Opening Sequence Analysis - Findings

After doing the opening sequence analysis I have been able to find quite a few common conventions that are found in a lot of romantic comedy films. 

Sound:

Both of the films I analysed, and other romantic comedies that I have see in the past, tend to use catchy pop songs that girls would listen to as background music at some point during the opening. This makes the audience feel happy, relaxed and it makes the film more mainstream and girly. In Legally Blonde they used "Perfect Day" by Hoku, and in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging they used "She's So Lovely" by Scouting For Girls - both of these songs makes you want to dance around. In our opening sequence we will be sure to use a popular song, maybe one that has a message about girl power, that is catchy and has a good tune.

Titling:

The font used for the titles in both of the films was quite like a girls handwriting, it was quite curly and it was mainly in white however in Legally Blonde it was pink - which is even more girly. The titles in both of the films appeared over  the action that was currently on screen. A lot of the time one the shot would be split in the rule of thirds and one third would be given to the title; at other times there would be a close up of an action and the title would be directly over it, for example in Angus Thongs when Georgia was running and her name appeared next to her. We now know to do the same thing in our opening sequence; we will have a shot of an action and then have the title over it in a girly font.

Camera Work:

There was a great range of camera shots used in both of the opening sequences, from close ups to extreme long shots. All of these made the opening sequences more exciting to watch. It was also a more intersting way show a range of props, rather than just placing them in the centre of the shot. Like in Legally Blonde where there were closeups on Elle's features as she was getting ready, we aim to do the same thing when the main female character in our opening is also getting ready.

Editing:

I found that romantic comedies tend not to use different editing techniques other than cuts. All of the cuts were smooth, the action flowed into each other well and was not jumpy. I know now that we shouldn't over complicate our opening by trying to use a range of editing techniques like wipes and fades, and instead we should just stick to cuts.

Mise en Scene:

The mise on scene of both the opening sequences was the most important thing in defining the genre of the films. They both used girly colours, like pink, and props, like the makeup. They costumes in the film were all very normal things that teenagers would wear. The costumes we will dress the characters for our opening sequence in will also be very normal clothes that people everyday would wear. We will also make sure to place lots of props in our shots so that we can show the audience that the antagonist is  girly, rather then telling them.

Narrative:

The narrative structure for both of the opening sequences were different. In Angus Thongs, the narrative went from equilibrium, to disequilibrium, then back to new equilibrium; however Legally Blonde, was completely equilibrium. The main point that I learned from the opening sequences is that they need to end with equilibrium so this is what we will be sure to do in our opening.