The Notebook

The Notebook appears to be a romantic drama. I have made this assumption as the setting of the opening is a lake and a sunset. This would often be referred to romance. The opening has connotations of romance as the opening shows two people feature in the opening. The two characters that are presented are male and female. This is a romantic drama stereotype as it normally indicates that the two characters are going to fall in love and whilst their love grows, they come across a few issues. The continuous use of the orange and black tones is stereotypical as these warm colours are related to romance, which adds effect to the romantic drama stereotype.

The narrative of the film is romance. The protagonist of the film is introduced within the 2 minutes of the film. She appears to be watching someone who is rowing a boat in a lake. This could suggest that the lake is a key feature in the narrative of the film as it is introduced and focused on for a long period of time. The storyline is not completely introduced in the opening for The Notebook. As only main character has been introduced in the opening, it allows the audience to look forward to the whole film as the storyline hasn't been revealed yet which means that the film will be enticing. By not introducing all the characters at once the storyline builds up as it goes along.

The opening of the notebook does not introduce all Characters that star in the film. The supposedly protagonist is introduced within 2 minutes of the opening. The character that is introduced appeared to be an elderly woman who is dressed in silk pyjamas and a robe. This could indicate that she is well off and classy due to wearing silk clothing.

The atmosphere in the opening I think is intended to be relaxing and calm. By combining classical music and the sunset within the opening, it sets a calm atmosphere within the film and for the audience. This atmosphere may suggest that everything is at peace within the opening and there are no major indicators have been introduced just yet as it would not have the sunset background and slow classical music. The atmosphere may suggest that the film could be a romance as the sunset is an ideal setting for a romance to occur due to nature's beauty. The atmosphere has an impact on the audience as they would also feel relaxed as there are no sharp transitions within the opening, which makes it seem calm. On the other hand, the atmosphere could be really upsetting/sad due to the dark colours and slow music. We see a lot of silhouettes of trees, which are black, black has connotations of death.

In the whole of the notebook I think there are multiple themes that it could have. I think one of the main themes in the opening is Love. The sunset and the romantic mood contributes majorly to Love to make it the dominant theme in the opening. This is the only theme I could recognise from the opening. This theme is probably used throughout the film to ensure that here is continuity within the whole film. Other themes could be introduced in the film later on such as social status and financial status. This would mean that the Notebook could have a similar narrative to Romeo and Juliet.

In the opening of the Notebook, it appears that the setting is at sunset and by a lake. These two things are focused on the most throughout the film. This could suggest that the lake is a significant part of the film. The settinf is cliche due to the film's genre. As the Noteboook is a romantic drama, the setting is ideal to be used as it allows the audeience to get teh right impressions from the film. The warm colours in the sunset ameks everything seems so serene

In the opening of the notebook, non diegetic sound is used. The non diegetic sound used in the opening is the piano background music. The piano music sets the scene for the opening as it contributes to the romantic theme. No other uses of sound is used in the opening. This may or may not be a good thing to do in the opening of the film. Having minimal sound might entice the audience and make them follow things slowly. On the other hand, it could  be a negative thing as the audience might get bored and think that the opening is too vague with the use of sound.

Looking at the opening. it appears that the actors/actresses name appear to be in a certain order. The order may be in the order of who has the most screen time to the person who has the least amount of screen time. Since I am looking at the opening, the most important credits normally appear in the opening credits and the rest are shows in the ending credits. The first title that comes up is 5 seconds within the opening. Having 5 seconds before names are introduced, it allows the audience to be aware of the setting and the location of the scene.