'The Notebook' - Film Opening Analysis

'The Notebook' - Film Opening Analysis

Codes & Conventions

Creation of enigma

• In the beginning of the film, we are able to identify a sunset through the use of ‘fade in’ and has a ‘warm’ lighting and a very long shot. The warm lighting reinforces the romantic genre and this creates enigma because the sunset represents that something has ended and something is about start. The colours that we see are ‘red, black, orange and yellow’. Since the audience already knows that it’s romantic film, red connotes passion and love which could lead to danger and the colour red could symbolize blood and death. Also, the non-diegetic sound is a soft piano music at the background which could give us an impression that it’s bittersweet because contrasting with the very vibrant colours.  The non-diegetic sound creates enigma to the audience because they provide different interpretations associated with the soft piano as peaceful but some interpret in a way such as a ‘sad and gives a sense of tragedy for loss. This then makes the audience anticipate for what, why, how and when something is going to happen. 

Introduction of Characters

• In the beginning we are introduced to a guy character whose body language and facial language in the mise en scene denotes that he is miserable with his life. For example, in the beginning, we can see that he is in a meeting through a medium shot and he not paying attention to the speaker in the mise en scene as he looking down with his back slouching whilst everyone is looking forward and indicate that he not happy with his life and where he wants to be at that very moment and reflects his emotions. In the positioning of the frame, we can see that he is in the middle which could signify that he is a prominent character accompanied with a camera movement zooming into him. In the mise en scene we are able to see that he is wearing business wear but casual compared to his colleagues which could indicate that he more laid back and has lack of motivation daily life activities and doesn't really care about his appearance. This scene is also in natural lighting which creates a sense of realism into the narrative which an audience can automatically relate to. On the other hand, we are he introduced to another character which is the girl from the sideways view of her talking to customer on the phone with natural lighting and her body language is differed from the guy as she is more focused in everything she does and more attentive as she faces in different directions. The girl has a ponytail with a bow at the back and is wearing a blouse with complimentary blue trousers which reinforces the ideology that women mainly focuses on their appearance to please people. 

Setting up the plot 

• In the opening of the film, its mainly focus on the character because they ‘re in a variety of long shots, medium shot that are used of them in a canoe in the middle of the sea and they are always positioned in each and single shot to show that they are significant to the film itself and the narrative. As I already said in the beginning the warm lighting is used and is reinforced by the dark and vibrant colours which creates theme of loss, passion, love and danger which are the stereotypical themes needed in the romantic genre because they are needed to form the plot and a disruption into the equilibrium. In the beginning, we identify a sunset which gives us an impression that something has ended which could give the audience the structure of the plot where they are about to reminisce on the past because the sunset gives a sense of ending in the narrative with fade in and fade out used. The low key lighting creates sad mood throughout the beginning but it might contrast and reinforced with the non - diegetic sound where it has a soft piano playing in the background which gives us an impression that the character is troubled or is going through a traumatic time. The colours used in the mise en scene can open text to the audience as soft and intimate or it can be distorted and mysterious which prepares the audience for the plot.

Pace and rhythm - Editing/mise en scene/camera shots

• The editing used are mainly straight cuts in order to create a sense of realism, in order to make it relatable to the audience. Moreover, the slow paced movement used in the beginning are able to remind us that when time is slow we associate with sad events because they are traumatising. Whereas, we are able to associate fast paced movements as fun events