Pride and Prejudice is a humorous story of love and life among English gentility during the Georgian era. Mr Bennet is an English gentleman living in Hartfordshire with his overbearing wife. The Bennets 5 daughters; the beautiful Jane, the clever Elizabeth, the bookish Mary, the immature Kitty and the wild Lydia. Unfortunately for the Bennets, if Mr Bennet dies their house will be inherited by a distant cousin whom they have never met, so the family's future happiness and security is dependent on the daughters making good marriages. Life is uneventful until the arrival in the neighbourhood of the rich gentleman Mr Bingley, who rents a large house so he can spend the summer in the country. Mr Bingley brings with him his sister and the dashing (and richer) but proud Mr Darcy. Love is soon in the air for one of the Bennet sisters, while another may have jumped to a hasty prejudgement. For the Bennet sisters many trials and tribulations stand between them and their happiness, including class, gossip and scandal.
This is a classic love story and would be a suitable kind of film to do for our final project because it is filmed in simple locations and doesn't have lots of expensive special effects so wouldn't be overly expensive to film.
Analysis of opening 2 minutes
This film starts with a fade in to an establishing shot of an early morning of frosty field with birds chirping in the background. The shot stays the same however it gradually gets lighter as the day begins and the field becomes clearer. Slowly the sun appears from behind the trees and lights up the field. This shot intrigues the audience as it is cleverly done it also sets the scene for the film. A very quiet tune on the piano is played on the background and it gives the shots a calm, classical feel. Shots like this would be good for our romance film as they are easy to film you just have to have the time to do it and it results in a good effect.
The shot then changes to a close up of a lady walking along reading a book, this indicates to the audience that this could be the main character and gives them an idea of her personality. We then see a close up of the pages shes reading, these two shots interest the audience as to who she is. Next there is an establishing shot of a house with ducks on the pond outside and sheep and we see this lady crossing a makeshift bridge across the water. This shot just gives the audience an idea of where the film is set and also indicates the time period as the house is old and isolated and the lady is wearing a dress down to her ankles. These shots would also be suitable for a romance film we could do because none of them are particularly expensive to shoot and they give a relaxed atmosphere to the film.
We then see her walking through the courtyard and there are lots of white sheets out to dry and in the background there are lady's in long dresses and white hats working suggesting that this is an older time period. She then walks past a doorway where the camera leaves her and zooms in down a corridor into a room where a lady is playing a piano. This is effective for the audience because as the camera zooms in it interests them as to where they are going.
This is an effective film opening because it indicates to the audience where the main setting of the film will be and it also suggests the time period it is set in. It interests the audience as no dialogue is spoken throughout so they want to continue watching to see what else will happen. This would be an effective opening if we were to do a romance film because it sets a good atmosphere and it isn't expensive or no specialist shots are used. However it doesn't show the audience that this is a film of romance genre.
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