Gregory Wade

Analysis of An Opening Scene

Film: Confessions of A Shopaholic
Ive chosen to analyse Confessions of A Shopaholic, the film was picked as it fits our chosen genre
but it also is very similar to the story of our film. The film, released in 2009, is labelled as a cross
genre of romance and comedy based on the life of Rebecca Bloomwood. The opening scene brings
the introduction of Rebecca as she tells the audience about herself in the form of a monologue, we
hear her aspirations and dreams filling us in on the key information. This information is matched on
screen by a child form of herself which transitions continuously until we see her present self, where
we hear of her biggest dream, to own a credit card.
Throughout the scene the highlight is her want for a credit card which is repeatedly demonstrated
when we for example, see a close up of her choosing what shed buy and seeing a lady handing over
a gold shining credit card, for which she described it as magical. For her this is a different life to the
one she lives as her mother would buy her cheap items of clothing and toys whereas shed witness
older females swiping these cards to pay for whatever they wanted.
On screen this is clearly displayed as we see a range of techniques to display how she feels. To start
with we see a use of character positioning where the young girl is looking upwards towards the adult
giving us the impression shes an aspiration herself or a role model to the child. This theme of her
being a role model continues as we see multiple close ups of what she is doing as well as a relation in
her behaviour to that which is later displayed in the actions of the grown up version of the little girl.
The way she is dressed is replicated by that of the older Rebecca and her choice of shopping is also
repeated to stress the relation of each character.
The opening sequence of our production relates greatly to that of confessions of a shopaholic as
there are many aspects we need and aim to cover. Similarly to the films opening we aim to create a
similar effect using a voice over our footage. We aim to use two main characters to introduce our
film and inform the audience on the relevant information to the rest of the film. In terms of
characters we aim to create similar persona as Rebecca Bloomwood as in her interest in a man in
power while striving for her dream job. In my opinion CS is a very similar film synopsis to ours, so
studying it has been very beneficial to my project.
Throughout the scene sound is used to compliment the video in both diegetic and non-diegetic
formats. Diegetic sound is used when we can hear the other little girls laughing when the child
version of Rebecca is buying shoes, which allows the character to react in the suitable way to what is
needed. Alongside this, non-diegetic sound is used with both sound effects and a soundtrack used to
emphasise aspects of the footage, when she spots a pair of much for fashionable shoes a sparkle
effect can be heard indicating its unrealistic nature to the character, this type of effect is key to
explaining the story and its attempts to portray it. The soundtrack is played from the start and stays
until the scene ends as it sets the tone to the message of the scene, roundly complimenting it.
Cinematography is used very loosely within the sequence, however it focused more or less solely on
the actions of Rebecca, it opens with a close up of a very sad and disappointed child with her arms
crossed indicating her dislike to the situation. This moves to a much older character which moves to
a low angle shot, demonstrating the power and status she has. This change demonstrates her
transition from young and powerless to grown up and powerful, following the build of the film.
Lastly, the scene relies heaving on its mise-en-scene, symbolically a lot is used to convey meanings
through each aspect of the mise-en-scene. The location is set purely in a shopping district which sets
Gregory Wade
the tone while laying the story of the film. As I mentioned before we see a key role in character
positioning as she looks up to the shopper demonstrating her ambition. We then see towards the
end a very well dressed and confident Rebecca which demonstrates her power, completing her
growth as a person.