Opening 5 Bridget Jones's Diary

Bridget Jones’s Diary

Information: Imdb  Box Office Mojo

Trailer: 

Rotten Tomatoes:  Rotten Tomatoes
Behind the Scenes

Release Date: 13 April 2001 (USA)

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Ratings: R

Director: Sharon Maguire

Writers:Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies, Richard Curtis 

Stars: Renee Zellweger, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant

Budget: $25,000,000

Gross: $281,929,795

Production Co: Miramax, Universal Pictures, StudioCanal, Working Title, Little Bird

Synopsis: A British woman is determined to improve herself while she looks for love in a year in which she keeps a personal diary.

Bridget Jones’s Diary is the first Bridget Jones Movie, it came out in 2001 but after its huge success Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason came out in 2004. The movie was just as successful and therefor the 3^rd Bridget Jones film is being made. Bridget Jones’s Baby 

Sound

 The non-diegetic Christmas music starts as the working title screen is up, It continuous on as the voice over starts. Just by listening to the music and hearing what the voice over is saying you can tell the genre. When the mother opens the door a non-diegetic Christmas jingle starts playing, you also hear the first diegetic on screen conversation. As they great the voice over talks about her live, like reading a diary. When she changes clothes the music changes again to a more romantic song, the lyrics are parallel. When she talks to her uncle you can hear in her voice she is uncomfortable. You can hear diegetic off-screen chatter in the background as well as glasses clanging. When the slow motion starts classic romantic music starts playing. The second the slow motion stops the music goes back to normal. When she hears what he says about her the music changes to “All by myself”. The Music starts of as non-diegetic but ends up being diegetic.

Editing

There are mostly only cuts used throughout the hole into. At one point there is a freeze frame that then dissolves to another location and time. There are also some dissolves when she is in her room which indicates the passing of time.

Mise-en-scene

The setting sets the mood straight of with the heavy snow and winter dressed people. This tells the audience straight away that its winter and along with the Christmas sounds. The couples walking in the background gives away the genre which is romance.  The mother is wearing old fashion clothes which is backed up with the old props in the background, and wallpaper, telling the audience she is old fashioned.  You can see on Bridget’s facial expression she doesn’t want to talk to her mother. When she changes clothes you can see by her facial expression and posture she feels uncomfortable. By looking at her she feels uncomfortable around Uncle Geoffrey. When she is around her father she seems much more comfortable as does her father. Her father is holding a bottle of wine as well as smoking; these props indicate that he doesn’t want to be there. The reindeer jumper that he has on is a red flag for Bridget ruining her hopes of liking him. She looks annoyingly at her mother as her mother embarrasses her. When they are alone they both look very uncomfortable, him more than her. When she walks past them after they talk behind her back, you can see she is trying to hold it together as she is very hurt. The snowed over party hat tells the audience that the party is over. When she watches Frasier it tells the audience she is alone and has nothing better to do. As time goes on her ashtray fills up and her wine bottle empties. She is in her Christmas pajamas drinking wine again is a sign of her being alone. She starts dancing and singing for all by myself telling the audience she is drunk, also the fact that she chugs a glass of wine.

Cinematography

The movie starts off with a long to medium shot to establish the time of year, as well as the English taxi tells the audience she is in the UK. There is a tracking shot as she gets out of the car and walks to the house. When the mother opens the door it’s an over the shoulder shot. The next shot is a high canted angle. When the mother is talking to her friend the camera shot is a medium two shot. They use medium to close up shots when they are having a conversation. There is another two shot when her mother looks at what she’s wearing. There is a dolly shot zoom out to show what she is wearing. The camera moves down to a close up of her butt as her “uncle” grabs it. It cuts to a medium close up of her face to see that see feels uncomfortable. There is an over the shoulder as you see her uncle dancing. There is a medium close up of her and her father where the audience sees her facial expression and know she has a good relationship with her father. There is a hand held POV shot as the camera looks at the man. There is a POV dolly shot as the camera in slow motion moves towards the man, then it cuts to a close up of his face. There is another POV as she looks down at his jumper. There is a two medium to close up shot as they uncomfortable talk. There is a freeze frame so the target audience can see her face. There is a wide long shot as she is in the sofa smoking. There is then a POV as she watches Frasier. They us a medium shot as she starts singing so the TA can see her hand movements and tell that she is drunk. The last shot is a wide long shot as she points at the title.