Reasurch - Film opening 1 - Opening of Dear John analysis

Dear John is one of the most famous romantic comedies out there. It has some amazing critical acclaim, winning ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards 2011 in their Top Box Office Films category.as well as making £1,995,301 (UK) (16 April 2010) box office. The director was Lasse Hallström, who is famous for other films such as Chocolat (2000).

This film starts off with idents of the makers and producers of the film. These include ‘Screen Gems, a Sony pictures entertainment company’ and ‘Relativity Media.’ The narrative really starts after this with two men who appear to be soldiers; one is trying to help the other as it is wounded. As well as this is happening there is a fade in of a boy looking at pennies being made and they’re falling down the screen.  After this the camera then returns to the two men with an eye line shot of one of the men shaking the other, then a point of view shot of the man being shaken. This shows us that this was a flash back for the man who is wounded. This flash backing then goes on for another minute or so until 2:13. After that then the camera visits a totally different scene of the beach at sunrise and then onto a man surfing through clear waters. After this we follow the character out of the water and onto the pier. With a variety of different shots we establish that there are a group of young adults (around the same age as John) of which there is a couple and another male and female. The female from the group of four then drops her bag. The other man in the group then says he will go and get it; however John jumps in and gets the bag before the other male has even touched the water.

We gather from this basic narrative that the main male character (John) has been taken away from a military role and is now living near a beach. He then finds this girl within this group who he quite likes and eventually falls in love with. The director has given us a very typical view on this social group. They are traditional young people hanging round a beach, with loose light coloured clothing and beachwear. The girls have bikinis on with loose flowing tops on over the top. As well as that their makeup is very low key and natural. Their air also has that look with most of it down and some of it tied up. The two locations at the beginning of the film have very different dynamics. One is a place of war, whereas the other is a quiet and peaceful beach. The director really wanted to show the diversity of these two locations, because he wanted the viewer to be really impacted by the two lives theism man has to live in. one is one of the worst places on earth, whereas the other is like paradise. The sound also shows the diversity in there two different locations. In the place of war there is an eary sense of silence with the distant sound of guns, as well as the non-diegetic dialogue of John over the top. However when we get to the place which is a haven, there is non-diegetic incidental music which has been put in place to lift the scene from the one before. As well as that there are sound effects of the waves crashing which is seen as a soothing and calming sound.

The titles are extremely important to the beginning of a film, the titles in this film start just after the idents. They start off by taking all of the attention of the viewer by being in the centre middle of the screen. As well as that the text is in a Times New Roman style of writing which is white on a black background. The titles only show for a matter of a couple of seconds. They fade on and off for four of the titles. The size of the font of these titles is very interesting, because if they are more than one line long then the text which is either on the bottom (if it is two lines long) or the middle line (if three lines long) is slightly bigger than the other text. This may be because the director wants the viewer to focus on the bigger line as it is the one that has the more sellable information on it. The titles then stop showing for a bit. This is because the director wants us (the viewers) to focus on the scene. After the flash back scene is over then the titles start again. With them being on top of the film and being in line with an item in the scene – such as the horizon when it’s dawn.