In the opening of ‘Pretty Woman’, the genre is obviously established through the means of dialogue as even before the picture begins, a man “No matter what they say, it’s all about the money” which foreshadows that the film has a lot to do with money. Also the romance side of the film is also introduces as Edward dumps his girlfriend on the phone, creating a romance based storyline. In the mise-en-scene of Viv’s room, torn up pictures of her and her supposedly ex boyfriend are on her wall which is vital for the genre as it shows she is heartbroken.
This leads to the narrative of the story which is also established throughout the opening. The very first picture on the screen is a magician is doing magic tricks with money in a very upmarket party with expensive cocktails and a huge garden – these are supposed to represent Edward, foreshadowing him before we meet him. After dumping his girlfriend, Edward chats to his ex-girlfriend where they exchange kisses – this shows that he is attracted by women and not heartbroken over his recent break. This helps the film work to show the unlikeliness of him and Viv getting together, and with Edward not being heartbroken, their relationship is more acceptable to the audience. The alarm going off at night in Viv’s room shows that she works at night foreshadowing that she is a prostitute. When Viv colours in her boot with a black pen, it shows that she is resourceful and also very poor, her being poor is essential for the narrative as it makes her and Edwards relationship even more unlikely. When the rent is due to be paid, she wants to pay for it as she gets annoyed with her friend when she discovers the rent money was spent on drugs. This makes her seem like an honest character to the audience and less of a controversial person as she doesn’t do drugs. Constant cross cutting between Viv and Edward not only compares their completely different lifestyles, but also shows that they’re both single and foreshadows their meeting. When her friend says “she’s new” (new prostitute) this shows that she is also rescuable from her life.
The language of the opening sets the scene and the characters. When Edward takes the car outside the party without permission, no one stops him showing that he is very high up, also he can’t drive which also shows his high status as he usually gets driven everywhere. When the scene gets to Los Angeles, the drug deal shot mirrors the magic trick shot at the start, showing a connection between LA and Edward. LA looks run down with graffiti and shutters everywhere, foreshadowing the social status of Viv, and the establishing shot of where she lives (the hotel) the ‘O’ ‘T’ ‘E’ and ‘L’ aren’t lit up, spelling ‘HO’ which is a pun for the fact that Viv is a prostitute. The 80’s soundtrack of “I’m a wild one” sets the mood of the scene, the era of when the film was filmed and represents Viv and Edward. The extra shouting in the street “what’s your dream?” is used as a framing device as he appears in the opening and at the end. When Viv walks through the dangerous streets alone, the audience sympathise with her and shows that she is motivated to get out.
This film has a target audience of females aged 18 – 40, they would expect a romantic story from the text with a happy ending, consisting of challenges within the story. This film plays all of these roles and females can relate to Viv. All these functions make the opening of ‘Pretty Women’ work and develop into a successful film.
My media film has the same affect with fate as Pretty Woman does with money. The start of my film is a spinning bottle, landing on one player, like the murderer chooses one girl to follow. Like Pretty Woman, my genre is instantly established with the use of horror convetions, e.g. the scary music.
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