Notting hill
analyse how the films opening establishes genre conventions and reaches target audiences through technical codes, narrative and characterization
Notting Hill is a 1999 British romantic comedy film set in
Notting Hill, London, and the film was released on 21 May 1999. The film was
well received by critics, and also became the highest grossing British film
released in that year. The film won a BAFTA, and was nominated in two other
categories.
The plot revolves around William Thacker played by Hugh
Grant. Will owns a travel bookshop in the area of Notting hill. Will has been
divorced and now shares his house with a welsh eccentric called spike. When
he’s in his book shop William encounters the Hollywood star Anna Scott played
by Julia Roberts. Minutes after their meeting, the pair collides in the street
where William’s orange juice spills onto her clothes. He offers Anna to change
at his house across the road. After he gets all flustered having her in the
house and starts babbling however she surprises Will with a kiss
In the first 15 minutes a British ROM COM usually depicts a
male trying to win over a woman but also putting himself down in comparison to
American ROM COM’s where they big themselves up.
In the opening scene to Notting hill it starts off by having
Anna Scott in different shot and frames many of which are extreme close ups of
her in a dress with paparazzi around her and having all these superimposed
together with fades and dissolves. The scene fades away to will in Notting hill
where he is followed down the street with a horizontal track shot with will in
the focus then cutting away to people he describes along the way. The scene is
set on a sunny day with a busy market feel and to giving the audience a
reassuring atmosphere by the way he describes everyone and how the scene is
set. The music is a non diagetic soft background to go with the genre.
The next scene introduces wills house and his house mate
spike. The first shot in his house is a zoom out and backwards tracking out of
his hall way where its seems relatively clean in comparison to the rest of his
house which he uses to put himself down as a stereotypical British male does in
films. When he arrives in his house all the diagetic and non diagetic music
stops to show that the atmosphere has changed. Spike is introduced to us as he
goes to try t- shirts on for his date of
which are shown by using shot reverse shots to get the expression off both of
them as the first to wouldn't have been suitable. The next scene shows him going
to work at his bookshop with his business partner there. The lighting is set
that it’s darker inside the shop and the street is sunny this is representing
the current situation of the shop making a loss and his life that behind the
closed doors it’s dull and sad. The lighting is like this until Anna walks in. at
first she it’s a focus pull from will’s face to her in the background entering
the shop bathed in light as if bringing light to his life.
In this scene Anna has walked into the bookshop and is all
in black with sun glasses as I not to attract attention to herself so most of
the on her are medium close ups as we can’t see much emotion on her face as she
is also looking down towards the floor most the time. As she leaves the shop Will
is putting himself down in a 2 shot at the shop counter. As Anna leaves and his
colleague returns the soft focus of Anna is lost for a sharper and duller lighting.
The follow on to that
scene is a suddenly cut away to will walking back from getting orange
juice with a calm non diagetic sound in the background until in a long shot he
collides with Anna on the street corner.
The clothing use for this scene is of the white shirts as the orange shows up
more. Will then invites Anna back as he again puts himself down. Because it’s
the 2nd time we enter his house the camera has already tracked back
to the end of the hall to unveil the extent to Anna. As she goes upstairs we get a horizontal
track from the kitchen to dining room where Anna returns in a long shot in
order to capture her descending down the stairs with the editing of a soft
focus. As Anna is leaving Will is trying to get her to stay longer and have a conversation
with her so the extreme close ups of shot reverse shots get quicker as he tries
to find something to interest her. When she leaves we get a long shot of the
hall way then into an extreme close up 2 shot as she leaves however will
returns to the door when she forgot her bag and then she kisses him in an
extreme close up 2 shot and the lighting is a lot warmer now then what it
should be inside his house.
In conclusion I think that this film fit the genre of
British romantic comedy very well as the main character is a British male that
put himself down in order to flirt with her and she is a woman who seems out of
his league and outside his world of Notting hill in London.
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