The Holiday Opening Two Minutes Review.

The Holiday is a romantic comedy both produced and direted by Nancy Meyers. Main actors, Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz as two women who live on the opposite sides of the world, who temporarily exchange homes during holiday season. Jack Black and Jude Law co -star with Eli Wallach, Shannyn Sssamon, Edward Burns and Rufus Sewell which all play supporting roles within the film. From the opening two minutes it is already suggested that it is a romantic film, therfore the genre is romance. The music is very mellow and quite classical, a convention of a romantic film. The music and characters link very well and especially so as the characters are being introduced on screen. Rufus Sewell is the first to be introduced, along with his fiancee. Next we are introduced to cameron diaz and her husband. We can tell that she isn't happy with him and that they have had problems before. Thirdly, we are introduced to Jude Law where he is in a club locking eye contact with a girl. Following that we are then introduced to his sister (Kate Winslet) who we see by herself wrapping a present in some sort of office. Where her introduction was different from the others it can be suggested that she doesnt have any sort of love life as she is completely on her own in this scene. Having this particualar character in a romantic comedy, is one of many cliches. Having so manny characters been intoduced so early on can only suggest one thing, that they are very significant to the film.

Mise En Scene (clothing, props, setting, location, and sound/dialogue) are all included in this first scene. For example starting with clothing. The costumes of the characters are shown to be casual for their specific parts in the film. Cameron Diaz is wearing expensive clothes and looks rather sophisticated in her clothes unlike the others. inferring she has enough money backed from a good and well payed job. Where as Kate Winslet is shown to not look as wealthy as Cameron Diaz even though she still looks middle class.
The setting of the opening two minutes of the film shows an idealistic gardern scene where a couple are kissing which again relates back to why it is a romantic film.


To summarise, the audience know that this is a romantic comedy from all that is suggested throughout, cliches, and conventions.

Preliminary task

Big Momma's House Opening Two Minute Review

Big Momma's House: Like Father Like Son is a comedy. At the beginning of the film, we see a car chase, we all assume that it cant be something too serious otherwise would ruin the comedy genre that this film has. So just like the audience would have assumed the car chase turned out to be a local resident (who happens to be a police officer) who wanted the mail man to give him his letters to see whether or not his son got into college. Comical? It had me chuckling. There are also jokes that are made from the mailman for example when
the resident (main character) pulls him over and he says 'please let there be someone taping this in the bushes' this wit used, is there to make the audience laugh. With jokes made early on, it is what we expect from a comedy and therefore the viewers will continue watching as they may think it is a good film, and will stick around to see more. The music in this scene is up beat and 'jolly' creating a friendly tone to the film.

This comedy doesnt struggle with the jokes, pretty much every other line is a punch line. But it isnt over done so that it becomes cringey. I think the opening scene shows that this film have found the balance between the humour and the seriousness that goes with it.

I haven' seen the film before but after watching the opening scene, I would definatley like to see the film, I think an element of this is because i can relate to this, being a teenager myself.

Inception Opening Two Minutes Review

Inception is an action film. Within the first fifty eight seconds we are introduced to a character holding a gun. This is a known convention of an action film, the audience expect to see the 'cat and mouse' chase, with massive explosions and fight scenes with guns. However, in this opening two minutes all we see after a man being washed up onto a beach, the same man then inside a building which looks as though surrounded by body guards. This is probably because the man already inside the building owns a lot of money and therefore has something that the man from the beach wants. Again, a typical convention of an action film having a rivalry between two main characters and other less important characters. We would later on in the film expect to see these two characters fight for something.

As there are no action such as fight scenes, right at the begining of the film, the audience can only sit back and wait as they assume it will not be too long until it all kicks off and fights will be appearing left right and centre. Because the first scene is unpredictbale, unlike horrors, it engages the audineces to carry on watching the film.  shortly after dialogue is shared from the man originally inside the building ,he says 'are you here to kill me?' the other man freezes and looks at his plate, this to the audience can only suggest one thing, that he was sent to do so. This implies that the man could have been on a mission to kill him, and therfore was sent by somebody else. We expect to see this happening, and therefore wouldnt be shocked by what we have just seen.

Action films also usually consist of fast, up beat music, to insinuate that something is going to happen, or is already happening. The music may however change when a 'goodie' or a 'baddie' appears. For example when there is an antagonist on screen the music may reflect the character and be quite  dark and slow music. To get the audience feeling as though the antagonist is about to be involved in an important scene. However when the heroic character appears the might have some light hearted soundtrack playing to suggest that he will once again, 'save the day'.

I have never seen inception before and i feel that the opening scene doesnt really attract me to want to se it, possibly if there was a fight scene earlier on then I would be engaged and want to see more. but unfortunatley it did not get my attention straight away, and feel as though im forcing myself to watch it.

The Ring Opening Two Minutes Review

The Ring is a mainstream horror. In the first scene we are shown a house surrounded by nothing, this is a typical convention of a horror. When surrounded by nothing you expect something to happen or at least go wrong, as there would be nobody to come and help. It is thunder and lightning outside, it is also the evening therefore pitch black and this allows the audience to feel suspence, as at night the darkness creates an eery atmosphere. In the first minute of the ring the camera shot is a two shot. Where two characters are in a bedroom, they are two young girls. As they appear so early on in the film we expect these 'annoying teenage girls' also known as 'the dumb blonde one' to die first, and within the first two minutes the dumb blonde one does. Her friend tells her about a tape and that if you watch it the phone will ring to tell you, you only have seven days to live. We immediatley know from that moment we assume that the dumb blonde has watched it. Then the phone rings, the music changes to a slow pace creating suspence and with the audience now hoping that she will die, as she answers the phone it is just her mother. Meanwhile, her friend has dissapeared and with things seeming more and more creepy, camera shots such as extreme close ups and medium shots are used to show her facial expressions. Calling out to her friend, she is now no where to be seen. The audience now definatley are expecting a death and are going to be in for a treat as after a short three minutes she is dead. We can only assume that these first scene deaths are put in to engross the audience into keep watching the movie. If the opening scene resembled normal life, then we would get bored and turn it off to watch something else, that is why most horror films included those insignificant teenage characters to die first.

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- Analysis of at least 4 different genre openings (analyse how mise-en-scene, sound, plot convey genre to audience)
- Preliminary task diary
- Preliminary task evaluation
- own ideas mind map - what genre? plot? etc
- Analysis of at least 2 openings of films from your chosen genre