down memory lane visiting lovers from her past only to realise exactly why she has ended up this way. An unexpected twist occurs for Rosie when someone from her past shed never even met could be the one to change her life forever...

Looking into Fantasy #1

The film I will be looking into for the fantasy genre is the first film of the series Twilight, this film was released in 2008 with the key character revealed in the opening being Bella Swan - played by Kristen Stewart.

This films opens in quite a 'dark' manner, however not dark enough to be considered a horror. 

The first words we hear are "I'd never given much thought to how i would die". This immediately tells us that this isn't a typical happy and joyful fantasy film, it is clearly intense - we can also see this from the nervous and uneasy tone in her voice. She continues her monologue with "dying in the place of someone I love seems like a good way to go". This tells me that the underlying base of the film will be about romance and possibly not a healthy relationship if it were to cause her so much pain.

As she is giving this monologue about death we see a hunting scene between a wolf and a deer. The deer is unsuspecting and alone when the wolf jumps up at her she runs away as he runs faster towards her, they change directions and suddenly when the deer reaches 'the light at the end of the tunnel' the wolf jumps out and kills her. We know that this must be significant in order to have made it into the cut however different meanings can be interpreted from it leaving a few questions in the audiences heads. My interpretation of it is that she is the deer and her lover is the wolf, initially when she sees him she tries to avoid him because she senses that he is dangerous and she begins to run however when she thinks she has gotten away she realises she loves him and he takes her on this almost dangerous relationship ride where she ends up getting physically hurt - or worse - dead.

The deer also symbolises innocence, vulnerability and being scared which can all relate back to Bella in terms of the hunting scene, which is the producers way of revealing the character indirectly.

In the opening we also hear Bella talking about leaving home to be with her dad, the last words she says in the opening is that its a "good thing, I think". The 'I think" doesn't give us any reassurance that the story line will be happy, instead it sets the story line on a more negative foot because Bella herself isn't sure that this is the best thing for her. The voice over could also be in the present as she's telling us a story about her past which we could then relate what she said back to the relationship she may find at her dads and that she thinks whatever she sacrifices for it is a good thing, because like we found out at the beginning she would sacrifice herself for love.

In this opening a voice over is used whilst clips are playing in the background, like the hunt. To emphasise the danger in this hunt the voice over is paused so that the audience are 100% focused on it. We also see a clip of her and her mother hugging before she leaves with her step father saying he loves them both in the background, this is used to show us the close bond she has with them and that leaving them is a big step.

I personally really like the way this film has opened, it has given us indirect information about the character. The voiceover and clips enable the baseline of the story to be revealed to us without too much being given away, there is a mysterious feel about it and the fact a deer and a wolf were used add to the fantasy element because both of these animals in different forms are known to be magical e.g. a reindeer and a werewolf.

I don't think there are any negatives to this film opening because enough characters have been revealed and we are briefly shown Bellas strong thoughts about love so it is enough for us to have an idea about what the film will entail. The only negative could be that a voice over was used for the entire opening however this is made up for by the fact there was none in the hunting scene and there was conversations being had by the step father, mother and Bella in a quieter volume over the voice over.

From here, I have taken the inspiration to include a voiceover into my final opening as i feel it is a perfect way to start the story off and give people an idea of what is happening but still having the capacity to be mysterious.


A brief plot synopsis idea for a film in this genre

Natalie can read minds, this is passed through every fourth generation in her family and she is unaware of this until she sees that her father has committed a terrible crime that could jeopardise the entire families lives. Will she stick by her fathers side or will she do what is really the best thing for them all?.

Narration

To narrate means to give an account, a story or a narrative. It is usually going through a sequence of events in chronological order to inform the audience of what is happening or has happened, it is direct contact with the audience and can be considered a form of breaking the fourth wall in terms of audio only if one of the characters are narrating.

From memory of watching them, there are two particular film openings that include narration/voiceovers which really stand out to me, rather than talking about the films openings and the story/narratives themselves I will purely talk about the voiceovers and positives and negatives of it as well as why i like or don't like it and why i think having a voiceover may or may not be useful.

Twilight

I did a blogpost where I looked into the fantasy genre and twilight was the film I analysed, in this post I spoke about the voiceover in this film which you can find here

From looking at the voiceover in this film I learnt that using one can be very powerful as it can give you an insight into the characters mind who is giving it, rather than just introducing you to the story. In the monologue, Bella says "Dying in the place of someone I love seems like a good way to go". This not only gives us insight into the story telling us it may be depressing or intense, however it lets us know a lot about the way Bella thinks as well as her personality, she seems like a very thoughtful person and we can also gather that love clearly means a lot to her. We immediately see from her tone and dialogue that she is a very intense character and so is the storyline.

This type of voiceover/narration isn't necessarily letting the audience know a background story, however its letting them know how a character feels through a monologue, this doesn't always mean the character is directly talking to the audience as sometimes the audience are not addressed by a "you" etc however most of the time it is for the audiences benefit or to set the mood of the film, for example, the mood twilight sets is a dark, heavy and painful one.

Tangled
I did a blogpost analysing this film and for part of it I spoke about the voiceover which you can find here

In this opening a voiceover is used to tell a story, one of the main characters, Flynn, introduces himself in a friendly and relaxed tone. Instead of telling us how he feels or his opinion on a situation he begins to tell us a story about a girl named Rapunzel. He begins his storytelling with 'once upon a time' and gives us the background to it telling us what had happened so many years ago. As he is telling the story we know it is in the past, therefore his relaxed tone at present is reassuring that the film has a happy ending, which will encourage people to watch it. Throughout this voiceover we find out that an old woman was keeping herself young by singing to a magic flower, the magic then transferred to the king and queen's baby girl - specifically, her hair - and the only way she would be able to stay young was if she kid-knapped the princess, raised her as her own and sang to her - activating her magic powers. This immediately tells us the story could be a 'roller coaster' in metaphorical terms, with an underlying sad storyline which we hope will be resolved but also a fun one, with the journey Rapunzel may take from start to end with her powers.

The main difference between the two types above is that tangled directly tells a story and on the screen, voiceovers like this will usually have clips of this story from beginning to end, whereas just a voiceover with no real narration of an actual story usually delivers thoughts and will show a significant event or a clip of something relevant that could be a metaphore for what the voiceover is saying in order to set the atmosphere rather than to inform. I like both forms depending on the type of film and what the producers are trying to convey as they are both very useful however I do prefer the voiceover used in twilight's opening as I feel like it is more emotionally effective and it doesn't give too much away however is all relevant to the story and the audience will realise this as they reach the end of the film - it is more mysterious.

There is an importance of clarity when it comes to narration, as the purpose of it is to inform or make someone aware of something, therefore it should be easy to understand and the message producers are trying to portray should be clear to the audience. Below are pro's and con's of narration

The pros of narration/voiceovers are...

• it can inform the audience of any background story or what is going on
• it can set a mood and atmosphere
• it can let you know more about an individual character
• it can emotionally connect with the audience

The cons of narration/voiceovers are...

• The actors voiceover could be very monotone and boring therefore make the audience become less interested
• It may only give one characters point of view or feelings, being bias

I believe having a voiceover or a form of narration is important and adds to the effect of the film, I think it is a perfect way to portray emotions and I would like to use it in my opening.