Secret Intelligence Service - Student textual analysis

'Secret intelligent service' is a student made film coming under the genre of sci-fi/mystery/spy. You can see the opening for this below.

In the opening to this film we see there is a Sci-fi element to it between 0:7-0:11, we can also take a guess that the plot may be sad as well as mysterious as the sad music plays in the background of this ident as if something devastating has occurred. The shot then cuts to a man writing what seems to be a very important letter headed 'SIS Intelligence Report: Potential London Threat' with the date of 2005. From this we can tell that the film is quite serious and could be about a spy. We then hear a baby cry and the atmosphere appears to be stressful for the man due to this and the fact that, unknown to him, the important letter did not save. We are shown a clip of a bombing that cuts straight to news reports overlapping each other emphasising the stress levels by doing so and showing devastating pieces of news, we also see an ambulance come in. This is all done in black and white which is very clever as it shows something in a raw and plain state where emotions are heavier and duller, there is more focus. We then hear an alarm clock go off and this man we think could be a spy, get ready. After he is ready there are establishing shots of London showing iconic buildings and the classic red London busses, letting the audience know the exact location. There are also very good shots and angles, particularly as the man is crossing the bridge in order to get to his final destination. We see a big building and at this point the title comes up across it with 'Secret Intelligence Service' so we therefore assume this is a spy building - especially as the man comes up to it and we get a point of view from a security camera.

The plot theme is revealed that the film is all about mystery and secret intelligence, it is very enticing as the London Bombings are such an important topic, so when brought up and people are given the directors theory or take on a story behind it, it is likely they will want to watch - even if they know it is not a true story. We can see that the plot will most likely revolve around these bombing and that some form of a secret mission is included later.

Only one key character seems to have been introduced, being the man, there is also a shot with his wife or girlfriend sleeping beside him who could become a key part later on in the story, however as far as the opening is concerned the main character is the man who appears to be a spy, as we see that this 'secret intelligence service' plays a critical part in the story. We see that this man is also a family man because we hear his baby cry through the baby monitor at night and he gets up from writing the letter to attend him/her. So overall, 3 possible key characters have been revealed.

There is no dialogue except for the news reports, this also emphasises and highlights their importance, especially due to he fact it is the only thing the audience can here and have a full understanding of. In cases like this, less is definitely more as a lot of the plot or themes of it are not hard to guess, so I think that the silence is a good thing here.

A way in which this film challenges the usual conventions of a Sci-fi film is that at the start there is no harmony, it jumps straight into an issue and stress unlike others which usually slowly build up to it. It conforms to the usual genre because straight away we see there is some kind of a fight between good and evil right from the start where we see the potential spy write a letter to the intelligence service about a threat. Another way it conforms to the usual conventions is that the lighting is dark, which emphasises the dark intentions and situations of what the film is based around (the bombings).

I really like the use of angles here and the fact that only relevant speech is used. I also like the use of lighting, again to only highlight the important things such as the bright computer screen with a letter about a potential threat. Even though I find sci-fi and mysterious spy films enticing, I don't personally want to use this as a genre in my final film opening as so far it is not my favourite. I also feel like in order for any sci-fi film to be good, it has to be professionally made with professional equipment and access to certain locations or tools to make it, as technology plays a big part in it and as students we don't have access to this kind of material therefore I would rather make an excellent film in a different genre that appeals to me more.

Insanity - Student made analysis.

Below is a horror student made opening called 'Insanity'.

From the start of the film we can tell that the main character is taking a journey, we can see this from the backpack and the map he pulls out pointing to his destination. When he reaches his destination he looks up at it as if it is highly important, almost with hope and fear. As he trips up the entrance steps we see a silhouette figure behind him, as if they caused him to fall. As he turns around a scary, possessed looking face appears making the audience jump. The only part of the plot revealed is that he was on a journey and as he reaches it a dark character appears, the only question we are left asking is 'where was he on his way to?' because everything else seems basic and predictable, there's some form of a 'monster' that will harm him in some way. Due to this it is not something that really creates suspense, instead it just causes the audience to jump a little bit. Even though the story may unfold to be very good, I don't feel like the opening is very enticing and not enough of the story is revealed to make me personally want to watch.

There are two key characters revealed, one the man that is shown for the majority of the film and the second being the 'monster'. This isn't usually a bad thing because in a horror film these are the only two really important characters (the protagonist and villain, good/evil) and in the first two minutes we can be shown a possible reason behind this however in this opening we aren't given much insight, which I think is important, even if it is just a bit.

There is no dialogue except for when the man falls and expresses his pain, there is a very quiet tense background noise playing that is unidentifiable however it is not complete silence. I do believe this goes well with the horror genre as it doesn't emphasise fear alone, it shows something bad may be coming and there are other things going on through this minimal noise. The man is unsuspecting, therefore complete silence would be portraying the wrong message - that he was afraid.

Another way the conventions of a horror film are conformed to is the idea of the 'calm before the storm' as at the beginning the sequence and atmosphere appears to  be particularly calm with only a hint of nervousness, presumably due to the location he knew he was travelling to, with the storm coming as the mysterious and horrifying figure appears.

Even though the idea of showing contrast between good and evil or rich and poor (Barthes symbolic codes) appeals to me and that is a big part in horror movies, I have decided that for my own media opening I will not use a Horror film as I don't enjoy watching them and I find them quite predictable and pointless, I don't feel as though the opening can give the audience much insight in order to entice them like other genres can and for that reason I am not interested in looking further into this genre with the intention of making a Horror myself, although I may look at some for inspiration in terms of the narrative.

Inner Evil - Student Textual Analysis

Inner evil is a student made thriller opening, you can see the video for it below.

In terms of how much is introduced, there is not a whole lot however it makes us ask questions and learn a bit about the character. There are two assumptions that we can make from this plot

1. The girl is constantly paranoid, she has scary visions or dreams where she is getting or has been abused that we can not yet tell apart in terms of whether they could happen or are only her imaginations, the plot could be about this girl constantly living in her own fear worrying about things that could happen and 'what if's and that is the concept behind her idea of the inner evil - she is her own worst enemy.
2. The girl is living in fear due to consequences of her own actions, she may have done something where she knows she will be taken vengeance to and for that reason is always on the look out.

Either way, we can assume that the plot will be full of tension and suspense, therefore quite thrilling, there are questions to be answered such as 'why is the girl so afraid' and 'who is the girl following her, is it imagination or reality?' which is a good thing because it keeps us guessing and therefore cause us to keep watching.

We have only been introduced to two characters, one being the paranoid girl you can see for the majority of the video and the other being someone we are unsure of resembling that girl who we can guess that is either a figment of imagination, inner evil character or a real life replica of her out to get her.

There is no dialogue in this opening, it is mainly heavy breathing and gasping. I personally believe this is effective because silence emphasises fear, when you are quiet it is like you're constantly listening out for something or someone to jump out at you, just like the girl seems to be. It fits in well with the story.

Usual conventions or themes of a thriller is that no answers are immediately revealed, once one question is answered another appears, it keeps the audience on constant edge. I would usually expect a mystery to have been solved, new information to cause a rage or a fight between the good and evil. This film seems to conform to this aspect due to the fact there is an obvious line between who the good and evil is, especially due to the evil wearing dark and the good wearing light clothes, however it challenges the typical element of this genre as it seems that the good and evil are the same person and the girl is fighting a battle against herself, which I find very interesting.

I really like the use of flash-forwards and flashbacks to visions that this girl has whether they may be real or not, for example in the video above from 1:55 - 2:05 where we are shown the girl being kid-knapped for a second as she turns round the corner and then realise that we were seeing a worry she had after the real life version of her turned the corner and there was no one there. This is a clever technique as it causes the audience to believe something bad has happened when in fact it hasn't, causing the constant 'rollercoaster' of tension, suspense and relief. This is a flash-forward, an example of a flashback to a vision or a dream she may have had is from 1:36 - 1:43 where she seems to remember seeing someone cut her throat with her key and looks down at it as if she feels she is about to have de-ja-vu.

Overall I think this is an excellent film opening, I like the concept of a thriller however if I decide to incorporate the element into my film opening I would only mildly include it as I would like there to be suspense however I wouldn't like the audience to be strongly on a constant edge as I personally feel the film becomes less enjoyable.

Big Fish - Story telling/Narrative

The storytelling in Big Fish is told through a series of flashbacks. Edward Bloom tells and narrates stories to people in his family, particularly his son and daughter in law. Before finding out that his father was dying of cancer, Will (Edwards son) had not spoken to his father for 3 years due to his inability to connect to him. Due to the exaggerated and almost impossible stories Ed had told his son, Will felt as though everything his father had told him was a lie and that he didn't really know who he was, this angered and frustrated him as he believed the only reason Edward would tells these stories was for attention.

When Will receives information that Edward is very ill, he travels back to his home town in the hope to reconcile and find out the truth about who his father was and what he did in his life, and it is at this point when we begin to see flashbacks as Ed retells and relives his life.

The first flashback we see is a young Edward with friends in a dark and scary location where there is witch, and if the children wish to see how they are going to die, they must look into the witch's eye. Ed explains that he looked into the eye and saw his fait, however this was never revealed in the story. Due to finding out his fate, it was shown through the narration of Albert Finney (old Edward) that he would go on many adventurous and exiting journeys with many risks because he knows they could not kill him. This sets the theme for the rest of the movie because it shows and tells us that a common theme in it will be to do with taking risks and new exiting ventures, that for any ordinary man could be harmful.

The quote "a goldfish will remain small if kept in a small bowl, but will grow bigger if kept in a larger area" is used to show the ambition young Edward had, and meant that he felt he needed to leave to a bigger area to match his big ambition. Here, a giant is brought into the story who is eating livestock in the night, Edward volunteers to talk to him and when he solves the issue, is seen as the local hero and moves out of town with the giant as they were both destined for 'bigger things' either literally or metaphorically.

As Edward and the Giant approach a forest, Ed decides to take the dangerous short cut as he knows it can't kill him. At the end of this road he reaches a town called Spectre, a perfect town, where he meets a little girl Jenny who is very disappointed but hopeful as he states that he needs to leave and carry on with his journey.

Edward then tells his daughter in law, Josephine about how he came to meet his wife. He explained that him and the Giant came across a circus where the giant was immediately employed by them. Ed then catches his future wife, Sandra, in his eye and says he fell in love at first sight. He explained that Sandra was a student and already engaged to one of Edwards rivals, Don Price, however this did not stop him from openly declaring his love for her which ends in Don brutally beating Edward as Ed promises Sandra that he wont fight back. It is at this point where Sandra leaves Don for Ed after seeing just how cruel he could be.

It is at this point where Will begs his father to be himself and just tell the truth about his life and background and to simply be himself. Edward is hurt by this and tells his "I've been nothing but myself since the day I was born, and if you can't see that, it's your failing, not mine!" - making us question if all these stories do have truth to them or that there is a chance they really are fact, and did happen.

Old Edward then goes on to tell a story about at the recieval of war enrolment letter, even though he was sad to leave his new wife, he decided to take the most dangerous position as he knows nothing can go fatally wrong. He parachutes into an army camp during a performance for troops and tells his daughter in law a story about meeting two Siamese twin singers who he offers to help break America if they can get him home. As they escape, the US army believe Ed is missing and a flashback of Sandra getting an MIA letter in the post is shown before Edward finally re-joins his wife, becomes a travelling salesman and buys them a better house.

Ed has yet another flashback and tells a story about bumping into an old friend from spectre at a bank one day, Nother, who was robbing it. Edward said he didn't have much choice but to help in this robbery and Norther later sends him £10,000 in which he uses to buy a new house for his family.

Many years later, Edward is becoming a middle ages man. He reconciles with Jenny who is the little girl  who lived in spectre, and he decided to save their town by buying it out but letting them keep their houses. Jenny doesn't want to sell her home so instead Ed redecorates it and fixes it with the help of his giant friend. Jenny misinterprets this action and leans in to kiss Edward however he tells her Sandra is the only one for him. - again, in a flashback.

Back in the present day in Ashton, Edward is only getting weaker, but he continues to tell everyone that this death was not the one he saw in the eye of the witch. Will is saddened as, as they spend time alone he believes he will never really know who his father really is and he slowly, but resentfully, begins to accept this. Shortly after this Edward has a stroke and is taken into hospital. Will asks his family doctor the real story of his birth, as he has only ever had the exaggerated version and at hearing that it was a regular birth he decided his fathers story was more comforting and entertaining, and decides to reconcile with Edward, who is in the later stages of dying.

Just before Edward dies, he asks will to tell him the story of how he dies however Edward never shared what he saw in the eye so Will couldn't. After he pleas Will takes his fathers place and begins a spontaneous story. He finds himself telling a heart warming, comforting and entertaining story to make his dad happy, just like his father used to do. He tells his father that he regains strength, crazily escape the hospital and fastly drive to a river where all Edwards family and friends are, including characters Ed had spoken about in stories to his son. He tells him instead of a funeral they host a goodbye party and as Will places him into the river he is happy and content, turning into a big fish, swimming away. Edward is pleased with this story and is at rest, shortly after he passes away.

Will feels like him and his father finally connected, and he finally understood all of these stories and why his father delivered them the way he did. Will goes on to find a letter to his mother from the army that his dad was MIA, this brings Edward comfort in the fact there was genuine truth within his fathers stories. At Edwards funeral Will can not believe to see the people/characters from all of the stories Edward had told him, he saw the man Ed described as a giant to see he wasn't actually a giant, but very tall. He also saw Ping and Jing, the korean twins however not conjoined as well as seeing Jenny, Norther and many others from what he believed to be lies. Will is very comforted and feels at rest that all along he really did know his dad , he realised Edward combined his passion for telling stories and bringing joy to people with his real life events, and when his son is born he carries on the family tradition and passes on the stories.

The storytelling in this film delivers us a story, through telling many little ones. Tim Burton directed this film and showed us a whole life story and a transformation of relationships in under 2 hours by showing us flashbacks of the main character Ed, and the realisation Will came to that after all, his dad really was himself. I really like the idea of flashbacks used and realisation from these flashbacks with a form of truth, as I feel like it is something that warms the audiences heart especially at the fact in the end it was a happy ending, therefore I may take inspiration from this film when I come to plan my own and make an opening for it.

Textual Analysis; Tangled Film Opening

~Textual Analysis~

In the first few minutes of this film a lot of the plot is introduced. Right at the start we're shown a picture of a tree with a wanted sign posting that they want the supposed 'criminal' dead or alive. The voice over comes in saying 'this is the story of how I died' which is both comical and revealing in the sense we know the voice over is most likely the wanted man and that he cant be dead because he is talking. He then goes on to laugh and say 'don't worry, its actually a fun story'. This confirms the humour and lets the audience take a liking to the friendly voiceover through his calm and reassuring tone  and question why he may be wanted seeing as he doesn't appear to have criminal characteristics from what we can see to start with. From this we can take a guess that the plot will contain the story of how this man became wanted and that this would be more towards the beginning of the story because you would watch it all unfold from start to finish. His name is Flynn Ryder and he tells us that it's not his story and instead is about a girl named Rapunzel which would make us assume that he and her may have some form of a friend/relationship if he knows her story well enough in order to narrate it.

Flynn tells us that the 'story starts with the sun' which is the most important fact for us to know because without it, there wouldn't be a story. He tells us that a magic drop of sunlight fell from the heavens and from this drop of sunlight, a magical flower grew that had the ability to heal the sick and injured. At this point we see the plot may be based around this magical flower and because of the magic element, it shows us it is more of fantasy film that's aimed at a younger audience and possibly a family.

An old woman in a dark cape who looks as if she may be trying to hide, comes towards this flower and before the scene cuts, Flynn tells us to remember her because she's an important character, making the audience believe she may be the villain of the film. Flynn continues to give us a background story saying that centuries had past since this drop of sunlight had grown into a magic flower and tells us that a beloved king and queen were expecting a baby. The land that is shown whilst Flynn is telling us about this is light and beautiful with a bright blue sea surrounding the kingdom where the palace is the center of it but as he says the queen fell sick during her pregnancy  the lighting becomes dark and everyone's facial expressions turn sad and gloomy. The scene turns to many people from the island searching in the dark looking for a miracle to cure her. This tells us the royals were well loved and made people happy. When an audience is shown such people they start rooting for them, hoping that the best will come to them. To me, this would suggest that the underlying plot of the story is helping the King and Queen and that even though they may not be at the forefront of the plot, they are the basic bricks of it and the story would end with them just the same way as it started, except on a happier note.

After centuries, we see the old woman returning to the flower and realize that she is a selfish and evil character when we find out she has hoarded the flower to make herself young again by singing to it, we are shown this transformation as she sings the lyrics 'bring back what once was mine'. This suggests she feels cheated by life and that young appearance has been taken and robbed from her when in actual fact she has lived for so long now because of this flower that she knows if she stopped using it she would probably die - she is scared and vulnerable and this is causing her to be the evil character she is portrayed to be. The magic of this flower is emphasized as in total darkness it is the only thing to bring light. As the old woman runs to hide from the people of the kingdom, she accidentally reveals the flower and as she sees they have found it a close up of her eyes, squinting with hate is shown, which tells us it wont be the last of her, she will get her revenge and this revenge and jealousy will most likely play the biggest part in the plot.

We are shown, as expected, that the magic flower healed the queen and we see that a happy baby was born with golden hair even though her parents are brunettes and that this was because of the sunlight in the healing flower. We also see the strong, loving bond and connection the baby has with her parents and see a crown being put on her head making it clear she is Rapunzel - the princess.

We see this family's popularity among the people and their love for each other when the King and Queen release a lantern into the sky to celebrate Rapunzel's birth as crowds gather to witness this event. As the sunlight and happiness of this event fades into the darkness with only the light of the moon to see, the narrator says that everything before that moment was perfect, giving us the idea that the majority of the storyline would be problematic and upsetting. We see the old woman return as expected however she attempts to sing to the baby in the hope her youth will be restored and as it's the baby's hair that glows like the flower once did. She tries cutting just one piece for herself but she soon realizes this is not possible and she needs uncut hair as she sees herself turn back into a crippled old woman. She panics and snatches the baby for herself and it is at this point when the main plot of the entire story is revealed; a baby princess was kidnapped and the story will most likely evolve by showing the baby grow up and eventually find her way back home.

Overall, a lot of the plot is revealed, we can assume what the story will entail and would definitely know if it would be a film we would want to carry on watching.  We can also assume the story wont be about the old lady physically hurting the child but will instead be about her using Rapunzel for the magical powers her hair has. The amount revealed, in my opinion is very good as it doesn't spell out everything that is going to happen and isn't predictable throughout even though we may make assumptions, as there are still unanswered questions such as Flynn and Rapunzel's relationship and why Flynn was arrested and maybe even how Rapunzel (if she does) finds her way home.

All of the main characters are introduced in the opening except for Flynn, who introduces himself through the wanted poster and his voice over. I believe its good that all the important characters have been introduced because it means when the audience are watching later throughout the film they are fully aware of who everyone is as they've all been given a clear introduction, especially due to the voiceover, making everything easy to understand. This is a good thing especially because its a film aimed at families and a younger audience and therefore making it simple to comprehend is important.

There is no dialogue except for the voice over. The only other diegetic sounds we hear is the crowd cheering and the leader of the search party shouting that they found the magic flower, this  is important because they both signify the most important elements throughout the film; love and determination. Especially due to the fact its aimed at a younger audience, I think its suitable that there was a voice over explaining everything as like I said its 'child friendly'  and usually all ages enjoy watching these genres of film because they aren't hard to fathom.

Overall I feel like this is a very effective film opening as it really entices the viewer and its graphics + visuals are to a very high quality and standard. One thing in particular that was enticing was the fact that the last word in the opening was 'gone' as it leaves behind a sense of mystery, it is a clever technique because it resembles a cliffhanger but rather than having to wait till the next week to see what happens next (like in most tv programmes) all you have to do is wait a few seconds and watch until the end of the film.

Basic conventions of a fantasy/animation film are that something unrealistic occurs and that they are often aimed to be children/family films. The glowing hair accords to the fantasy conventions because its unrealistic and 'magic', it also conforms to the fact it is a children's genre due to the brighter colours and the magic involved that would captivate a young child. It doesn't really challenge any of the usual elements to fantasy/animation/romance/comedy in the parts it includes, it is a take on a classic fairy-tale including elements of comedy that will make the film more enjoyable. The only real difference or challenge to conventions this fantasy films genre's has, is that it is a musical. Musicals are usually formed around realistic stories, such as Hairspray or Mamma Mia, however Disney has recently incorporated music into their animated films.

I believe this opening is very good and easy to watch, it contains a lot of information and puts many questions in the viewers head and that is exactly what a good opening should do.

This was a professionally made film.

'Mamma Mia' Film Opening - Textual Analysis

~Textual Analysis~

In the beginning of this film we see a girl on a boat paddling in the night around a beautiful island, this is like the establishing shot telling us that this will be the setting for the majority of the film.

The girl sings the lyrics "I have a dream, a song to sing, to help me cope with anything. If you see the wonder of a fairytale, you can take the future even if you fail' as she is paddling in her little boat and then shown walking up to a postbox. The girls appears to be daunted by this postbox whilst she walks up to it with three letters in hand, I can see this by the nervous look on her face and the 'point of view' angles of herself looking at it whilst she slowly walks towards it. The postbox is bright yellow and almost glows in the darkness, metaphorically speaking this suggests that if the girl posts these letters, it could be life changing and bring around happiness and joy.

All of the above suggests that these letters, if posted, could help the girl achieve her dream. The lyrics 'you can take the future even if you fail' would show she has decided to post them because she has nothing to loose and even if she is unsuccessful in whatever the aim of the letters is, she can still have a bright future. Through this last line, she trails from a singing voice to a nervous and trembling tone showing the audience that she is nervous about her actions, but due to the fact we have concluded that they could help her dreams come true, I have gathered that she must be somewhat exited and is just anticipating that if these letters do what she has intended them to do, her life could take a supposed 'better' turn.

We can now take a guess that the plot will heavily rely on these three letters and that their 'aftermath' will have a 'snowball effect' on the rest of the plot.

Calm music plays in the background of the girl posting each letter as she reads out who each one is addressed to in an anxious tone. The shot turns to each letter where we can see the soon to be destination of them; one to the UK, USA and Sweden.

After this, the scene cuts to fun music with three very different, but similar in age, men seeming to be in a rush and all using a method of transport in order to get them somewhere unknown to us. Each man is in a location that appears to be one of the three locations that were written on the girls letter; one America, we can see this due to the american accents and yellow taxi's with 'NYC' printed on them, one England, we can see this also because of the accents and the green scenery with the black taxi's and the last Sweden, as it looks like a less developed, more cultural country with baazars running through it and the sun beaming. The shot is divided into three equal parts and each mans passport photo is shown, the subjects in the frame are then interrupted by a plane sliding them upwards. It is at this point where we can take a fairly accurate guess that these men are all on their way to the girl for a reason that we still aren't aware of and that they all seem happy about it.

All of this suggests to me that the backbone of this plot will be the girls relationship with these three men and a series of events unfolding as we find out who these men are and why and how they are both going to the girl and how they know her. This is all that is revealed to us in the opening, we are left with many questions such as 'what exactly is the girls dream' and 'why might these three men be a part of it'. Even though we say that there is a deeper element to the film as it is most likely about a dream coming true, we can see that it also seems to be a fun and fast paced film with the fun music and smiles from the men. As the animated plane drags the shots of the passport up the title is revealed 'Mamma Mia', this is an italian expression which can be used to express a range of emotions such as anxiousness, fear, joy and surprise. This suggests that the island is somewhere in Italy, that all three men eventually make it to the island because the passport shot almost signifies one of the last steps to a travel and that that these three men will bring all of these elements of emotion to the story and may cause an unexpected stir that would have a 'crazy' ending.

There are no teenage characters introduced in this opening so it would not be considered a teenage drama, however we can see that it is a musical and may be emotional in some parts so could possibly be a romantic or dramatic one, but like any typical musical would most often unveil a story as well as be fun and happy to watch.

The only characters shown in the opening are the girl and the three men, that for some reason she has apparently sent for. This suggests even though there may still be important characters, the 4 mentioned are the backbone of the plot in the ways I have mentioned above (e.g. why she has brought them to her). All of these 4 characters appear to be key.

The only dialogue involved excluding the singing that trails off into talking comes from the three men as they travel in a hurry saying 'I have to go', speaking to drivers and 'whooping' from excitement. This all emphasises the fun and positivity of the story, but also the importance of whatever was in the letters had to the men in order to make them so eager to go to the island.

The genre of this film is a musical romantic comedy. It confirms to the musical genre in the way that for every situation there is a relevant song e.g. 'Money Money Money' when the mother is complaining about the lack of money and the state of the island because everything is breaking, 'The winner takes it all' when Donna is reminiscing about the breakup and relationship of her and her ex boyfriend whom she thinks she may still have feelings for, and 'Take a chance on me' when Rosie takes a liking to one of Donna's ex's and wants to pursue a relationship. Mamma Mia confirms to the comedy genre through both performances and songs, for example when the 3 older women (Donna, Rosie and Tanya) are dancing around to 'dancing queen' it is comical due to the actions and faces they pull, like when Rosie slides down the bannister and comes to a 'painful' halt. The way the storyline is portayed isn't all too serious either, its delivered in a funny way which makes the audience more relaxed and established that part of its genre is comedy. Aside from this, the producers have not just focused on trying to make the film 100% funny because that is not real life, the storyline itself is taken seriously as it is not a fantasy which is a good thing because otherwise people may take the entire film as a 'joke'. The film also conforms to the Romantic element of the genre throughout, the entire film is based around a marriage and preparation for Sophie and her boyfriends wedding, it is the whole reason why the 3 men were invited in the first place. However one particular element to the film challenged the typical 'romantic comedy' genre when last minute Sophie decided not to get married, and instead her Mother decided to marry one of the men she had left many years ago, when they rekindled their love for each other at her daughters wedding location.

Overall it is a very fun and intriguing opening and personally, I would want to watch more. Enough information is revealed to give us an idea of what the plot may entail, however there are many questions yet to be answered, which would cause the majority of the audience to continue watching.

This was a professionally made film.

Textual Analysis; Wild Child Opening

~Textual Analysis~

Quite a lot of the plot is introduced in the opening few minutes of this film, we find out a lot about Poppy (the main character). To start with, we see her room is modern, luxurious and is overlooking the sea which tells us her family may be very wealthy in order to afford such a 'beautiful' home. We also see a theme of pink and light pastel baby blue which are both typically girly colours throughout her room as well as running through her choices of clothing. Poppy looks like a well groomed typical 'Miami girl' that prefers a higher and materialistic quality of life and this is shown through her tan, coloured and voluminous hair, and her taste for expensive clothing and her shrug as she gives a look and sound of disgust when she see's clothes that aren't up to her standards.

 

As soon as Poppy goes to talk to her sister, Molly, she begins to speak of somebody named 'Rosmary' moving in. Even though we don't know who she is we immediately realise Poppy isn't fond of Rosemary when Molly begs that she 'doesn't do anything stupid'. However, we see a sweeter side to Poppy when she comes down to her Molly to cut the crusts off her sandwich as we see she has a more maternal and caring element to her when it comes to looking after her.

We also see that Poppy is a daring character that is experiencing rebellion. During the conversation Poppy has with Molly she tells her 'not to worry' and that she 'knows what she's doing' with a smug look on her face as if she is planning something. It is then made clear that Rosemary is Poppy's Dads Girlfriend and at the van movers arrival she invites all of her friends and gives them one instruction; to help themselves. This would get the audience on Poppys side as usually 'Stepmothers' are the villains and most teenagers would rebel against them, this reveals some of the plot because it doesn't prove Poppy to be a 'bad person' it just shows that she seems to be fighting her mothers corner and is going through a stage of rebellion which is relatable to most young people (the audience).

We are also shown that Poppy is a popular girl due to both the amount of people that turned up to her house and by the lead she took when everyone was listening to her whilst standing behind - this could be to portray her importance or high social status as she stood infront of all of her friends or could just show the fact that it is her house and therefore she is the most important person there. We see that Poppy has a desire for this popularity and attention as she runs up to the pool side holding Rosmarys clothes shouting 'hey girls, watch this!' and jumps off it into the ocean - which is a very long drop, her friends appear terrified that she may be hurt and one of the boys rush over to see if she is alright and as soon as they realise she is, they all breathe a sigh of relief - which shows she is loved amongst her peers. This is a very big element to the plot as if you have seen the full film 'wild child' her likability is what saves her from lies and deciept, so by showing us that Poppy is a likeable and genuine character, the producer is setting us up for a dielemm later in the film in terms of which side to take and who to believe.

In the next part of the opening we are introduced to an older male character who we see has authority over Poppy as he shouts at her to get out of the water and to go to him 'right now' so we would correctly assume that this is her dad. We are shown how angry Poppy's actions have made him by the stern tone of his voice and realise that this wasn't the first time as he tells her 'its the final straw' and tells her that she is going to England. We know that Poppys dad isn't a villain in this plot either because Poppy implies that he has warned her about an English boarding school before and not carried it through when she mocks 'oh, the boarding school threat...again!' so this time he is standing his ground and is determined to teach her a lesson which is what any parent would do.

We see that Poppy has deeper motives behind her actions when she suggests that he has replaced her mother with 'a trashier version' and can now do the 'same to her', this tells us that she's emotionally raw about the situation with her parents and was most likely only trying to get her dads attention as she didn't feel like his family was important enough to him. This is followed by Poppy asking if her dad 'even remembers her mum' which suggests she has passed away and poppy is still very upset that her mother may have been forgotten and this may be the reason behind her attempted sabotage of Rosemary becoming part of their family. Poppy also says that 'just because her mum went to boarding school doesn't mean it'll straighten her out'. All of the above suggests that her mum will be an element in the rest of the plot in someway either by showing Poppy finally coming to terms with what has happened or realising that she needs to move on. It shows the audience an emotional side both to Poppy and to the film that one would not usually expect in a 'chick flick' or 'teen drama'.

This is all just in the opening, a lot of the plot is revealed without giving too much away so that the audience would still ask questions. I think its a perfect opening because somehow it manages to reveal the majority of all emotionality's and sides to a person that there could be, in Poppy. Its all anyone will need in order to know if its the kind of film they would like to keep watching.

The only key characters that have been introduced in the opening are Poppy, her Dad, Rosemary and Molly, her sister. Even though one would assume all of these people were key characters, having watched it I know that we never actually meet Rosemary and Molly isn't shown very much throughout, she has no big role in the storyline. There are more important key characters that haven't been introduced yet however this isn't a negative thing considering they are in England and showing Poppy moving to England and the reasons behind it in under 2/3 minutes would not be efficient enough or give the audience enough insight into who she is and her life - it would be putting quantity over quality, which is a bad idea when it comes to film.

All I would expect from an opening is to have been told a background story or given an insight into the main characters life, as well as being given an idea of what the story may entail - which is exactly what the producers of this film have achieved.

There is a lot of dialogue as you can see, with more or less equal amounts coming from her friends, sister and her dad - it is all split out fairly evenly so that we get a good idea of Poppys relationship with each as well as how her character changes around them.

The typical conventions of a teen film are usually mainly about romance or bullying, even though Wild Child did conform to this (through the romance Poppy had with the Head Teacher's son), this wasn't the backbone of the entire story, instead the film was about the relationship between Poppy, her friends and family and the importance of these relationships, therefore the typical idea of a teen movie was challenged through this alternative 'meaning' or 'moral of the story' - that not everything in a teenagers life is as it is often portrayed in terms of love, it is about love in many forms - not just romantic. The film conformed to its comedy aspect as well and this is through poppy's funny and naïve character, for example not wanting to get on the bus because of 'germs', the comedy aspect was more laughing at poppy and the stereotype that is a 'typical American girl' rather than laughing at what was being said because it was aiming to be funny. The drama aspect was also confirmed to in some ways due to the story unfolding about Poppy's deceased mother and how they both went to the same school without Poppy realising, there is emotion and it is not too heavy but it is moving and appropriate to the genre. The overriding genre of this film is that it is a teen film with aspects of other genres, if the main genre was romance then the storyline would have challenged the usual conventions of a romantic film because as I said, the aim wasn't solely romance - however it did include characters a romantic film would have, 'Harriett' being the jealous girl, 'Freddie' being the love interest and the parents and friends acting as either supporters or opposers.

Overall I think the 'Wild Child' opening was very cleverly produced with just the right amount of information, dialogue and characters.

This was a professionally made film.