Analysing Opening Sequences - Love Actually

Love Actually

 This film also begins with mainly titles and credits, with light hearted non-diegetic music. This takes up much time in the beginning of the film. There is then a cut to a shot of a crowd of people filmed in a panning shot, allowing the audience to see more of the scene and setting before the camera comes to rest, also giving the audience a chance to orientate themselves to the surroundings. This is filmed in a documentary style and has the feeling of 'real' footage, therefore making the audience feel that these are also 'real' people.

There is a transition after this using fade to black, conveying that something new is about to be shown, for example a character or a scene. Once this has been filmed we get a long angle shot of 4 people in a studio singing, giving the audience a chance to see where people and objects are in relation to one another. This also allows the audience to become engaged with the characters. In this first 2 minutes these characters are given a lot of screen time, before other characters have been shown. This is a good pointer to how important the characters are and allows the audience to sympathise with them. However this doesn’t last for long as there is a use of shot / reverse shot between the producers when they are having a conversation. Shot /reverse shot allows the audience to see a conversation from both sides; they are given the same screen time whilst having a conversation. There is also an over-the-shoulder shot taken from behind the producer’s back, this gives the audience a chance to see what is going on from another angle.

Followed by the conversation is a POV shot from the producer’s perspective, allowing us to see the band from the character’s point of view and letting us to sympathise with the producer, however there is then a POV shot from one of the band member’s side, this then allows us to feel more sympathy towards the band member and go against our initial reaction.

 The Use of titles and credits – Love Actually

The colours used for the titles and credits are red and black, which are also stereotypical colours used for love stories and heart ache, the colours are linked into the name of the film ‘Love Actually’. The titles and credit are also shown with a black background to make the names and words stand out against the red and white. This is used effectively giving the audience and chance to take the name of the film and characters used into consideration.

 

 The use of sound – Love Actually

 Throughout the first 2 minutes of this film, there is light-hearted and romantic non-diegetic music played. However this works well and it fits in with the name of the film. This then ends as the transition of fade to black takes placeand the music has come to a pause. The film is then interrupted by the sound of the band playing which is a clear use of diegetic sound, which creates a feeling of entering the scene; the sound is enhanced and has been done in post production to make the opening scene more efficient and to bring us into the story in a lively way.

 There is a use of dialogue between the characters, this helps tell the story as it gives an impression of the character, and also helping us determine the accents used and creates regional expressions. This dialogue also helped us tell which characters had the higher status’, for example the producers compared to the band members.