Analysing and comparing 3 opening sequences

10 Things I Hate About You

It opens with an establishing shot to show that it is set in Seattle.

Then in the same shot zooms in at tilt to a neighbourhood where there are teens, this shows the age group that the movie is focused on throughout and also shows the appeal to the target audience of teens. There is non-diegetic music of an upbeat pop song, this sets a happy mood. This mood is abruptly switched around when there is a tracking shot showing preppy teen girls in their car, then the shot moves onto the main character, the music turns to rock music and a darker setting of the car. this is to introduce us to the main character and show the contrast of the personality of the character to normal teen girls to make her stand out as the main character in the first encounter of her. The the camera switches from a close up of the main character to a close up of the generic teen girls in the other car, this is to immediately show the rebellious attitude of the main character on our first view of her.

Breakfast At Tiffany's

It begins with a shot of a street, not so much an establishing shot, but it is quite clear that is set in New York by the tall buildings, but it becomes more clear when a yellow cab pulls into the shot, which is usually directly related to New York. From the beginning there is soft music playing which creates a calm atmosphere. There is not much sound coming from the scene and the air looks quite crisp which suggests the time of day is morning. 

Then there is a long shot of the main character, stepping out of the cab. The long shot enables you to see what she is wearing and her whole look. She is dressed in a black long dress with pearls and her hair up. this suggests that she is very sophisticated and quite wealthy, but later on we learn that her personality is not as straight forward as we first perceive her. 

The long shot then switches to a low shot, but also an over the shoulder to see what she is standing in front of. The low shot shows the building towering over her but also states the name of the place where she is. This combination of angles shows what she is so interested in when standing on the side of the pavement. 

Only after the scene is set, is the character shown closer up in a mid shot, and the title of the film shown. 

The fact that the character has chosen to eat breakfast at a shop by herself suggests to the audience that she is potentially quite a lonely character, and she uses 'Tiffany's' as company maybe to fill a space of a person. 

Similarly to 10 Things I Hate About you, it introduces a suggestion to the main character's personality which intrigues the audience to carry on watching to see why the character is like that or what more traits the character has to their personality. 

Bridget Jones' Diary

The first introduction at the film is of a lady sitting on her sofa in her pyjamas, smoking a cigarette, watching television alone. The song 'All By Myself' by Celine Dion is playing, this creates a sad, lonely atmosphere. It also just exaggerates the fact that she is lonely, but in a comedic manner unlike Breakfast At Tiffany's where there is a calm, sophisticated tone. Which also introduces the genre of the film. 

The lady goes to check her answer machine but it says 'no new messages' this just again emphasises that she is lonely. She drinks a large glass of wine, which suggests she is drinking to perhaps not think about her loneliness and numb her sad emotions. 

The shot most of the time is a long shot of her to the side in her sitting room, showing that she is small compared to the room she is in, which creates space to emphasize the fact that she has no company.  

The shot switches a few times to a mid shot, so the audience feel closer to the character and can see her emotion on her face more clearly and it creates more of a relationship between the audience and the character. 

When the angle is a long shot, the camera stays on one place, but the character blurs out and flicks to another place in the room. This shows time passing as the character does different things, which aren't productive. which shows that she is just trying to make time pass.

As the build up of the song begins, she imaginary plays along to the song, with tears on her face, hitting every beat, which suggests that she is very familiar with not only the song but the situation that she is currently in.

Some similarities which i picked up on in all three films, was firstly that we get a good sense of personality from each of the main characters in each film, but not too much to give away all of it. I think this intrigues the audience to watch on to find out more about, perhaps why the characters initially behave the way they do and just find out more.

I think loneliness is quite a predominant theme within all of these films as well, especially in the opening sequences. 

Some differences that I picked up on was that firstly, all genres are different. In Bridget Jones' Diary and 10 Things I Hate About You, the genre is portrayed quite obviously whereas in Breakfast At Tiffany's it is not obvious to what genre the film is in. This makes the film more intriguing to the audience to carry on watching to find out more about it.