Wish you were here opening analysis

Completed by Rian Scaife

Wish you were here was directed by David Leland. 
The budget was $1.5M. 
The Box Office was $3.8

Summary: Joel Edgerton stars as Dave Flannery, who reluctantly vacations in Cambodia with his pregnant wife Alice (Felicity Price), her younger sister Steph and new boyfriend Jeremy. After a night of partying, Jeremy vanishes without a trace. Dave and the women return to their lives, each bearing differing degrees of knowledge about what happened and slowly put the pieces of the puzzle together to find out what happened that night.  
     Dave reveals he slept with Steph on the beach.He goes for a walk and meets a man, who offers to take him to a small bar. Dave went and began drinking. Alice gets into an argument with Dave. She goes to Steph's house and confronts her. On the way home, she gets into a car accident and is rushed to the hospital, where she prematurely gives birth to the baby. In the end, Dave tells the police the truth of Jeremy's death

This is the opening to 'Wish you were here'. The film was produced in 1987. The film was produced and written by Davis Leland. The film is about a girl who is looked down on by the elder generations because of how she dresses and acts. her mother is dead and her dad has given up on her. (The Title refers to her mother {wishing her mother was there}). It is set in the British seaside in the 1950's.

  The first think that comes up in this 'Film Four International presents..'. The title is white on a black background centre screen. White text on a black background often signifies the film being set on serious social issues and documentation. The text is sans-serif. The film genre is a British comedy-drama. The film opening is1:34 minutes long.

This comes up around 4 seconds after the 'Film Four International'. The writing is the same and the text is centre screen bringing the eyes in. 

This photo of a child then fades in. This image stays on the screen for a relatively longer period of time than the titles. The image is a girl with a gas mask on. We can connote that the film may be based in the past or the past has a lot to do with the life of one of the main characters. The image is not full screen. It has been cropped and on covers the centre of the screen. Again everything seems to be in centre screen. So far we haven't actually seen any of the time period or the area that the film is set in. This is narrative enigma. Information is being with held, making us ask questions, such as who is this child, when was this. This shot comes up at around 0:10 seconds. The fades away at 0:17, which is twice the length of the first two idents.

This is the next shot. Come in at 0:18 seconds. It is on the screen alone for three seconds much ike the idents, the name Tom Bell then appears. Emily Lloyd then disappears at 0:23 listing 0:07 seconds on the screen. Tom Bell i now left and fades out at 0:26 seconds The camera is slowly revealing more of the scene. Slowly moving left. As it moves more titles of actors are put up. This isn't a very long introduction to actors. The first actress to come up in EMILY LLOYD. This suggests that she is the main character of the film. I would usually guess that this meant Emily Lloyd was famous however this was her first film. She was 15 at the time.

  The title is a bold bright red, attracts your eyes to the screen. It is very contrasting in comparison to the background. Which is dull and grey. I can denote that it is the ocean, probably somewhere in England because of the dark grey skies, suggesting it isn't somewhere warm like Spain.

Tom Bell is then added to the screen. We can again denote that these are the main actors of this film. 'Tom Bell' s also in the ocean section of the screen. The text is not covering the structure that we are about to see. The filming that is being done here is crab left. Extreme Long shot to give us the full picture of where we are. The scene is slowly being revealed.Narrative enigma is a big part of this scene. His name fades in at 0:21 and fades out at 0:26 seconds.

The title of the film has now been introduced. The font of the writing has now changed. The writing is serif. Very fancy, something that you would find in a rom-com. However, Wish you were here is a drama comedy. This would be showing the drama side of the film. The writing is very dramatic and over the top.  The semiotics of this are still not giving away, much about what the film is really about.  We have now reached the actually beach. Lana. There is a man walking along the beach in a coat. Costume is very significant when creating a timely film such as 'Wish you were mine'.  

  The man is very far away there we are unable to see the detail. Once agian nothing has been given away. The title of the film comes in at 0:27 and then fades out like the rest at 0:32 seconds, listing 5 seconds.

The text has returned to the simple sans-serif. All of these names are the co-stars. The fact that all of them are on the screen in one shot shows us that the opening of the film will not be very long. the 'and' at the end shows us that, that is the last actor to be mentioned in the opening two minutes of the film. The rest of the titles like this last around bout 0:03 seconds each. Showing that they are less important.

The shot is getting further and further out. We can now see the whole of the man and his dog. he is wearing a long jacket and a hat. Signifying that it is autumn time in Britain. From the background it is clear that we may not be in the best area of Britain. (Sussex). The pier has a section missing. Showing that the place has not been renovated in very long. Not well taken care of. We can connote poverty in this area due to the darkness and how everything so far seems meak and no the idealist of what Britain is really like.

This shot we can see what seems to be a dark green\grey tech chair. if you compare this to Spain or somewhere warm the chair may be lighter colours and with a lighter warmer feeling background. However from first impressions it doesn't seem like the happy kind seaside that Britain stands for. The text 'Designed by Caroline Amies' is right across the chair which brings your eyes toward the detail.

The shot is now being opened up. We can see more of the bigger picture. There are more than one deck chair. There are a few, however most are spread out, why would you want to sit on your own?

The chair is slightly titled, what we can connote from this is that no one has recently sat down on this chair and that the word has moved it. The weather isn't warm.

If you look closely enough we can see a girl in pink riding a bike. Already she stands out by wearing the bright colour. Which again contrasts to the background. The fact that this person is wearing pink shows us that this could be the antagonist of the film. So the first exposed image of the antagonist is at 1:03. Before we see the antagonist we see a flock of birds fleeing an area. This brings our attention to the area. The antagonist the cones in on  bike.

This shot is at 1:06. Showing that the antagonist is quickly approaching. Suddenly from no information being exposed to a front shot of the main character. Wearing very little to say that the woman behind her is wearing a long beige coat. The woman behind her almost blends in with the background. Where as she is standing out. First of all for not wearing much and second of all for wearing pink and smiling.

We now have a side shot of the main characters face. The camera is following her. This shot type could be called a tracking shot. This is a medium shot. We can see her facial expressions and her shoulders are involved in the shot. The ocean in the background blends into the grey skies about her. This could signify the people of east sussex in the 1950s. She is standing out by what she is wearing. The main plot of this film is the fact that the older generation are sticking to the rules and the ways that they know. Blending in. Non of them particularly  have a personality. She does.

'Written and Directed by David Leland'. This is the last text that is shown in the introduction. It is in centre bottom of the screen. Our eyes are on this dancing lady. The dancing lady goes the audience a thought of when this was set in. The lady is also not wearing much, much like the girl riding he bike. The lady is dancing and asking for money. Clearly this is not the desirable job for a lady in the 50's. It is cold and wet. We can connect the girl on the bike to the girl standing and asking for money. 

Finally the music fades out and we have a frontal shot of the antagonist. This is a medium close shot. She is smiling at the camera. The diegetic music then stops and there is a black out. She in a hairdressers smiling at a boy. This is where the film begins.

I would say from what has been revealed to us that the genre of this film is romantic-drama. With underlaying comedy. I can connote this from the opening because of the choice of titles, white on black to begin with. Then a very dull background with bright red sans-serif writing. The bold text stands out much like the antagonist might throoughout the film.

So far i woulddn't say there has been any binary oppositions. However seeing as it is a romantic i feel that the boy to girl binary opposite with come into place as a main element.

The music fades in at about 0:28 seconds. To start with the sound that is coming from the screen is the sound of the ocean. This is non-diegetic sound. This makes me fel like im actually at the seaside,it is far more effective than scilence. The music then fade in (diegetic) this brings you back to reality.
 The antgonist then comes into the shot on a bike, as she gets closer we can hear the sound of the bike, changing gears. This now has non-diegetic and diegetic at the same time. However after tracking Emily Lloyd on the bike we see a woman dancing on a music box. The music then becomes muffeled, as if playing from a music box. We can dennote that the music is coming from the tap dancing lady (we can also hear the tap shoe). When the music stops the lasy stops dancing and it goes to a black out. This is the end to the introduction. There is  faded blackout and then it fades back into the opening scene. Which Emily Lloyd is smiling at a boy.