Analysing opening scenes-Love actually

Analysing opening scenes-Love actually

in the opening scene of love actually sound is used to express a definition of love through the non diegetic sound of the dialogue used and the small and quiet sound of music in the background which is subtle enough to give the pictures and clips shown more of an image to the viewer. The narrative dialogue the director chose to include adds more of an atmosphere as it talks about what love is and what it can do and have an influence on. This makes it very clear to the audience that this is a romance film because the first thing they talk about is love, this helps the audience to settle down and get ready for the story ahead. The non diegetic music used is there to bring more emphasis to the narrators voice and what he is saying, its there so that people in the audience are not to busy focusing on the clips and therefore their full attention will be on what the narrator is saying.

There are lots of different camera shots used during the opening scene to get across the feeling of love to the audience in a more descriptive and visual way then words. The shots range is very diverse with all types of shots being exhibited, these variety of shots could contradict in the way everyone feels and expresses love in different ways. For example most of the shots are off people in a wide audience finding the loved one they have been looking for, the camera shots seem to focus more on the people they want us to see so that they can get across the true diversity of love in all its many forms to the audience in just over a minute. The camera angles we are shown as people in the audience are all of very happy people who are reuniting with their love ones and they show that love through the facial expressions they make, this is significant because it catches the eye of people in the audience because it is the thing in the scene which sticks out the most.

The setting they chose was Heathrow airport to film this opening scene because the director decided that he wanted to prove people wrong and go to a place where love is shown many times over a days period between a wide range of different people in different cultures and different countries all arriving and uniting in love at an airport. This does however leave an enigma at the end because we have to think why they are in the airport for the opening scene and whether that airport will have any significance in the overall plot of the film.