Textual analysis for a romantic comedy


Hitch


The opening scene of Hitch involves a narration from Will Smith who is "hitch" in the film. He is narrating, along with background music of the song Wonderful World by Sam Cooke.


The scene begins with a woman waking up in bed and Hitch saying "no woman wakes up saying... God I hope I don't get swept off my feet today". The music also kicks in which is very jolly, romantic music. This sets a happy tone to the film right from the start and makes the audience smile and think of happy thoughts. Hitch then goes on to say what women say and then what they actually mean; he is educating men and teaching them not to give up on women they love just because they think the woman is giving off different messages. At the start of the clip the audience are intrigued as to who the narrator is and why he is telling us these things. The audience naturally begin to think what this person could look like and then half way through the clip, Hitch is introduced to us as he carries on what he is saying. Most of the sound in the scene is non-diagetic, for example the music and the narration of Hitch; but there are also ambient sounds of cars in the street and the lift in the hotel and the dog barking.


The first shot we see is a close up of a woman waking up in bed, this shot fits in with the narrative. It then cuts to a close up of a woman talking with a smile on her face, this makes the audience wonder why she seems so happy. It then cuts to a long shot to show us she is talking to a man who both seem very happy, while what we presume is her daughter is picking sweets in the shop. These are just examples of what we naturally consider to be romantic meets and love at first sight scenarios. The next part shows a woman walking down the street and in a medium shot she turns round to smile at the hotel worker, this is also in slow motion. This is used to empathise the fact she turned around and smiled so the audience notice she is very interested and made the effort to attract the mans attention. Throughout the scene numerous close ups are shown, this is to show the emotions on their faces and the happiness. When Hitch is walking out of the hotel the camera is reverse tracking him, this is to once again reiterate the fact he is talking to us as an audience and no-one else.


The mise en scene in the clip is excellent in creating a sunny, happy atmosphere. All the costumes are very bright and colourful and give off no sign of dullness. The lighting is also very bright and the weather is nice. If it was raining outside it wouldn't give off the same effect of being a typical romantic comedy.


The editing is just an average paced editing. It's not too fast because it doesn't want to give off an exciting, thrilling theme but at the same time it's not slow because it doesn't want the audience to get bored.


In conclusion the opening scene of Hitch is very successful in creating a romantic comedy mood. It's bright, colourful and has used all the right techniques in getting the audience involved.