Analysis of past students opening sequences

One Day

                Whilst looking at the opening sequence of one day it was clear to understand the genre of the film as it shows two people that will potentially meet so we can assume the film is a romance. I found the camera shots and angles worked well with the idea of following them around London as it added interest for the audience. The use of split screen was clever when they were on the train as it showed the contrast in the two characters as he was reading the newspaper and she was on her phone but also shows the events took place at the same time and may suggest that they're destined to meet at some point. The shots aren't particularly fast, they're quite slow and smooth as they're meant to have a calming effect on the audience and shouldn't alarm the audience that something bad might be yet to come. They thought carefully about how to show they're there at the same time for example both being seen on the bench projects a sense of fate as theres not much chance that two people will be in the exact same place at the same time and not bump into each other. The choice of setting was a conventional romance because London could be seen as a romantic city and the day they choose to film was bright to portray happiness as a theme in the film. We know the genre isn't something like horror or thriller as the mis-en-scene doesn't suggest any danger or evil.

                However I felt that for the opening sequence to be engaging it may have worked well if there was more of the story line mentioned, for example ending the two minutes with the characters meeting. And although the shots of London worked I felt they went on for a bit too long and didn’t allow the story line to engage the audience. I also don’t think they thought about the costumes that much as the female character is in black leather which could be seen as masculine and hard looking – it would have been better if she was in something a bit more feminine like a dress. Unless this was linked to an idea thats yet to come in the film about her doing something bad or having a hidden secret, therefore the black would work to make her look mysterious, this is unknown for the audience.