Romance

Dear John opening scene analysis

In the opening scene it starts with a close up of an attractive guy, straight away following the codes and conventions. The non-diegetic sound is cheerful but not up paced. This helps create a calm, gentle mood which is normal for romance genres. We hear the diegetic sound of a sweet voice talking which seems to catch the attractive guy’s eye. As he looks over we get an over the shoulder shot, this is effective as we are attracted to look at what he is looking at so we can see what happens next. We see a background of the sea and the characters are wearing beachwear implying that they are at the beach which again follows the codes and conventions as the setting is in an urban environment. With the sea at rest we can connote that everything is calm for now and it carries on creating that gentle mood. The camera shot flickers from the male to the female that he is looking out we get a feeling as the audience that something is going to go on. From this the audience can connote that the 2 main characters have already been introduced so this follows the clichés of the boy meeting a girl at the most random times. The audience can tell this due to the eye contact we are shown from the boy to the girl. Because of the close ups we can see that his facial expression before was quite dull as he looked upset, but as soon as he saw this pretty girl his face lit up.

The next shot is a close up panning shot of the girl’s bag which he was extremely attracted to falling in the sea. The girl wines ‘oh no’ suggesting that this means a lot to her. As another character goes and gets it the boy jumps in the sea making a splash. This is effective as it makes the boy shows bravery as he makes the other character look like a wimp. We then get a close up of the female as she gasps in shock. After this we are shown a long shot of the boy swimming under water as he goes on the mission to get her bag. Here the title appears in the bottom left hand corner in a font that connotes romance. We then have a close up of the boy reaching for the bag. This is effective as it is the first time the boy and girl have met and this bag was the beginning of it all. We get a high angle shot of the boy swimming back to shore as the girl is in relief that her bag is saved. We get a medium shot of the other character running into the water to get it but we see the boy coming out the water holding the bag. The music stops and in the background we can see and hear the diegetic sound of the waves clashing connoting that everything isn’t calm any more and the movie has begun.

After this shot it shows a medium shot of the girl running towards the boy to collect her bag that he saved, making him here hero. It then shows them both from a side angle, with the other boy further in the background embarrassed about him being a coward. As they introduce themselves to each other we get reverse shots. This is effective as it allows us the see their body language and contact as they talk to each other. From this we can see that there is a spark there as they can’t talk their eyes off each other. As he walks away with hesitation he turns back. The music starts again representing romance. We then get a high angle shot of them walking along the beach with the sun shining down. This could connote that something new has arose and that something new is love. As they walk together we get a straight angle shot of them walking under the pier on the sand as she asks him to go to his house to thank him. We start to get the close ups and reverse shots again as they giggle to each other.

In the final shot the camera then zooms away from the couple and leads into the high angle shot. From here we get a long shot of the beach. This is effective as the music gets louder, drowning out the voices of the characters so all we can see is them gazing at each other. The camera then stabilises on the over view of the beach. This is the moment they met, making it more special as the sun beams down reflecting from the sea and sand with the diegetic sound of the birds tweeting.