Stuck In Love (2012) Deconstruction

Stuck In Love (2012) Deconstruction

This film opens with the Millennium Entertainment and Informant production company titles before a 'fade-in' (where the shot gradually and smoothly appears or disappears from the screen) technique is used to transition to the main sequence. As soon as the 'fade-in' technique is complete non-diegetic music is played (sound or visual element of a fiction film that does not exist in the diegesis, meaning that the music being played cannot be heard by the characters in the film). The camera then pans down an English lesson's calk board during an extreme close-up the opening credits superimpose on the screen. The camera then cuts to a mid-shot of one of the main characters (Rusty Borgens). He is looking over his shoulder. Typography superimposes the mid-shots of Rusty looking at one of his class mates (Kate) as a voiceover of Rusty talking about Kate is played (non-diegetic sound).
As the words appear on the screen a sound effect of a pencil writing is used.

A close-up of Kate shows that her nose is bleeding. The way that Rusty is shown to be looking at her, tells the audience he has some sort of feelings towards her. In the mid-shot where Kate looks up she looks directly at Rusty who then proceeds to tell her that her nose is bleeding. Further mid-shots show Kate grabbing a tissue and cleaning up her nose, whilst Rusty hesitantly looks at her. These shots then cut to a wide-shot of Kate walking out of the classroom and putting her rucksack over her shoulder. The camera uses the 'cut' technique to transition to a new shot of Kate's boyfriend walking up to her and kissing her in the hallway. The camera then immediately cuts to a mid-shot of Rusty looking at them and bowing his head in disappointment. The audience now knows that Rusty has some affectionate feelings towards Kate as his head bows and his face drops from a smile to a rested mouth at the fact she has a boyfriend.

       

The non-diegetic music has now stopped and for rest of the opening there is just a close-up of Rusty's sister (Samantha Borgens) talking about how she lives her life. As she is talking, again, typography of her sentences superimposes the screen for the beginning part of her monologue and the sound effect of keys on a keyboard is played over the diegetic-sound (can be heard by characters) of the noises in the bar they are stood in. The lighting has also changed from the lit-up hallways of the school to the dim lighting used in the bar in which Samantha is situated.

Conventions identified:

• Fade in & cuts
• Non-diegetic music
• Panning
• Lots of close-ups/ mid-shots
• Different uses of typography
• Voiceover
• Sound effects
• Diegetic sound
• Mixture of light and dark lighting

LOL (2012) Deconstruction

LOL (2012) Deconstruction

LOL opens with the LIONSGATE and MANDATE PICTURES production company titles. A sound bridge occurs at the end of the MANDATE PICTURES title. The titles then cut to an establishing shot of the high school. There is non-diegetic music playing throughout the opening and the lyrics consist of "everybody wants to love, everybody, everybody wants to be loved" inferring this film will be about a love story. Opening titles superimpose during the entire opening.

A 'cut' is used to transition to another long-shot of the school campus and then used again with another establishing shot, this time the city in which the school is situated. Several establishing shots of the school grounds and the public transport systems within the city are then shown.

There is then a mid-shot of the school's sign, which pans down to the three main girl characters. They walk towards the camera in slow motion as a voiceover is played of Lola talking about how she finds it weird going back to school after the summer break.

The slow motion then stops as Lola walks up to her boyfriend and kisses him. During this panning shot lots of other main characters are introduced.

Conventions identified:

• Sound bridge
• Cuts
• Non-diegetic music
• Superimposition
• Long-shots & mid-shots
• Slow motion
• Panning

Dear John (2010) Deconstruction

Dear John (2010) Deconstruction

This film opens with the production company's logo (Screen Gems and Relativity Media). This then cuts to another set of production titles. A 'cut' is used to transition to the introduction of the main character (John) with a close-up, high-angle shot of him lying on the ground in an army uniform with one of his colleagues propping him up against the wall because he has just been shot.

The camera then backs away from the actors and is raised slightly in the panning shot that follows. However when the coins start to get thrown at them the camera gets closer to the two men again. During this time a voiceover of John is played. He is talking about what he was thinking about before he blacked out. It was his tour of the US Mint. The camera then cuts to a close-up of a younger version of John and falling money is superimposed on the screen.

A close-up of coins on the machine is shown, followed by various close-up shots of coins being made in a machine and the younger boys reaction to it. This then cuts to an extreme close-up of a coin being flipped through someone's fingers before another extreme close-up of John's face.

The voiceover has continued and he is now talking about how coins can relate to his position in the United States Army. A low-angle close-up shot is shown of John's co-worker rushing to try and keep him alive. During this shot the focus is blurred to indicate John is losing consciousness.

Two more extreme close-ups of coins being rimmed and bevelled are then shown before a close-up shot of John's face lying on the ground as he begins to lose consciousness. Uplifting music is played throughout the entire opening.

Conventions identified:

• Cuts
• Close-up shots
• High-angle & low-angle shots
• Panning
• Voiceover
• Non-diegetic music throughout

Love Actually (2003) Deconstruction

Love Actually (2003) Deconstruction

The film 'Love Actually' opens with a montage of different people, of all age, race and gender embracing in different ways in an airport. During the first panning shot you see a woman, wearing a large rucksack (obviously just arrived home after a trip abroad), hugging her partner tightly. He holds her head as they hug and then they kiss each other in the close-up shot. The camera then cuts to a close up of two little girls running up to what looks to be their mother and they all hug each other in another close-up shot.

The montage continues to show two old ladies hugging. After this clip is shown Hugh Grant's character is heard through a voiceover, which is played over the uplifting non-diegetic music, which plays throughout the entire opening. He is talking about how whenever he feels gloomy about the state of the world he thinks of the arrivals gate and Heathrow Airport because even when there is hatred in the world (time of the Twin Towers terrorist attack) you can always find love at the arrivals gate, with everyone embracing and greeting each other, even if it is not news worthy. The lighting changes with each new clip, as they are shot in different places and at different times in the arrivals gate, therefore the lighting changes.

Conventions identified:

• Montage of shots
• Panning
• Close-up shots
• Cuts
• Voiceover
• Non-diegetic music throughout
• Mixture of lighting with each new shot

Learning how to Deconstruct a Film

Before we set off to deconstruct our own film openings in our chosen genre (romance) we need to understand how to deconstruct a film opening and what to look out for in order to obtain information about typical conventions of romantic film openings. As a class we deconstructed 'The Bourne Legacy'. This helped us investigate how to include enigma within our films by watching a film opening that is rife with enigmatic elements. We then recorded the conventions on a timeline (shown below) that was sectioned into 'Visuals' and 'Sound'. By sectioning the visuals and sound separately it helped us see how sound and visuals work together in order to help create enigma within a film.

We also deconstructed 'Forest Gump' as a class because this film opening had excellent use of a Mcguffin. In fiction, a mcguffin is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues, often with little or no narrative explanation. The specific nature of a mcguffin is typically unimportant to the overall plot. For example, like the feather in Forest Gump. The floating feather, which floats through town on a busy morning, straight up to Forest, represents the fact the story is going to be about his journey through his troubled yet exciting life.

We also then deconstructed a film from our chosen genre. We chose 'Love Actually' because this is a critically acclaimed romance film and would help us understand and note the conventions of a typical romance film, e.g. number of cuts, sound bridges and narrative.

Typography

Stuck In Love (2012) Typography Deconstruction

Stuck In Love uses a bold font, capital letters and block colours (red has connotations of love and passion). However in the opening scene the typography changes and the font is much softer and takes the appearance of actual handwriting:

The typography also changes again within the opening scene of this film and takes the appearance of the stereotypical 'keyboard' font that you would commonly find on a Mac computer:

The different typographies are used to represent the difference in the two character's personalities, with Samantha (bottom photo) being modern with her blog writing and her brother, Rusty, (second photo) being more traditional with his love for reading books.

Love Actually (2003) Typography Deconstruction

The typography used in Love Actually is a lot softer than the typography used in Stuck In Love. This is because of the skinner choice of font used for the word "actually" and the fact it is not written in capital letters. The word "love", however, is written in a bold font to make it clear to the audience that this is a romantic film, if the choice of colours and pictures weren't enough to make the genre clear. The colour red is used and this is again because red has connotations of love and romance.

Dear John (2010) Typography Deconstruction

Dear John's typography is almost identical to the one used in Stuck In Love. It has very bold letters, all in capital, this seems to be a running theme through a lot of films in the romance genre. Unlike the other two romance films I have deconstructed, Dear John does not use traditional colours (mainly red and pink). It uses more earthy colours, such as brown and mustard yellow. Perhaps this is due to the theme of physicality (John was in the army) within the film.

LOL (2012) Typography Deconstruction

The film LOL uses a similar typography to other romantic films. It uses bold text, with a block colour and also uses capital letters. The use of the colour pink is very stereotypical of a teen-romance due to its connotations of love and compassion. The font used in LOL is different to the typical block fonts used in the other three films shown above. It takes the appearance of fonts used in old video games and old mobile phones. This is because the main character is called Lola but everyone calls her "Lol" and lots of the characters use technology within the film (e.g. texting and messenger on laptops) and the word LOL stands for 'laughing out loud' and is commonly used in 'text-speech' by lots of people of different ages, not just teenagers. So therefore the typography links with the content of the film very well.