Research and Planning - Film opening analysis - Notting Hill

Again an easy identifiable Romantic/Comedy, implying a genuine love story -a man falls for a woman or visa verser. In this case the male (Hugh Grant) has fallen for a beautiful movie star played as Julia Roberts. Immediately portraying Julia Roberts as 'the worlds most beautiful woman' focusing on the contrast of her celebrity lifestyle compared to Hugh Grant as an 'average joe' living in Notting Hill with a lovesick admiration for the celebrity on the other side of the world.
The purpose of the opening scenes are to hook the required audience in, this is done by incorporating enigmas to keep you eager to watch the rest and see how things end up. This is a powerful technique very popular in film openings. This specific opening scene uses the contrast on lifestyles between the two main characters to build a realistic grounding to improve the USP (Unique Selling Point) of which, how the situation will end up, how and when Hugh Grant will let Julia Roberts observe his crush on her. This keeps the audience eager therfore hooked on the film, successfully intreaging the audience.
This purpose is achieved through the media language very successfully, constructing a powerful mixture of non diegetic sounds - as the film starts straight away a soft romantic song is being played over the scene to set the genre and identify its appeal as a Romantic/Comedy. Then after the brief montage of Julia Roberts constucting the effective imagary of her persona as an amazing very celebritised woman playing a Movie Star, then smoothly cuts on to the scene in Notting Hill in which Hugh Grant playing the lovesick average joe, again with a non-diegetic voice over acting as his mind. Introducing us to his lifestyle as he walks down portabello road, incorporating the comedy aspect of the film, the levels of lighting in this scene are vibrant and happy portraying that things might start looking up for him. The smooth and slow editing process of the opening scenes help us, the audience relax whilst presenting Julia Roberts as a powerful woman in slow motion, introducing an obviously important character.