Mamma Mia
Mamma Mia is set on a fictional greek island named Kalahari. The opening scene of Mamma Mia begins with a tranquil and beautiful atmosphere. This is when the lead, Sophie, is drifting down the sea on a boat at a slow pace. The camera is at a birds-eye view shot also moving at a moderate pace. This is effective that they both move simular as it conveys how soothing and undisturbed the atmosphere really is. She begins to sing a song to express her feelings that represent the atmosphere that she is in. She says 'I have a dream to sing, to help me cope with anything' This represents the dark and depressing atmosphere as she wants to escape to her own world and sing her way out of life, as it seems with the boat slowly coming in towards a deck. She then begins to walk up to her letterbox in the dark and send a letter to her dad about a wedding.
It quickly cuts to an undershot of a man on a motorcycle panning up towards him, with Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! In the background. This represents the fast and rough pace of the motorcycle, as it is a very fast and energetic song. Then, it pans up to a massive building, and stops at the very top and cuts to Sam, a businessman, at the top. This represents his powerful status as he is at the very top of a very big building, that slowly pans up to him, showing he is on top of everyone else, and has a lot of power.
You need to approach this analysis more from the point of view of identifying genre codes and conventions: what makes it an effective opening film sequence? What does it have that all film title sequences have? State how it conveys its genre, introduces its characters and hooks the audience.
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