Rom-Com Opening Scenes

Romantic Comedies

Love Actually - 2003 opens with a montage of families and friends greeting incoming passengers who have just arrived back in the UK at Heathrow Airport. The People in the framing can clearly be seen hugging and kissing one and other (Boyfriend kissing Girlfriend, Mother kissing Daughter, Sister kissing Sister etc) this was done to embrace the feeling of love into the film even within the first 30 seconds of the introduction. The reason why an Airport was used in the film was because the film is set in December 'Christmas Time' - as families try and rush home to be with their families at Christmas, this helps to show the passion of love at the time. Also an Airport was also used as people from all around the world come to airports in different countries all the time, this tells us that Christmas is a time where everyone no matter what race, religion or country you are from come together at this wonderful time of the year and celebrate Christmas and Love together. When talking about M-E-S Costume is a nice piece to talk about as the people in the scene can clearly be seen wearing reasonably nice colours 'Blue, Green, Red, Brown, Black Etc', also at the very start of the scene (when it fades in from black) you can clearly see a couple wearing a thick jacket - relating to the fact that its cold and snowing outside, they are wearing it to keep themselves warm.

As they are inside an airport the lighting is very Bright but some lens filters may have been used to make the contrast of the scene stand out a little bit more than originally filmed. The Camera angles used are very basic 'Close-Up's, Medium Shot's, Pan's Etc' these shots were used because you can really see the emotion of the characters in the frame when its closer to their face, where as if you used a long shot all you would really see is someone kissing someone or hugging someone without really seeing any emotion. In this scene you can see Female characters crying with joy, smiling, laughing and mainly kiss - to show how love is in the air, Some Editing was used such as some Time Lapse Effects and some added zoom but the zoom would really come from the camera itself. Time Lapse/Slow Motion was used to show the emotion of the character in a bit more detail (as its in slow motion it can bring out the feeling of the character - 'when I saw him it was like time slowed down - linking to the feeling of love and happiness'. The Text edit is very basic with nothing really fancy as the editors want the audience to focus more on what is happening in the scene as its important (towards the end of the film)


Hitch - 2005 

opens with men looking at certain women (someone they potentially like/fancy) in some sense the scene was like the men were dreaming about the girl as the way they gaze towards her is like they are dreaming. Then the main Character Hitch can clearly be seen as he enters the frame after one of the girls collects her mail from her locker and he pretends to get his - but he doesn't actually live there. Hitch then starts explaining how to get the girl your Love Actually because they are both love film meaning you have to capture the emotion/expression of the characters on camera in order to gain success in that particular Genre, meaning a fair few Medium shots/Close-Ups were used but also a few long shots/establishing shots (the Establishing shots were mainly used at the very start of the film to inform the audience where the film is set in this case New York). Long shots were used when developing the characters body language to build up the atmosphere (because Hitch is telling us 'The Audience' the simple steps for finding love - directing us to success).
interested in 'Step by Step' (The girl 'The Target' is holding a dog, Hitch then pulls a Dog 'Different Gender' out of his bag which attracts the girls dog attention making the Dog run out of the lift as the door closes with the girl left inside it trying to get out so she can get her dog, Hitch then collects the girls Dog and hands it to the man in which he lays on the floor in front of a New York Taxi making the girl believe he saved her dog, causing her to become attracted to him asking him out on a date to return the favour). Costume is very clear and basic but in some sense perfect as all the men are dressed up in work clothing making this film a believable story - this can happen to anyone. The music layered over the top of Will Smith's - Hitch Narration is Non-Diagetic as the character can't hear it in the scene its what the audience can hear, an example of Diagetic sounds would be at the start of the open in scene when the alarm clock goes off, This is Diagetic as its what the Character can hear in the scene - its not layered/edited in. The Narration is both Non-Diagetic sound and Diagetic sound because at the start it has already been recorded Via a Microphone and layered into the scene until Hitch enters the scene - that's when it changes. The Lighting is Bright and Sunny to emphasise the fact that its a perfect day - relating to the thought that perfect things will happen today. An Added minor Glow Transition is used to again relate to the feeling of love - like the character is dreaming. Editing wise the Text is quite fluent and traditional when relating to a romantic film as if the text was plain and boring it wouldn't help set the scene really. Added fade in/out transitions were used on the text to make it soft and smoother plus the text animation makes it look better as it makes it stand out more (the text emerges from a line - underlining). The Camera movement is similar to