Analysing opening scenes-The notebook

Analysing opening scenes-The notebook

The opening shot of the notebook is a very long shot of a man canoeing through an exotic river, this shot is very intriguing to the viewer because the setting is very beautiful to the eyes with a sunset in the background as well. The thing which catches the eye the most is the fact that the man in the canoe is the only thing moving in the entire scene and therefore contrasts what could of been a still image of a beautiful view. The movement the man is doing is interesting because it is like he is rowing away from something in his past or towards something in his future, this information is left from the viewer so that it is up to them to make a conclusion from what they can see. It then zooms in to just focus on the actual canoer, at first it zooms in but remains a long shot but the second time it does zoom into more of a tracking shot with camera racking the movement of the canoer as he makes his way down the river. The canoers slow movements with the oars could represent the fact that this film is indeed a romance film and therefore won't be a very fast paced film rather a slow and steady speed throughout. The fact that there is so many different shots centred on this one canoer shows us that he must have a significant part in the story of the film or is the main character who the director wanted us to see as a shadowy figure form afar so for the moment he stays anonymous to the audience. We then get a birds eye view of birds flying maybe representing freedom of love exhibited between who we presume to be the main character and someone else. This other person is shown first using an over the shoulder shot to show that she has been looking out for this guy and has been waiting for his arrival. The next shot of her is a long shot through a window to show that there is still barriers between the two of them. The red colour throughout the whole scene is used because traditionally red is the colour of love and therefore to use a lot of red in the whole scene is to show that these two different people are meant to be together but for whatever reason are yet to actually break the barrier keeping them apart.

The actual opening scene has very little sound in it, however it does have a constant use of non diegetic sound in the background through the slow, quiet song which they are playing, the song in general is slow to represent the pace at which the film will go which isn't very fast seeing its a romance film. As for diegetic sound the only bit we hear is right at the end where there is a tiny bit of dialogue between two woman, one who we presume is significant because she seems to be drawn to the canker who we presume is a main character and one who seems to have very little relevance to the actual storyline and is just there as a reminder that these two people aren't the only ones alive.

An enigma code is used at the ending of the scene when the woman who we presume to be the main character walks away from the window after a bit of dialogue with another woman, this leaves us with second thoughts on whether the man canoeing is a significant character for the plot and whether he will be the person to make this film into a proper romance films with lots of love and many obstacles blocking their way to each other.