Opening 3 Love Actually

Love Actually Opening

Information: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314331/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eCb8w8SRAk

Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/love_actually/

Release Date: 14 November 2003 (USA)

Rating: R

Director: Richard Curtis

Writers: Richard Curtis

Stars: Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Liam Neeson

Budget: $45,000,000

Gross: $246,942,017

Production Co: Universal Pictures, StudionCanal, Working Title, DNA Films

Synopsis: Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.

The movie starts off with the Universal intro, then studio canal and finally working title.

It fades in to a tracking shot of a woman walking towards a man. There is non-diegetic music that starts to play. The woman is wearing a large backpack indicating she’s been away for a while. When they meet he hugs her and you can see relief in his face as he strokes her hair and kisses her. It is a medium close up and they are the only thing that’s in focus.

It then cuts to the camera zooming in and out to kids running and hugging a woman. It is in slow motion so the audience can see the emotion. The camera stops zooming when the little girls face is in focus. You can see real happiness as the girl smiles when hugging.

There is another cut to two old people hugging and kissing it is also in slow-motion and a medium close up so the audience can see the happiness and relief in the people’s faces.

It cuts again to a mother picking her daughter up and kissing her. The Non-diegetic slow music is still playing. A voice over is heard of a man talking. The VO tells the audience that the footage is from Heathrow airport.

As the voice over and music play the camera cuts again to medium shot of a mother and daughter hugging. It cuts again to more people hugging. As the voice over talks about how love is all around, that love can be mothers and daughters, father and sons, friends, etc. A video of those couples hugging appear.  After a bunch of clips at the Heathrow airport at 1:53 the VO says “Love Actually Is all around” the words come up on screen and the words fade except Love actually. The word love turns red.

The video fades to black and all you see is Love Actually. The non-Diegetic music stops as well as the VO. The words fade as a medium close up of a man is shown dancing to Diegetic of screen music. He then starts singing wet wet wets “Love is all around”. It cuts to a long shot of the chorus singing as well as the man singing. The audience know they are in a studio by looking at the props used. This is when all the music becomes Diegetic.

It cuts again to a long medium shot of the producer, and other people working at the studio. There is a continuity edit of the singer and the producer. When it cuts back to the producer it’s a medium shot and you can see he is disappointed. The continuity shot continuous as they talk about the origin wet wet wet song. Whenever the music is playing you see the actors names pop up with one letter being red witch fits with the Christmas and love genre.

You can see the producers face is filled with joy when the singer sings the write word for the third time. It cuts to the singer signing as the camera slowly moves away from the singer to a long high angle shot of the singer and chorus. The continuity shots continue as the song goes on and everyone is dancing. It the cuts at 4:02. 

The music signifies the genre and the voice over anchors the rom-com genre when he says the name of the movie. The accent anchors where the movie is set, and the airport is an iconic sign of Britain.