My Sisters Keeper

Conceived by means of in vitro fertilization, Anna Fitzgerald (Abigail Breslin) was brought into the world to be a genetic match for her older sister, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), who suffers from acute promyelocytic leukemia, in order to keep her alive. Her family members are introduced one by one and each tells about how Kate's illness has affected them personally and the family. When Kate turns 15, she goes into renal failure. Eleven-year-old Anna knows that she will be forced by her parents to donate one of her kidneys. She also realizes that she may not be able to live the life she will want to lead - she may be unable to cheer-lead, play soccer, or be a mother. Anna tells her parents that she does not want any of this, and proceeds to sue them for medical emancipation and the rights to her own body. Her overprotective mother, Sara (Cameron Diaz), who leads an obsessive campaign to keep Kate alive, is indignant at Anna's decision and even strikes her across the face when she receives the notice of intended prosecution. The film is interlaced with flashbacks that detail Kate and Anna's closeness, as well as how Kate's illness has affected her siblings' lives and their relationships. 
Throughout the film, lighten is used to help portray the different emotions experienced throughout by the different characters. Happy, cheerful scenes, use very clean low contrast lighting, and more dramatic, emotional scenes were high contrast, but not so much it created a noticeable difference from the low contrast scenes but just enough to effect the audience’s emotion.
The mise en sene used in this film is simplistic to the lifestyle of a the every day family. The costume and settings used help the audience connect with the story as it makes it more clear that his devastating story happened to just an ordinary family. The scenes of the beach add to the sadness of the story, the soft lightening of the sunset over the sick girl show a more spiritual side and how she is at ease with her fate. The normal clothes of the family also show their normality in that their problems are hidden and cant be seen from an onlooker. Just like most people tend to hide their problems from the opening world. The natural lighting adds to the sense of realism of this film. 

In the opening of this film a number of features allow the audience to have an idea that the genre of the film is drama. During the opening sequence a number of family/childhood images used meaning that perhaps something is going to upset the family. The images shown are very dream like and happy suggesting that they are thoughts and memories from the past. The use of warm colours and the calming music in the background used shows the love of the family and infers that everything is happy with the family, however, the narration over lapping this reflects the drama of the movie. This intrigues the audience as it shows them that not everything is as it seems and they want to find out what emotional and destructive things are going to occur. The wording used by the young girl speaking draws in the viewers showing this method is very effective. 'Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if Kate had have been healthy', this endearing line leaves the audience wanting to find out who was kate and what happened to her. The use of hand held camera shows that life is a bumpy road and with the home style shows the love and compassion amongst the family. This allows us to relate to the scene of family life. The dissolves from scene to scene add to the sense that the memories are from the past and are fading. The quite, calm music, gives a warm feel with the voiceover determining the genre of the film. The opening is concluded with a shot of the main character Anna appears, she is in a cold yet in a comforting place. The silence keeps the audience interested as they wait for her gripping story. I think this is very effective as it does not reveal much from the following story, so we are wanting and searching to find out what happened to what seems to be a loving family. 
The target audience is a female audience, this is suggested in that it is an emotional film, in which most females would enjoy compared to a male audience. The different emotions through out the movie, and the family aspect of it make it this genre. 

Dear John

 Dear john is an American romantic drama movie starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried. It was released in 2010. The movie is about the life of a soldier that falls in love with a young woman. He recruits to the war, and they decide to exchange letters to each other, hence the movie being given the title 'Dear John'. 

John meets Savannah on a beach, this is a romantic setting clearly showing the romantic genre of the movie from the beginning. John is on leave for two weeks and Savannah who is a college student has spring break. In these two weeks they fall in love. They each meet each others families and some friends, Savannah is also introduced to a key character. This is John's father who has an obsession with coins. We now realise that this is where the introduction of John at coin factories etc has came from. At this point, the movie begins to escalate and drama begins to unfold.

Before they leave each other at the end of the 2 weeks, they have an argument. This fight shows that even though they may want their love to be perfect, that fighting will still occur and is a test of their relationship. 

They continue their relationship through letters and are expecting to build a life when he leaves the army. More drama is created when Savannah now breaks of the relationship, telling John how she has now engaged to another man. Their once, seeming to be unbreakable love, is gone. As well as this,m John's father is unwell, leaving his son in devastation. The audience have made emotional links with the characters at this point, showing the effectiveness the breaking of love and death can have on the audience even though they are not affected by the situation.  

It turns out that Savannah is married Tim, a good friend of Johns, and is living with him and his son Alan. Tim has gotten cancer and he is at the hospital. John visits him there and Tim tells him that Savannah still loves him, giving the audience a confused feeling of what they now want to happen between these 2 main characters. Their relationship has a chance of being fixed, however, it is now in very a very delicate situation. John goes back to the war and two months later he receives a letter from Savannah telling him that Tim had died. In the last scene of the movie, they skip forward and we see John in civilian clothes and he is carrying a bike as he sees Savannah in a coffee shop. The film ends with the both of them hugging.  The movie is concluded with a happy ending, leaving the viewers feeling uplifted and happy that happiness can be achieved after time with no hope and heartbreak. John doesn't get the girl in the end, but with her help he experiences alot of personal growth. 

John is a very kind person, who really takes care of Savannah. In the time before he meets Savannah and before he went to the army, he was a troublemaker. But this is how we see him in the movie. He has changed and also want to take a bit more responsibility with his father.

Savannah is the sweetest person. Her dream is to open up a camp for autistic children like Alan. But she had to put this plan away when her husband got cancer. She is also that kind of person everyone knows and care about.

This movie also includes mise-en-scene because John’s army costume backs up his story to make it believable. The setting of Dear John is very cinematic in a way where when the characters have a close up shot, you are still able to see the scenery behind them. 

Dear John begins with, a Staff Sergeant in the United States Army Special Forces is lying on the ground in combat gear with multiple gunshot wounds to his body. Coins begin to fall over him as, in a voiceover, he recalls a childhood trip to the U.S Mint. He compares himself to a coin in the United States Military, and states that the last thing he thought about before he blacked out was "you". 

The method used in the opening tittles gives an insight to what will occur later on the movie, but only some information is given therefor leaving the audience wanting to find out more. In addition to providing background information, this opening narration is important because it sets the overall tone of the movie. The titles are introduced in a simple manor, this gives more effect as it plays in with the romantic theme of the movie. The simplicity adds to the genre of love as it makes it seem more peaceful and natural. An almost dream like scene is made, the flash backs of the past with the softly spoken voice make it seem more at ease in contrast to the harsh images of the soldier being shot and badly injured. I think this entices the audience right from the beginning as they now know that something bad is going to happen in the latter scenes of the movie. I think this is very effective as it makes sure to hold the full attention of the viewers and almost ahas the left feeling effecting and emotional after this opening scene alone. 

Film Research

In preparation for the making of our film opening, I have been looking at different types of film opening methods used. I have made a presentation of this on prezi: http://prezi.com/si307f4sfpki/films/?utm_source=prezi-view&utm_medium=ending-bar&utm_content=Title-link&utm_campaign=ending-bar-tryout
The main idea has been left out as we have not yet decided which method we are going to use yet. This will be edited when we have concluded which technique we are using.