Film opening 2: Pride & Prejudice (2015)

Director: Joe Wright

Writing credits:  Jane Austen - Novel,

Actors: Keira Knightley, Matthew Macfadyen, Rosamund Pike, Simon Woods

Production companies: Focus Features, Universal Pictures, Studiocanal, Working Title Films, Scion Films

Budget: $28.000.000 (estimated)

Genre: Drama, Romance

For my second film opening I watched Pride & Prejudice, which is a Universal Pictures and Working Title film.

Cinematography

The opening scene is an establishing shot of the countryside.

This shot is created to establish the idyllic countryside setting for the audience.

After this you see a timelapse within the establishing shot of the sun rising. The lighting is very dim. All of this evidence of lighting, bird's twitching and the sun rising let the audience know that it is dawn. In additon, there is a non-diegetic sound of a soft and melodic piano playing in the background. This piano play is useful to set the tranquil set of this meadow at dawn.

The next shot you see after the timelapse is a medium close-up and low angle of a young girl (who we find out is named Elizabeth) reading a book. This close-up is used to show the audience that she is one of the main character's.

Moreover, it establishes that her character must like to read, since the audience can see how focused and transfixed she is on the book.

The following shot is a close-up and an over-the-shoulder shot of her book where we recognise that it is the end of the book through the marked "THE END" words on the bottom of the page. This again, let's the audience know that she is a very interlectual character who finds pleasure in reading.

After this, there is a straight cut creating an establishing shot of Elizabeth crossing a small canal to a big house presumably her home.

The mise-en-scene and the chosen costumes e.g. her dress and her hair connotes that the movie is set in the past. Moreover, the diegetic sound of churchbells, geese and cows connotes that the setting is likely to be in a village and on a farm.

During the time that Elizabeth crosses the small canal to what we still presume is her home the camera follows her through a tracking shot. While it does, the audience is able to identify the setting and time a bit further due to the different camera shots seen through the tracking process.

For example, in the next two mid-shots she is walking accross the farm, and there are a lot of sheets hanging outside.

Especially in the second mid-shot, the audience notices that there are two women washing the sheets by hand, which connotes that the film is set in a time where there wasn't any machinery yet and it was all hand labour.

In addition, there are so many sheets, so it is probably only being done a couple of times a year when the weather allows it. Hence, one could interpret that the film is set in the summer season.

Furthermore, the audience notices that the two women are working but Elizabeth isn't, this shows the audience that she comes from a higher rank.

The tracking shot keeps following Elizabeth until there is a framing inside the frame of a girl playing the piano. So far, we believed that the soft piano in the background was non-diegetic. However, at this point the audience find out that it is the diegetic sound of a piano play of a young girl playing inside the house.

The camera is zooming in to the house in an eye-level shot. This mise-en-scene of the objects hanging around the house, such as portraits and the old fashioned candles, are again indicating the time period to the audience.

Furthermore, the mise-en-scene connotes that it is a wealthy family with enough money to afford a sustainable house and household.

The mise-en-scene of all the ribbons, clothes and the bonnet suggest that the family is about to go somewhere. Again this indicates to the audience that it is a wealthy family. However, it looks a bit messy since the clothes are all over the place. This could also suggest that there are a lot of people living there who are a bit untidy.

The camera keeps panning to the right until it stops and we see a long shot of the front yard of the house with Elizabeth coming back into the picture after she has walked around the house.

In the background of the shot, we see a worker feeding the geese which again suggests that the movie is staged in the countryside, and that she is coming from a higher rank.

After this, the camera zooms in on her and creates an over-the-shoulder shot while she is looking at two people in a room inside of the house.

Having observed them for a while, Elizabeth turns away from the window to walk inside of the house. At the same time, the audience can see that she laughs a little after having heard the women talking. Her laughing could suggest that she is used to hearing them talking and that they are probably someone who live their with her (e.g. friends or family).

At the opening scene of the movie you hear the diegetic sound of the bird's twitching. This sets a peaceful and calm mood in the audience.

During the timelapse of the sun rising a non-diegetic sound of calm and soft piano music is playing in the background. As mentioned above, the audience is tricked into believing that it is a non-diegetic sound. However, as the film opening continues we find out that it the piano play of a young woman inside the house.

Moreover, there are a lot of diegetic sounds when the scenes are shot outside of the house since it takes place on a farm in a small village. This we can tell since there are a lot of animal noises but also church bells ringing in the background.