Contrasting and Comparing the Openings of Two Romantic Comedy's

Today's task was to contrast and compare two romatic comedy openings; How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days and Just Like Heaven. We had to analyse the sound, editing, camera angles and mise en scene in both film extracts and see what they perhaps may imply or show.

How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days was produced in 2002 and directed by Donald Petrie. It stars two very famous actors; Kate Hudson and Matthew Mcconaughey.


The film starts with the Paramount studio logo where the theme tune is overlapped with a pop song. This technique is rarley done but as a viewer we automatically know the film is a joyful romantic comedy because the song is quite upbeat. The font titles are all in lower case font and are in a variety of colours such as orange, blue, pink and yellow; showing both masculine and feminine sides. The titles fly in and out on to the screen quite rapidly empahsising the film is quite positive. As well as the titles a montage of images and clips appear on to the screen, the clips are the protagonist doing things in her day to day life and it must have inspired her to write about it in her article column, this clearly shows the film may be about her life and her profession; magazine article writer.


As the antagonist and protagonist names appear on the screen there is a split in gender showing the name on the left is written in blue and the name on the right is in pink, these are the sterotypical girl and boy colours. Although the girl is the protagonist in the titles her name is on the right hand side and the antagonist is on the left showing the antagonist is more important. However her name is higher up than the antagonist this could be showing the profession role.


Kate is known as Andie Anderson in the film and she is the protagonist whom has a glamorous inspirational job for many of the female viewers. She is the stereotypical attractive female; blonde hair and blue eyes who cares for her physique, this is shown when she is working out in the gym. As an attractive woman she can use her sexuality traits to get away with many problems, this shows her personality and again it is a stereotype. The costumes of the character is quite sophisticated yet fashionable this makes viewers envy the girl in this film because she is attractive and has wealth to purchase nice clothes.


The antagonist in the film is the male he comes on to the scene on a motorbike, dressed in black leather and incidental rock music is being played quite loudly to surround the rebel enterance. The male is a stereotype rich man because he is cool, attractive, slim fit and has money; this is shown as he has a big motorbike and they are very expensive to purchase. When the antagonist starts to speak he comes across as very flirtatious with the women who work in an office. It implies that he wants the women or has done something with the women. Another role switch we see in the opening is the female workers in smart, tailored wear whereas the antagonist is dressed casually. This automatically shows the contrast of the two genders and the irregular power change as it tends to be the male in the work area and the woman dressed casually, relaxing.

Just Like Heaven was produced in 2008 by Mark Waters, it is a more recent film than the other romantic comedy, starring Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo.

The film starts with the Dreamwork studio Logo it also overlaps the theme tune with a pop song similar to How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. Both of these films do this to set the genre of the film so the audience have a little insight if the film is positive or negative ie not a horror.

The film starts with the camera in an aerial shot smoothly going from the studio logo into the film through the clouds, this is also an establishing shot as it is setting the scene. Whilst the camera is still in the clouds the titles fade in and out on to the screen slowly in female related colours such as red and purple. The clouds at the start represent a heavenly atmosphere; peaceful and pure and then the camera becomes more clear allowing the viewer to see the believed protagonist. Reese Witherspoon is seen to be the protagonist, a blonde haired, blue eyed stereotypical attractive young woman who attracts the female audience. The opening scene is very feminine because of the flowers and the romantic incidental music implying the character may be in love. An anchorage is used at this point to link the name and image together, this anchoring is the Protagonist Reese Witherspoon. Dissolve cuts are used in this scene to show the passage of time as the character sits in this fantasy. A cutaway is then used to show the fantasy world was a dream and she is woken into her reality life where she is a doctor. We the audience automatically know she is a doctor due to the blue stereotypical outfit and the medical apparatus around her neck. Elizabeth the protagonist, job is also very inspirational to the female demographic. Before the 1950's women were seen as not very important except for the household duties however because of the changing of norms women's power has got a lot stronger. Therefore for the female audience to see Elizabeth as a doctor is inspirational attracting many viewers.

Slow and quiet incidental music is being played whilst Elizabeth is unable to cope with the pressure due to being exhausted however the tempo quickly changes as she automatically gains her control back and is coping with the pressure. Up beat incidental music is then played to show and emphasise this re-boost. Dissolves are used once again to show the passage of endless shifts for Elizabeth and how she is trying to work hard to get through the hours.

Elizabeth is patronised by her fellow colleagues because she only has "work to worry about" this leaves her upset due to her being lonely and doesn't have people to worry about. As well as being patronised by her fellow workers she has sister syndrome. Her older sister worries about her sister being lonely and she is trying to help match make so that Elizabeth can have a perfect nuclear family home scenario just like her. Her sister also mentions that she does not know the word busy because she doesn't have children.

As the protagonist gets excited over a promotion she unfortunately has a car accident. The sharp artificial white light that takes over the screen symbolise she is going into death, and implies her innocence and kindness. The clouds appearing over the San Francisco Golden Bridge suggest the protagonist is within the clouds showing a passage of time.

Both films have many similarities such as the opening studio logo; the two films overlap the original theme tune with an up beat pop song. This technique is done rarely for many films but many genres that are romantic comedies tend to use this sound technique as it relates to the female viewers. Another comparison within the two films are the female protagonist having great jobs. Andie and Elizabeth have jobs which the audience aspire to have, although Andie's may be more glamorous, viewers want to watch a film with somebody who has high qualifications and have good jobs, not the opposite. The two films were based on Best Selling American Novels which were turned from book to film. This is an advantage as the film already had an audience from the people whom enjoyed the book. Many films genres don't do this however it is common for romantic comedies. Andie and Elizabeth; the two protagonist of the film are stereotypically attractive young women, both with blonde hair and blue eyes. The main females in this genre have this appearance due to the audience having a perfect fantasy of a woman and a relationship. Finally the last similarity is the opening titles both end with the directors name, this is not just in the romantic genre it happens in every film.