High School Musical
For this analysis, I decided to analyse two completely different styles of opening against each other, both in the romance genre, in order to see what impact each style has.
'High School Musical' is a romance film that covers every romance cliche known to mankind, as it is aimed at a younger audience who enjoy watching films with predictable, yet warm-hearted plot lines. The film as a whole is clearly aimed at a young audience, and the first scene makes this very clear from the outset, by starting the love story in a very idealistic, too-good-to-be-true fashion.
The first shot is an establishing shot of a ski resort, and the text on the screen tells us that it is New Years Eve. This starts off the idealistic feel to the film, as New Years Eve can signify the start of something new (as is made clear in the first song) and it is also close to Christmas, which is the favourite time of the year for many young people. The text that appears on screen is very bland and uninteresting, however does have a glowing edge. For an older audience this could seem a bit childish, but for the younger audience, at which it is aimed, the text choice is perfect. For we must remember that to give this film opening a fair analysis we must remember that it is aimed at a much younger audience, who have far different tastes to adult films.
After this first establishing shot we are brought closer to the action and what is going on inside the resort. The audience is guided around a party scene, with teenagers wearing odd, fancy dress hats, colourful balloons and fairy lights. Again we can see that this is a very idealistic outlook on teenagers, and a film aimed at an older audience would probably present teenagers smoking, drinking and taking drugs. However here the teenagers are shaking hands and making friends and getting along very nicely while drinking what is, presumably, orange squash.
After this scene we are shown the lead female character who is bowing to the age old romance convention of being vulnerable, a bit geeky, and quiet. This cliche is seen in many other romance films such as 'Love Actually' and 'A Walk to Remember'. She is shown to follow this criteria by avidly reading a book on New Years Eve instead of going to parties or hanging out with her family. Not only is this good because it keeps the young viewers hooked on the film through the cliches, but it also encourages young people to read more, and not be worried about what people may think. Parents of the children would want to use this, so they would buy their child the film in the hope that it would inspire them to read more.
The next short scene is of the male lead playing basketball, which is a very American male sport, which shows him as 'the sporty, popular one', another cliche of the romance genre. As an audience we know from the rules of the romance genre that he will fall in love with the female lead, as they have completely opposite personalities and this leads to the idea of almost 'forbidden' or unlikely love. The male lead is played by Zac Efron who is a traditionally 'good-looking' actor who appeals to a young audience. In this scene the acting is very melodramatic and over-the-top to make it easier for a younger audience to follow. Their actions are exaggerated and their lines are very very cliche. This is, however, a good thing, as a younger audience would enjoy it more than deadly serious acting.
The production design as a whole is very colourful and vibrant, once again appealing to the target audience. Every location has a lot of colour, which helps the children feel safe and comforted in the environment in which the film is set. There is no litter or graffiti or anything negative about the scenes, and this presents an appriate setting for a childrens film.
Overall I think it is a strong opening for the film, as it appeals to the target audience, presents them with a safe and familiar environment, and follows the standard conventions of a romance movie. If it had been aimed at an adult audience then it would not have been good at all, but it was good for what it was.
Phantom of the Opera (1925)
'The Phantom of the Opera' was one of the first great silent movies at the beginning of the 20th Century, and so, needless to say, it relies more on images than dialogue. It is also in black and white, so colour could not be changed either, and even the cameras weren't high-quality so image quality couldn't be a factor. The standard fps was lower, resulting in the images moving slightly faster then normal, and lighting and editing were not nearly as advanced as today. With this in mind 'Phantom of the Opera' must be analysed according to the limitations of the time, and what it did with what it had.
The opening two minutes (starting at 00:01:00) is a long shot of the inside of an underground crypt, with arches and old architecture. A man with a lantern walks in and stands around for a bit, before ducking behind a pillar as athe shadow of a man walks past. Then the man walks back into shot and stands around for a bit with horror chords blasting before exiting. The shadow of the man follows him.
Despite being a gothic romance film, it follows no romance conventions whatsoever, instead it seems to follow the conventions of a horror film, with gothic architecture and mysterious shadows. Perhaps it does not want to set up romance as a happy, wonderful thing, but rather as a dark mysterious venture into the unknown. The lead male is shown as a man who is hiding underneath an opera house in torture chamber, hiding from people coming downstairs - hardly the popular, sporty jock that is shown in 'High School Musical'. The opening also gives the idea of forbidden love, as the man is hiding and secretive, and is perhaps unsuitable for the lead woman who we have not met yet
The key to this opening is in the enigmas that it brings up. It drags the audience in through asking them questions about who the man is, why he is hiding, and why there are horror chords whenever he walks into the centre of the shot. This encourages the audience to carry on watching as they don't know how this is going to link to the romance genre, and they want to know all about this man and his past.
The lighting is very unlike any film lighting that would be used nowadays. Nowadays the lighting would be intricately set up, with three point lighting and many filters, although in this opening, the lighting is very minimalistic, and is only lit from the lights that are availible to the character, in this case - a lantern. Although this would have been the standard thing to do at the time, it doesn't work at all. We can't see the character clearly, or anything else on screen, and this is not a stylistic choice, but it's just bad lighting...sometimes you can just tell the difference. Admittedly this would have been because the cinematographer would not have been able to play back the footage afterwards and check it, nor would he have been able to see properly what was going to come out of it.
I think that the opening to 'High School Musical' is far stronger than the 'Phantom of the Opera' opening as you can actually tell what is happening, instead of having to watch meticulously over and over until you work it out. Despite the obvious handicap of being silent, the film should have been able to hold the story together. The lighting ruins the scene. 'High School Musical' however has a strong opening for the audience it is aimed at, and obeys the rules of its genre.
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