Narration of Bridget Jones Opening

Another film opening I looked at which is one of my favourites, was Bridget Jones' Diary. Which is a typical British Romantic-Comedy, with mainly British cast, British Director, Setting and Comedy.

Bridget is an average woman, living in London who works for a publishing company. For her new years resolution she decides to take control of her life, stop smoking, drinking, lose weight and get a man. The film is about her decisions and consequences of sleeping with her boss, quitting and her quest to find love.

Cast: Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth. Although Renee Zellweger isnt British, she plays Bridget as very British.

Here is a link to the opening of Bridget Jones' Diary, please take a look and then come back to my blog! (Bridget Jones' Diary)

Narration

We hear Bridget's thought and commentary on the events that are happening, this often involves verbal wit, and we can laugh at what she's thinking, and not what shes necessarily saying. This also combines with the fact is Bridget Jones' Diary - meaning that we hear what you might write down in your diary - personal thoughts.

"Turkey-Curry buffet" An unusual combination shows her mothers apparent madness and the sort of life Bridget leads.

"Gherkin was the height of sophistication" Shows that the mother may be a fair bit older than Bridget, doesnt get out much, and still lives in the "old-days" in Bridgets opinion.

Mark Darcy: Mr Darcy is from Price and Prejudice - foreshadowing the coming story line, and the complications in front of them, but that they will eventually be together. Also Pride and Prejudice is a famous love story which will appeal to the target audience of teenage girls and middle aged women.

"Great, I was wearing a carpet." Verbal wit in the narration, Its funny because the audience are probably thinking it, and then Bridget says it, which connects with the audience, as they are both thinking the same thing.

Different character archetypes: These are evident in every film, however they are exaggerated in comedies to make it funnier and more evident which persons role is the ffilm. Comedies tend not to be mysterious as this will just confuse the audience, their role is to connect with the audience and make them laugh, not necessarily to "hook" them to make them watch the film like they do in dramas, for example.

"How's your love life?" Thi shows the informality, and links with the fact that Bridget is obviously made uncomfortable by her Uncle. It also presents the theme of the film and istablishes it as a Romantic Comedy.

"Mysterious Mr Right I'd been waiting my whole life to meet." This shows that she hasnt had belief in love, and is just waiting for it. This can conenct with the audience because the majority of girls of that age range will be thinking the same thing - When will they meet 'Mr Right'?

Voice Over

Here is our final script for our voice over:

Joe: What is Love? Does it really exist? Love is said to be an emotion of a strong affection and personal attachment. It’s said to be a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection—the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another. I believe everyone has a soul mate somewhere, but not everyone is destined to find theirs.

Lily: “I definitely believe in love, it's so magical, something from a fantsy. Every girl wants to fall in love from the moment they watch their first disney princess on tv. Everyone deserves true love. I once read a Greek myth: Once upon a time, when gods and people existed together, people had four arms and four legs. They had two heads and two faces. They existed happily as they were, and grew more powerful as time went on. The gods decided that the humans were getting too powerful and needed to be put back into place somehow, so they cut the humans in half. Each human now had only two arms, two legs, one head, and one face.

 They had to spend the rest of their lives searching for their other half to make themselves whole again.

It became the point of life.

 

To record our voice over we used a voice recorder on an iPhone.

The Voice Over To Our Opening Sequence

The opening scene of 'Love Actually' inspired us to have a voice over our opening sequence. Please click the link below to see how Love Actually has used a voice over and come back to my blog to see how it has inspired us:

Love Actually Opening Sequence

We decided to have background music as well as a voice over of characters Lily and Joe talking about their perception of love.

We found a Greek myth from Plato's Symposium which Lily will quote:

“Once upon a time, when gods and people existed together, people had four arms and four legs. They had two heads and two faces. They existed happily as they were, and grew more powerful as time went on. The gods decided that the humans were getting too powerful and needed to be put back into place somehow, so they cut the humans in half. Each human now had only two arms, two legs, one head, and one face. They had to spend the rest of their lives searching for their other half to make themselves whole again. It became the point of life."

  

And we got the definition of love from Wikipedia which Joe will quote then his view on love:

“Love is an emotion of a strong affection and personal attachment. Love is also said to be a virtue representing all of human kindness, compassion, and affection—the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another".

The Holiday Opening Sequence

Another Opening Sequence I looked at was from a film called 'The Holiday' because I thought it was most like our film and could inspire us, please click the link below to see the opening sequence of The Holiday and come back to my blog to see what I have to say about it!

The Holiday Opening Sequence

Conventions of the Film Opening:

Enigma: The first few minutes leaves the audience knowing whats happened but not whats going to get better or worse, maybe.

Introducing the Characters: The main characters are introduced straight away and we can tell what the relationship is between them.

Lighting: The lighting is quite high and natural.

Camera Shots

• An Establishing shot is used to show the audience where the film is shot and gives us a sense of what time of year it is.
• The High angle shots helps introduce the character to the audience.
• A panning shot is used to show the movements of the characters.
• And a shot reverse shot is used to show conversation between characters.

Sound

At the beginning of the film there is no music to set the tone until the character has woken up. However there is diagetic sounds such as a leaf blow, the door opening, shoes being thrown, and dialogue of the two characters argueing and yelling at eachother. This sets the tone and lets the audience know what the situation is in the household.

Mise-en-scene

Costume: normal, casual clothing

Lighting: High key, natural lighting

Actors: Both of the characters are well spoken to show their background and class, these characters are introduced in the first 2 minutes which show the audience that they are the main characters

Makeup: There was no obvious make up on the characters as they want to be seen as natural

Props: There are many normal props helped to set the scene, such as shoes being thrown at each other to show anger.

'Dreamcatcher' Title Sequence

Please click the link below to see the title sequence from a 2003 film called 'Dreamcatcher' and come back to my blog to see what I liked about it.

Dreamcatcher Title Sequence

What did I like about this opening sequence?

I liked the graphics used in this opening sequence, because they were reasonably simple with a glow/shadow effect to them and they appeared often. I also liked the music used as it created suspence although there was no synchronous action to match what was being displayed. I liked that there was no scenes from the actual sequence shown but the music and the features it did show kept my attention and had me engaged.
What made it a successful opening?

I think this was a successful opening because of the music used, which was quite mysterious and creates a sense of suspence. We dont actually get to see the opening sequence of this but we almost see elements of the mise-en-scene, as we see different locations like a snowed over forest and we see icicles, a lot of elements of water are shown, like ice, snow the sea etc. This creates a very cold feel and connotes that Dreamcatcher will be set in a very cold area, where maybe people are cold hearted. The mise-en-scene just leaves the audience thinking and questionning what the actual piece is going to be about and therefore makes them want to watch the whole thing, this is what makes it a successful opening sequence.