Titanic Opening Scene Analysis

Titanic Opening Scene Analysis (Romance)

 Sound is very important within a romance film as it allows the audience to become immersed in the many different situations put across in horror films and helps set the mood of the film and the atmosphere surrounding the characters seen on screen. In the opening scene of Titanic non-diegetic music is used to reflect the original narrative events of the story and the strong but dark portrayal of the song helps to contrast the inevitable doom of those on board the ship. The song is used to help emphasize the imagery shown behind it as it allows the audience to relate the shot of the passengers waving goodbye to the somewhat sad music, this in integral in the portrayal of the opening scene as it helps the audience relate these characters shown to the original event it was based off.

In the opening scene the first image we are shown is a panning shot of what we assume is the primary setting for the story as it establishes to the audience the significance of the ship and helps them infer what may happen in the narrative afterwards. After the initial establishment of the ship we are introduced to a point of view angle at what the people who are waving goodbye can witness; this is ironic in the grand scheme of things as these people are actually saying goodbye forever in the majority of cases. The film makers (Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox) are introduced in this shot as it helps contrast the dark and vintage imagery of the events unfolding on screen with something bright and eye catching, this may be used to help the audience relate this film to others of the genre or from the same companies. As the scene progresses we as the audience are shown many different images of those on the ship and this helps personalise even minor characters as the audience can contrast the happiness shown by these characters with the darkness of the ocean within the next shot.

Many secondary characters are introduced to the audience within the opening scene of Titanic; although they most likely won't hold any further significance it helps add a sense of realism to the movie as the wide array of different characters help add an atmosphere to the movie and allows the audience to easily become immersed into the events unfolding on screen. The audience can assume that these characters shown are secondary to the story-line as the camera shots are all from a distance which may prevent the audience from personalising those characters and allows them to easily gather who the main characters are when they are later introduced.

The audience can see that these secondary characters are wearing a variety of different clothing judging on their position on the boat. This shows the audience that there is a difference In class on the ship as there is characters who are situated on one side of the boat in suits and fancy dresses and on the other there is the more commercial shirt and trousers, this may infer to the audience that the stories main characters have to breach this class difference. This is typical of a romance film as it is often shown that the two main characters usually have to go through many obstacles to get together and so the audience may relate this fact to other movies as it allows them to predict what will happen in the narrative.

In the opening scene some noticeable clichés are present including the obvious inclusion of the upper and lower classes and the ironic fact that the romance may be short lived due to the established setting. This engages the audience as they can recognise these features from other romance films and this helps them infer what may happen during the films story-line.