G321 - Film Opening Analysis - Romantic Comedy: Love Actually

Love Actually (2003)

The  institution logo is not shown in the opening of Love Actually which leads the audience to believe that doing so would detract from the power of the opening scene and create a false pretence about the content of the film. The Universal logo is usually accompanied with loud sound and therefore could be the reason that it was not used; doing so would create a tense opening rather than the light-hearted one which was used.

The opening of the film indicates that the genre of the film is to be romance due to the continuous talk of love and the showing of affection amongst groups of people in an airport within the opening scene. Another method used to present the genre of romance is the use of the colour red in both the titles and people's clothing as this has connotations of love and romance. This gives the audience an opportunity to create a basic idea of what they expect from the film such as generic conventions and common narratives.



The target audience of the film appears to be females from the ages of 18 plus. This is due to the romance shown and the smooth male voice-over which accompanies the opening scene. The film is aimed at middle class members of society and this is made apparent through the representations of the middle class in the airport. This leads the viewer to believe that the narrative will be based around the middle class also and that the film could potentially make a mockery of this demographic group.

The narrative of the film is revealed as revolving around love and its continuous presence by the voice-over. It is also inferred that the use of the airport for the opening scene is to play a significant role in the narrative of the film, despite what its significance is being initially unclear. This raises questions about such and therefore creates intrigue within the audience, as does the questionable link between the clip and voice-over.

The opening of this film appears to be giving the audience a message to spread love and peace rather than hatred and pain. This is shown through the voice-over discussing how when the 9/11 happened there were simply messages of love being sent and not messages of hate, therefore making people question why this changes when the circumstances do.

The opening sequence reveals that the characters in the film are likely to be middle class, young adults with the appearance of some children who do not constitute much towards the main narrative. This is shown through the presentation of adults within the opening scene with a couple of children also shown. In doing so, this will interest a wide age range in the film and therefore increasing the potential age range of the target audience.

The setting of the film appears to be a modern British airport however, it would be unrealistic to believe that this would be the sole setting for the entire film. Despite this, there are no other hints towards other featured destinations and therefore it can only be presumed that the remainder of the film is to be based in places around Britain, namely capital cities such as London, Cardiff or Edinburgh.

The naturalistic lighting in the opening sequence helps to convey a sense of verisimilitude and causes the audience to feel involved with the scene. The scenes used are made to look and feel like reality through this naturalistic lighting despite being staged and therefore the film becomes relatable to the audience, enticing the viewer to continue watching to see how the film differs from reality.

The most evident theme presented in the opening is that of love through the voice-over discussing this topic and the mise. The many people all showing affection towards one another makes love the most predominant aspect of the entire opening and therefore solidifies this as the theme for the duration of the film.

The lack of diegetic sound allows the audience to focus on the non-diegetic voice over which accompanies the opening scene. The voice-over discusses love and how it is everywhere, helping to establish genre and setting. However, this detracts from the verisimilitude created through the lighting and mise. This helps to make it more obvious that the film will not be as closely linked to reality as it first appears.

Editing within the opening is minimal, using only basic cuts to switch between clips. Further to this, the editing is discontinuous to show various different groups of people doing similar things at different times. This creates a sense of power in numbers, using many different people to convey the  same message; that love is the most important thing in the world. The power in number principle uses mass amounts of people conveying one message to cause other people to agree, thus causing a greater number of people to follow the film's message and narrative.

The atmosphere created within the opening scene is one of happiness and reminiscence, created through the voice over talking of past times and the groups of people converging together within the clip. It becomes evident that there is going to be a heightened sense of reality within the film through this atmosphere.

The opening represents a relatively modern society of varying age groups in a positive light. The people are presented as being loving and happy, making the modern day seem happy and peaceful. This foreshadows that there will be an upset of this equilibrium in some way later in the film as well as causing the viewer to presume a happy ending due to it being a generic convention of a romance.

The shots used within the opening are all very similar which insinuates that this will be mirrored within the rest of the film. The simple shots allow for the heightened sense of verisimilitude as they are realistic and appear to be representative of a pair of eyes rather than cameras. 

The titles within the opening are partially integrated into the opening as they do not obstruct the scene in any way yet are still evidently visible. They are extremely simple which helps with the opening's verisimilitude and the fading of the titles into the scene allows them to be overlooked. 

From the evidence provided I have come to the conclusion that this opening has a very high level of verisimilitude allowing the audience to create a connection with the film and place themselves in that situation. It also does a good job at presenting the film as a romance however fails to establish the comedy side of the rom-com. I believe that all in all the Love Actually opening is successful and would entice the appropriate audience.