Analysing Film Openings - Bridget Jones' Diary

Scene Summary- Bridget Jones’s Diary

The film starts with five starting credits one after the other. However, the non-diegetic sound played throughout the first scene was playing over the credits to set the mood for the scene. The music is comical and describes Bridget’s personality.

The film doesn’t start immediately, making the opening feel calm. Also the music playing tells us that it’s not going to be an action film as it is not tense. The film starts with a mid-shot of Bridget. The mid shot shows where we are and also shows the emotion that Bridget is feeling. She looks quite fed up but we can also make a judgement on her character as we have never seen her before. The mid shot also tells us what time of year it is as it is heavily snowing us telling us it is around Christmas time. Whilst this is all happening a constant voiceover speaks throughout the scene. The voiceover tells us Bridget’s thoughts at that certain time so that the audience have a connection with her and to get to know her character more. She speaks of not having a boyfriend and we can tell that this is going to one of the main themes of the film. We can also tell by the way she says it how she feels about the things she is speaking about.

The next shot uses the rule of thirds and an establishing shot. The establishing shot shows us her mother’s house which looks quite large and elaborate with several oddly shaped hedges. This suggests that her mum may be abut strange and adds to the comedy. In the next shot when she speaks her mum transparent editing is used as their conversation is filmed over the shoulder, a popular type of transparent editing. This engages us in the action.  We also see an excellent example of casting as the mum looks old and like a mum should. She speaks in a posh accent and wears old fashioned clothes. We see a contrast as Bridget is impolite and is wearing very casual, dull clothes and doesn’t speak in a posh tone. Also Bridget looks like a victim and so she is as unlucky things happens to her.
We see a two shot of Bridget and her mum showing forced intimacy as Bridget’s mum is being very critical of her. The next shot we see is of Bridget storming off up the stairs. This is filmed from a high angle as we can see everything that is going on and we can see the emotion of the two people involved, and it also makes Bridget look smaller and irrelevant which she feels she is herself, showing the audience how she feels about herself.

When Bridget changes her costume we see an even greater contrast between her and the other characters involved. This shows the audience that Bridget always seems to be out of place, making us feel sympathy towards her. Her choice of costume also makes her look undesirable as it is an ugly outfit to differentiate her more from everyone else. This is comical because all she wants to be is desirable so she can get a boyfriend but nothing seems to be going her way.

The last shot we see is a POV shot from Bridget of her drunken uncle swaying towards her and the camera sways with him telling the audience that he is drunk. Also we see his overjoyed expression and the audience immediately know that he has had too much to drink. Transparent editing is also used when Bridget is hugging her uncle as we see her forced intimacy with him from her strained facial expression, notifying the audience that she doesn’t seem to like him very much.

Screen Shots

1)      This midshot shows us the time of year it is, where we are and shows us the most important character in the film. We know this as she is Bridget Jones, and also the camera follows her movement.  This shot allows the audience to comprehend what is going on and where we are.

2)      This shot is an establishing shot. It shows us the area Bridget is in and where her mother lives, but also tells us a lot about the place. We can see that it’s quite isolated as there aren’t many people around and also by the looks of the houses it looks quite old.



3)      This is another establishing shot, but this shot also uses the rule of thirds to make the shot much more interesting. The establishing shot shows us her mother’s house and shows us the weird shaped hedges, suggesting to the audience that her mum is quite odd. The rule of thirds makes it much more interesting as it allows us to look at Bridget walking up to the house and the house at the same time.

4) Transparent editing is used in this shot in a conversation between Bridget and her mother as it is filmed in the classical way with the camera over the shoulder. This makes it look realistic and makes us feel as if we are watching a real conversation. 

5)      This shot shows the weird personality of Bridget’s mum, and it also shows good casting. Bridget’s mum looks old and dresses in old fashioned clothes making her look like an older mum. She fits the part perfectly making it more realistic for the audience.

6)This two shot shows forced intimacy between Bridget and her mother. You can see both their emotions in this shot showing us that they aren’t getting along. This tells the audience that the relationship between Bridget and her mother is very critical.

 

7)      This shot is taken from a high angle to show Bridget and her mother’s expression and to also show how Bridget feels about her mum. The high angle also makes them look quite small and comical.

8)      This is a POV shot of Bridget’s uncle. When he is swaying towards the camera, the camera sways as well to show that he is drunk. This is effective and it shows the audience how he is feeling as the screen is moving a lot.

9)      Transparent editing is used in this shot when Bridget is greeting her uncle as we see her forced intimacy with him from her strained facial expression, notifying the audience that she doesn’t like him very much.

Ideas

We have almost ruled out rom-com - we only have one actor who would feel comfortable in the role easily available and creating comedy is difficult. Because very little happens in the first two minutes, we are not sure we could create enough humour without adding in too much action.