textual analysis of a film in my genre

For my next task i had to do a textual analysis of a film of the genre that my film will be based around. As my film genre is romantic drama i chose to analyse the film "The Holiday. the reason why we have to analyse a film is to see how the professional film makes behind the film use different techniques (editing, music, narration, dialogue, credits)

Textual analysis of "the holiday"

Blurred establishing shot of a tree with the words “universal pictures and Columbia pictures present” on it

Music starts the play slow passed – piano played

More credits play

Music sets the tone and mood of the film and hints towards the genre

Medium close up of a couple kissing

A romantic setting by a slow flowing river

The soft slow music continues still with the piano

We do not know the exact time frame but we can assume at due to the light levels it is mid day

The clothes suggest it is a dated scene

Mid shot of a computer screen that shows the two actors we have seen so far in the film, next to it is a screen showing the music for the previous scene of which is what we have heard so far in the film

Slow passed music continues – piano played

Show the characters got a relaxed life style as he has a job writing music for films and he is working from home

High angled mid shot where we get to see one of the main characters, we know this as he is the first person shown

Slow passes music continues – piano played

Credits showing the makes of the film start to play

Slow passed edit and the camera starts to pun up the actors face.

This is where we first see the face of one of the main characters of the film.

This is a medium ling shot of the character and his work area.

The character is now facing the camera but not in direst address

The same slow soft music continues – we now see it is the character playing this music

The scenes lighting in natural sun light

The slow passed editing (about one cut every 10-15 seconds) continues as we cut too the character looking over the computer screen

Credits are still on screen

The slow passed music continues – still piano

One of the other main characters start to narrate now telling a story about types of love and relationships

In this shot we see another of the main characters of the film

The speed of editing increases not to every 2 seconds as we see the emotions between there two main characters

The narration and slow soft music continue.

The scene still uses natural lighting

Through the rest of the film we can see the time frame is not modern times shown by the clothes

The screen is not mostly black as the camera moves from left to the right as it does this its changes location from the studio to a busy street

The title of the film now fades into the screen

The music not picks up a bit a pace with a faster rhythm but still the same tune played by the character in the previous scenes

A medium close up that introduces one of the other main characters

Slow soft music continues only now its has a bit of a backing tune along with it

Slow passed edit

Narrator is telling us about the love this characters has to the character we see in the next shot

Natural lighting still used only this time lighting from a street

We now get a medium close up of the other character in the car

Narrator its still telling us about the love this character has to the character has to the one in the previous shot

Music continues – piano played with a soft tune behind it

Still the use of natural lighting

Slow passed edit

High angled mid shot of the back of the car the two characters seen previously are in

Narration has now stopped

Music continues on now it’s louder with a faster pace

Still slow passed edit

Still the use of natural lighting

The camera now pans up from the last shot, as the car drives away, to a long shot of a busy city street

No narration now in this shot

Faster passed music continues

Still the slow passed edit

Actor credits now on screen again

Still the use of natural lighting

Through this task i learn that the professionals yous a whole host of techniques to make the opening of a film eye catching. they use a range of different shot types (MS, CU, LS, MLS, shot reverse shot, match on action). As well as this, the task has shown me that the editing and pace of music are rather slow in a romantic drama film. However the speed of editing increases as the characters enter dialogue. Also this task has shown me that romantic dramas use a great deal of natural lighting. In addition to this, the task has shown me how to use credits in the opening of a romantic drama.

now with what i have learn i have the techniques required to set to work on making an opening sequence to a romantic drama.