Textual Analysis

This is to help me understand the way a Romantic Drama opens so I can gain some inspiration about how I want mine to start.

Textual Analysis of the film: The Bodyguard.

The film begins with the sound of gunshots and a black screen, a few seconds after the first gun shot a man’s face appears in a extreme close up cutting off the to of the mans head and the bottom of his chin. His hand can be seen in the bottom right of the screen holding the guns, which are both slightly blurred as you see the gun shift showing the audience that it is the gun being fired.

This then cuts to a medium close up of another man lying on the floor with his face looking at the camera and his hands by his chest, fingers spread out as if he has fallen and landing in this position.

Then the scene cuts to a mid shot of the first male character ( will be noted as male #1) still holding the gun, wearing a tux knelt beside a black car. Then the title “The Bodyguard” appears in bold white lettering almost touching the bottom of the screen accompanied by the music which fades in as the text appears then fades once the text has dissolves. The music is sinister and melancholy giving you the feeling that perhaps the shooting was not for any valid reason making you wonder wither you should dislike the character or not.

As the text dissolves the camera does a reverse-zoom, slowly travelling backwards to become a medium long shot of the same scene. Then the reverse-zoom continues to go backwards into a long shot/ wide shot of the scene to include the body beneath male #1 and the security guard coming down some stairs from the top left corner behind male #1. Showing the audience that the scene is set within an underground level car park. The reverse-zoom still continues becoming an extreme wide/long shot showing yet more bodies lying in male #1 among the other cars parked in the car park. The reverse-zoom slowly becomes a high angled shot giving the audience a more clear idea of the setting/surroundings. This overall section is one long take.

Then the piping running across the ceiling of the car park blocks us from the scene and the as it moves from view we see that the scene has changed to a close up of two brandy glasses on a polished wooden surface being filled with brandy from a tear shaped bottle, by a shaking white hand.

The blocking of the pipe shows the change in time as we are taking back before the shooting The camera travels up the body of the holder of the bottle showing the face of the man who was gunned down by male #1 at the very opening of the film (will be noted as male #2). This then widens into a two shot of Male #2 and male #1 standing behind him.

This is then followed by another long take as the camera pans around so that male #2 is now opposite male #1 instead of behind him.

This helped me out as now I understand what can be used in a Romantic Drama opening scene to make it perfect for my genre choice.