The opening sequence introduces the main character Taylor through a series of shots at an airport. Taylor is smiling and appears excited for her holiday destination of Puglia, Italy. While little of the plot is revealed, the upbeat music and dancing establish the film as a musical that aims to put the audience in a good mood. Leona Lewis' involvement also helps attract audiences as a well-known singer.

1. Walking on Sunshine Opening
Sequence Analysis

2. In the opening sequence of ‘Walking on Sunshine’ we are first shown a
series of long shots showing the area in which the film appears to be set
in. The blue of the ocean and sky in a few of these shots gives glorious
imagery for the audience showing that the character is either going to
this place or is already there. The next shot is a long shot, we see a
young woman walking towards the camera, and this suggests that she is
the main character as she is in the centre of the screen; she is walking
confidently and quite quickly with a calm or happy expression which
suggests that she is excited to get to her destination. The music is quiet
but upbeat, it is most likely quiet so that it does not distract the
audience from what is going on in the shot. We then get two shots, one
of which is of people walking out of what appears to be a terminal and
the other is of two people excitedly greeting each other, this suggests
that the current setting is an airport and so it confirms the audience’s
suspicions of a holiday taking place. In the next shot we see the young
woman again looking around where she is, this is a medium shot of her.
So far she has been given the most screen time and focus and so the
audience can only assume that she is the main character. All of the
remaining shots have the young woman in them at one point which
confirms that she is the main character because she has already had the
most screen time. These shots suggest that this is going to be a happy
film based around the events that this young woman goes through.

3. The audience is first introduced to the main character, Taylor,
though her name isn’t mentioned until later in the film the
audience can assume that she is the main character because she
has had the most screen time. The audience learns that she is
excited for her holiday and she seems to be a generally positive
person as she has been smiling for as long as she has been on
screen. She is represented as young and cheerful but there doesn’t
appear to be any stereotypes, though she is blonde she doesn’t
appear to be ditzy or remotely stupid (in fact later on in the film
we learn that she left Italy to go to university which would make
her a countertype).

4. The film is going to be set in Puglia, Italy which is shown
through the writing on screen at the beginning of the opening
sequence, this most likely done because there is a part of the plot
that made it necessary for the character to be here or to return to
this place.
Not much of the storyline has been revealed in the opening
sequence except where the film will be set and who the main
character is. And so far in the opening sequence there have not
been many enigma codes that make the audience want to keep on
watching or make the audience curious as to what will happen
later on in the film. However, the film so far has been upbeat and
happy which, if the audience wanted to watch that sort of film,
they will continue watching.

5. Leona Lewis was the most major star in the film which
would hook in her audience and fan base, it is good that
they used her because she is a good singer and so would
improve the musical which would be used to raise the
audience’s expectation of the film.
The genre of film is a musical, we can tell this by the way
they break into song at the first given moment, and also
musicals tend to mostly be happy and lively and so far with
the music and choreography is has been lively.

6. The music for this opening sequence is a well-known song but is
not modern which will ensure that this film have a variety of
audience ages. This shows us that it is a musical because they are
already starting with the music which in other films the music is
less prominent so to not distract from the visuals. The non-
diegetic sound is the music as the backing track but the diegetic
sound is the words which are being sung by the main character or
the people around her. They may have recorded her singing
outside of the scene to ensure that her voice doesn’t falter so it
may actually be non-diegetic sound but it looks like it is diegetic
sound. This tells the audience to feel happy as it is a happy song
with lively choreography and will put the audience in a good
mood as everyone in the shot appears happy.

7. When the cameras are showing the crowd all dancing with
the main character it shows a sense of communal joy for
everybody. The opening sequence has low verisimilitude
because it is unlikely that people in a crowd would burst
into song. It has high key lighting to ensure that the
atmosphere is bright and cheerful.