Film Openings - Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix (Representation) // Research

Characters/Social Groups

Harry wearing regular clothes

The first main character properly shown is a medium close up at 1:18 where a boy (Harry Potter) is sitting on a swing. He is wearing a casual, plain t-shirt which shows he is not portraying any feminine traits of wearing pretty clothes. He also has a fairly tidy hair cut and glasses (as he probably needs them) which enforces the archetypal male as he is practical. The fact that he is wearing regular clothes and glasses would make the audience see him as just a normal kid who is on a swing thinking about various things. The audience may even feel sorry for him as he is at a park but does not appear to be with any friends. He doesn't wear any make up that is obvious or makes him look girly however he is likely to be wearing film make up that is used in higher budget films like this.

At 1:13 other passing characters are shown in the park who are wearing regular clothes and have a normal English accent. This shows that other people were in the park but in the shot they leave so they didn't stay there for long. It is a stereotypical situation as the mother tells the kid how it's 'time to go home' and the kid responds with 'do we have to?'. This tells the audience that this park is a fun place to go to and people enjoy spending their time there.

At 1:30 a group of youths are shown wearing baggy, casual 'gangster' clothing. Their body language enforces how they are a gang as they all tend to fidget about and they stay together. As with Harry, it doesn't look like they are wearing make up but they are probably wearing film make up. The accent of the main gangster has an English accent but his speech is a bit slower and it sounds a bit like he has some sort of lisp. This makes him seem as though he's a bit slower than the other characters. The rest of the gang don't really speak up much themselves and tend to just all agree with the leader (Dudley). This enforces the idea in the audience's mind how Dudley may be a bit of a trouble maker and he always has a gang around him to back him up as he may not be able to stand up for himself so much.

Settings/Locations

There are 3 main locations in this opening scene. The first being in the sky when the titles are shown. This is very dark and simply has lots of grey clouds around as the titles are shown.



Worn out round-a-bout and slide in park

The second main location is the park that is located on the outskirts of a town (or maybe large village). The place with all the housing that can be seen in the establishing shot at 0:47 seems very urban however as the camera tilts down you can see quite a few rural fields in which the park is situated. The weather is very pleasant and sunny but rather windy and the park at first appears to be a little busy but soon becomes quite empty. The swing set, slide and roundabout in the park appear to look a little old and worn which gives quite a creepy effect as if the park has been there for a long time. However, the park does look quite tidy as there is no rubbish chucked about anywhere. At 2:21 the weather of the setting changes and turns more windy and less sunny, from an audience's point of view it would seem like a storm is approaching. As this has happened after Harry got his wand out and pointed it to Dudley the audience would assume Harry made the weather change and they may view him as someone who fights their own battles and is strong. This engages the audience because they become curious as to whether Harry made the weather change or not.

The third main location is the subway that is shown at 3:01. This is very urban and is empty when they first arrive. There are several lights along the subway and it looks quite damp and there's graffiti on the walls showing it's a place where gangsters may hang out and vandalise.

Sound

The sound at the beginning of the opening is non diegetic incidental music which would be part of the soundtrack of the movie and really starts the film off with a good, haunting atmosphere. As well as this the link to this theme being the 'Harry Potter' film theme tune really lets the audience know what to expect and look forward to what Harry Potter will get up to in this film. At 0:53 diegetic radio sound comes in which tells the audience how hot it is at the moment and how it is expected to get even hotter. This fades out at 1:09. At various points dialogue is exchanged and throughout most of the opening there is incidental music which really sets the scene and tells the audience how something is going to happen. For example when the diegetic radio sound is playing there is non diegetic incidental music in the background that is quite eerie and foreshadows a possibly eerie event that will occur. Various diegetic, ambient sounds can be heard throughout and this makes the whole scene seem more real and provides audio continuity between shots.

Creating Mood/Atmosphere

I doubt any artificial lighting is used in this scene as it is all outside and natural light is available. There are however use of filters as from 0:41 to 2:20 the scene looks very sunny and this could have been mainly because it was actually sunny but this would have been greatly enhanced by adding a bright filter over the top to make the scene seem very sunny. You can see this great contrast in filters at 2:21 when the filters dissolve into each other and change from the bright filter to a much darker, blue filter. This gives of a creepy, spine-chilling atmosphere. On the left the contrast in filters can be seen.

As well as this the incidental music played a lot throughout creates a creepy mood as it accompanies the unusual events that happen in the scene. The diegetic ambient sounds (e.g the wind) create an intense mood as when they are running it's like the wind is chasing them and they have to go really fast or else something bad will happen. This really engages the audience as it puts them on the edge of their seat to see what will happen to the characters.