Research - 500 Days of Summer Opening Analysis (2009)

Institutional Information:
With the tagline 'it was almost like falling in love' 500 Days of Summer shows the struggles of unrequited love from the perspective of Tom Hansen, a hopeless romantic in search of his soulmate - Summer. This movie portrays the danger of being more in love with the idea of a relationship than the person they supposedly love. This movie was released on 7th of August 2009 (USA) with an estimated budget of $7,500,000, making $834,501 on its opening weekend (USA). Overall it made $60.7 million in Box office. It was directed by Marc Webb, who is also known for directing The Amazing Spider-Man series in 2012 and 2014. Written and produced by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (Also known for successful book to movie adaptation The Fault In Our Stars (2014)). Starring successful actors such as Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Matthew Gray Gubler.

Target Audience: 
The target audience for romantic comedies are normally wide, however predominantly female, this is because stereotypically females enjoy these films more than men. However 500 days of summer challenges the typical conventions by having a male lead, its rare for a romantic comedy to be from a males perspective, this would attract men towards to film as well.

Genre:
The genre of 500 days of Summer is Romantic Comedy, we know this due to examples such as the voiceover stating 'This is a story where boy meets girl'. However this film challenges the typical conventions of the genre, for example having a male lead is unusual. By introducing the characters Tom and Summer as 'the boy' and 'the girl' this creates the image that they are young and full of life which links to the idea of 'young love' or 'first love' which is seen as greatly impacting in someones life; this adds an intensity to the love story. The film also challenges the stereotypical romantic comedy as the voiceover says 'This is not a love story', this is juxtaposition.

Sound: 
In the opening credits we hear whistling, this creates a light hearted happy tone to the movie. From the whistling music is brought in, this is non-diegetic sound as the characters can't hear it. This has a slow peaceful feel, this is playing while we see Tom and Summer 'gazing' into each others eyes, this could connote that these characters feel at ease and at peace around each other. This helps the audience to immediately see the relationship between the two. The fact that Tom and Summer, in the scene starting at 1:00, can sit together without saying anything suggests that they have been through a lot together. The non-diegetic voice over introduces us to the characters and narrates a flashback from when they were young. This gives us an idea of the type of people they are. For example Summer is introduced as 'she'd only loved two things, the first was her long dark hair, the second was how easily she could cut it off and feel nothing' this infers that Summer is cold and doesn't care for anything which is an opinion Tom forms of Summer throughout the movie.

Title Sequence/Opening Credits:
The title sequence starts with a brown background, this could reflect old paper, this suggests that the movie is based in earlier years, although it isn't specified, the clothing in the movie would also suggest this. On the screen we see '(500) DAYS OF SUMMER'. Behind the text an image of a landscape is drawn onto the screen. The only colour we see is of the tree to the left of the text. The bright green represents happiness, as the days countdown the landscape fades out and is replaced by a bench. This then fades into a shot of the two main characters sitting on the bench. This reinforces that this story is fiction, written by someone else, in this case the narrator is the author. The mixture of real life and drawing creates a fairytale essence to the movie, however this is contradicted by being told it isn't a love story.

Mis En Scene:

Shots which focus on Tom are usually arranged to include dull colours such as browns and greys. This shows the audience that without Summer being in Tom's life, its boring, dull and repetitive. This is Toms perspective, his life isn't worth living without her. Summer is always shown in colour, for example a blue bow in her hair. This is inferring that Summer brightens up your life. This is a common convention in romantic comedies, however stereotypically it is usually the women obsessing over a man.

There are no establishing shots used in the opening, we are only shown an office and a park, with the exception of the bedrooms in the flashbacks. The closest thing we get to an establishing shot is the drawn image of the city landscape. This gives the audience the idea that its set in a city, however we aren't given any defining details. For example we aren't given the name of the city or the location of the office, this adds to the fairytale theme, the city could be anywhere for all we know. This challenges the conventions of a 'rom com' as popular settings are cities such as Paris, New York, places that have a connotation of love and romance. The idea of an unreal setting reinforces to the audience the idea that this story is fiction.

An almost over-the-shoulder shot is used to show a strong mutual friendship between the two main characters although at this point we don't know the characters or their relationship status. A close up shot is used to emphasise the wedding ring on Summers finger. This gives the audience an idea of what to expect, this is also a pivotal moment later in the movie.

Conclusion:
This movie opening is successful because although it falls into the romantic comedy genre it at times challenges the conventions. For example it is very rare that the person portrayed as 'head over heels' in love to be a male, the male lead changes it up and makes it more interesting also bringing in a whole new demographic in the target audience. The order of the story is one of the most interesting parts. By giving us flashes forward and then flashbacks it allows the audience to question what will happen next keeping them intrigued to watch the rest of the film.