The document analyzes and summarizes the opening sequence of the romance film "The Notebook." It notes that the opening establishes the tone and introduces the two main characters through a series of slow, romantic shots. These include a character rowing toward a sunset, a distressed woman looking out from a white house, and an upbeat elderly man in a hospital. The analysis compares the opening to those of "Pulp Fiction" and "Insidious," noting how each establishes genre through pacing, music, lighting, and other techniques.

1. Notebook analysis
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I will be analysing the first 5 minutes of the feature romance film‘The Notebook’ by
Nicholas Sparks. For my project I will be creating an opening sequence to a feature film
therefore analysing this would be beneficial. The opening sequence to a filmin my opinion is
one of the most crucial parts because it sets the tone of the film for the audience. A well-
crafted title sequence can either make the audience engaged or not interested. Opening
sequences vary massively throughout the genres, ‘The Notebook’ is a romance film.
‘The Notebook’ is a romance about two lovers who were separated by fate. The story is told
on two levels, one is the present day where one character explains to the other about their
love story as she had lost her memory. The other part of the film shows the two character’s
previously and footage of their love story when they were young.
The filmstarts off with a black screen along with ambient music with a slow, positive tone,
the film title and credits. The credits of the actors are the first typography we see, the
famous actors are mentioned first, a lot of society will watch a film simply because of a well-
known character. They start it off with ‘Ryan Gosling’ as this will instantly draw the audience
in to wanting to watch this. Usually credits are placed on top of a picture, the fact that the
film is introduced with a black screen is dramatic and gives the first scene more importance
as it is the first image the audience will see, this image could be foreshadowing upcoming
events throughout the feature film.
The first image we see is of a sunset. Here, the location is being introduced. The colours in
this scene are reds, pinks and oranges, very saturated colours, which brings a vibrant tone to
the film and conveys the atmosphere to be homely and joyful. The reds in this sunset brings
out the aspect of romance within the film. This is the very first shot we see; it is a longshot
so that all the scenery is captured. The tone that is set at the beginning of a feature film is
vital as it is the first impression the audience will get; in this film it is very comforting and
positive as there are colours and music that are associated with happiness involved.
In the middle of the shot, there is a character on a boat rowing gently. The character is
rowing towards the sun, the sun is usually resembled as a happy element meaning that this
character could be the hero in this feature film. The camera gets closer and closer to the
character, portraying their importance as there is some what of a build up before the
audience meets them, it gives a sense of curiosity also to engage the audience. Throughout
the montage, there is a lack of lighting and we do not get to see the characters face giving
off a mysterious affect.
There are cross fades between each shot which gives a more relaxed feel, rather than a cut.
This scene shows establishing shots from day through until the night. This also conveys a
sense of passing time giving the filma slow, thoughtfulness pace. Later, we see a character
overlooking the sunset, this portrays the meaning of the sunset to this character as she is
looking for a long time. This scene goes on for around 3 minutes with just different shots of
the sunset, gentle music and credits. It is very minimalistic.

2. The first 3 minutes of the filmare just a montage of establishing shots of a character rowing
and of the sun set, before anything else is properly introduced. Gradually, more aspects of
the film are introduced. We see a flock of white birds, which could be doves. Doves are
associated with love and purity conveying that the genre of this film is a romance and the
character on the boat could be the love interest character as they are surrounding him. A
white house gradually comes into the scene. The house is introduced with the doves flying
towards it in slow motion which could represent the relationship between the character
inside the house and the character on the boat. Birds also represent freedom, the character
inside the house appears to look destressed therefore the birds could be a representation of
her emotions - wanting freedom. The fact that this house is large and white conveys its
importance as the rest of the scene is dark and warm tones, the colours contrast with each
other making the building stand out. It is also higher up on top of a hill and shot from a low
angle making the character look very small which extenuates his loneliness and again the
building’s importance. This could mean the character inside the house is the protagonist as
there was such a large build up before meeting her.
When the protagonist is introduced, she seems upset and looks emotionless. She doesn’t
have a lot of movement and just seems fed up. This is the first character the audience is
properly introduced to which shows her importance. The whole time we were being shown
the sunset was because she was looking at it, meaning that her feelings and emotions play a
crucial role in the film. Because the character does not say much this gives off the effect of
the unknown making the audience want to know more about her.
The next character introduced is the man, the tone of the film completely changes when he
is introduced, his emotions massively juxtapose with the first character’s as he is overly
positive. He is introduced with a close-up shot of him in the mirror, with a non-diegetic
narrative of his thoughts, this is the first proper part of dialogue we hear showing that he
plays a vital role in this film. He is portrayed as a stereotypical old man with his round
glasses and in a room with an armchair, everything in the room seems to be blue which
could connote that he is in some place of care, like a hospital. Before he leaves the room, he
picks up a ‘notebook’ referring to the title of the film. Later we find out that he is in a
hospital. Throughout this scene a non-diegetic narrative of his thoughts is playing showing
the audience what he is thinking conveying that his thoughts are also very important. He is
also the only person wearing black in a room full of pale blue and white which displays that
he is distinct. He seems to have a good relationship with everybody he walks past and sees
showing that he is a joyful character, and this creates a comforting feeling for the audience
as they will feel a strong bond with this character already. This is all the build up to these
two characters meeting illustrating their bond to be significant.

3. Genre
‘The Notebook’ is a romance filmand a lot of aspects of it are used typically in romance
films.
I have researched on what a typical romance narrative would include, and this feature film
includes a lot of it. A common theme was having a voiceover to introduce the love theme.
The character ‘Noah’s voiceover was the way the filmwas introduced, illustrating a warming
romance feeling. I previously spoke about the character on the boat rowing towards the
sun conveying that he could be the hero, my research findings stated that the hero is usually
male in romance films. In romance narratives, the audience is also involved massively with
emotion, right from the beginning of this film I can see that the filmcreators have tried to
give the audience a strong bond with their characters.
The iconography within the film portrays romance, the first scene especially, the motion is
very slow and gentle throughout the opening sequence which matches the genre of the
film, along with the colours shown which are reds and oranges which are usually associated
with love. The establishing shots of the iconography at the beginning showing the location
from the central character’s point of view is also a very common theme.
In romance films there are usually two main characters, both being protagonists, from the
first 5 minutes of this feature film I can already tell that that is the case in this film too. Their
emotions and views are conveyed in detail even before any dialogue or explanations have
occurred showing their importance as characters. I also know that these characters fall in
love throughout the film. I researched more about this film and it states that the characters
fight obstacles throughout the film and find their way back to each other in the end having a
“happily ever after” ending, which occurs in most romance films.
The setting of the film is a very typically romantic setting, a sunset, the opening sequence
takes 3 minutes to set the scene for the film, at a very slow pace. Romance films are usually
ta slower pace that horrors for example as they want the audience to really engage with the
film.
In terms of style, the camera work and editing techniques as mentioned previously are
commonly used in the romance genre before. For example, the cross fades as mentioned
before slowing down the pace of the film and gives it a gentle homely and comforting film,
which romance films often aim to give to the audience.
Comparisons
Contrasting with the film‘Pulp fiction’, ‘the notebook’s’ opening sequence is very slow and
elegant portraying the fact that it is in the romance genre. The fact that pulp fiction’s
opening sequence is snappy, and it will make the audience curious conveys that this film is a
lot faster pace than the notebook. Both films use different techniques to engage their
audiences, in pulp fiction the opening scene is jumping straight into the filmleaving the
audience to interpret themselves what is going on with no back story. However, in the
notebook the producers have created it in chronological order to ease the audience in
slowly. These two films have significant similarities as their use of exposition to order to

4. help the audience engage with the story is clearly a priority in both films, they have just
expressed it in different ways. Similarly, both films begin their plot with a black screen, pulp
fiction included this after the opening scene however but they both had the same idea. We
can clearly see the difference of the genres by comparing these two films. The notebook
sticks to the typical style of a romance by using cross fades for example, slowing down the
pace of the filmand gives it a gentle homely and comforting film, which romance films often
aim to give to the audience. Whereas, pulp fiction tends to go against a stereotypical
gangster film by using positive tones and lighting where more low-key lighting is typically
used to create a mysterious effect.
In comparison to the opening sequence to ‘Insidious’, significant similarities are conveyed
throughout their opening sequences. Both films begin with a montage of establishing shots
to set a scene, with credits and non-diegetic music on top. Both films begin with a slow pace
during this montage to set a specific tone. Their visual effects and camera movement are
both also very similar, they alternate from longshots and medium shots with cross fades in
between. Although these two opening sequences seem very similar we know that both
tones are extremely opposite, insidious sets off a negative cold feeling with eerie music and
shots. In contrast with the notebook which begins with calming music and warm tones
giving off a comforting, homely tone to the audience. Although they are opposite in this
sense, they both draw the audience in in the same type of way, by setting the scene first. In
terms of genre, they are both very typical within the iconography. In the notebook, the
motion is very slow and gentle throughout the opening sequence which matches the genre
of the film, along with the colours shown which are reds and oranges which are usually
associated with love. In insidious, a lot of typical horror film techniques are also involved.
For example, throughout the whole 5-minute sequence we see no daylight, and everything
is filmed with a low light and cool tones, this conveys a negative affect and represents the
supernatural.