Initial ideas

Here are some of our initial ideas for the opening for our film including shot and narrative ideas. From our initial ideas we concluded that we wanted a female protagonist and for her to be distanced from either her family or society. We also decided we wanted there to be an aspect of rebellion in our film however we have not yet chosen how this will be conveyed. 

Textual analysis of the '(500) days of summer' opening

The opening title sequence for the romantic comedy '(500) days of summer' is made up of a series of split screens. The film either side of the screen shows the growing up of the two main characters Tom and Summer. The colour pallet and rough borders on the film clips portray a nostalgic feel as they look like home videos created by those with them as they grew up. The facial expressions of the children as they grow up suggest a content childhood, as well as setting the film as a warm and happy one.By seeing the characters from such a young age the audience can establish a strong relationship with them meaning they will sympathises with their feelings later on in the film.

As the 'home videos' are in colour we can assume that the main protagonists are reasonably young.Meaning the demographic will be of an age that can relate to a similar 'coloured' childhood. Similarly we can tell the characters are of a similar age to each other, the split screen creates a important comparison between the characters highlighting their differences. Which may eventually become relevant or critical later in the film.

The slow paced editing consists of simple cuts to achieve continuity editing with in the separate clips as well as a series of fade to black edits to introduce text.The use of the fade to black creates an almost sleepy effect as if we are growing up with the characters in a happy haze. In

contrast the non-diagetic music starts by the fast repetition of piano notes, constructing a quick paced opening. Adding to the excitement of growing up.