Textual Analysis of a Film Opening: Ramona and Beezus
'Ramona and Beezus' tells the story of Ramona Quimby and her various unsuccessful plans to keep her life and family together, such as trying to help her Dad, Robert, earn money after he loses his job and trying to wash her neighbour's car. The film utilises the theme of childish wonder and imagination to take moments outside of the reality of the film and show the audience what Ramona, as a 9-year old, is seeing, creating various scenes that use animation and creative licence in an endearing, memorable manner.
1) Conventions
The first part of the sequence we see follows convention as it presents the film company logos of the various companies involved in production, in this case they're '20th Century Fox' and 'Walden Media'. The opening then proceeds into showing the film title 'Ramona and Beezus'. The audience can then assume that 'Ramona and Beezus' are characters in the film, likely the main characters. The main establishing shot comes next; it pans downwards, showing the audience a primary school where there are children playing outside, so the story obviously begins during some kind of break or lunch time. The opening, as such, mainly follows the conventions of a narrative opening, with a main character narrating over the scene while the story progresses.
2) How is tone/genre established?
We are first introduced to the main character Ramona as she narrates the opening and introduces herself. It can be assumed that she is a child from the narration alone, as she mentions she is 9 years old and speaks immaturely when she is talking. As this is before we see her, the voice-over allows the audience to form an opinion of her before she is seen physically. Additionally, it helps establish what tone and genre the movie will be and what type of humour the the can expect. In terms of genre, the opening sequence depicts images of animated clouds, creating a sense that the film will be of the family genre, as clouds, and by extension cloud-watching, are associated with childhood wonder, freedom and family. Also, most family films have a certain degree of CGI or drawn animation within them. 'Ramona and Beezus' establishes that the animation will be used scarcely by shoeing the animation slowly fade out into live action, making the main format of the film clear and obvious.
3) Music/Sound
Cheery and upbeat background music is played during the opening scene, setting a calm and happy ambience, much like one would assume would be the case in a primary school. There are various pleonastic, atmospheric sounds of children laughing and playing as well, creating a realistic setting and providing the build-up to the introductory scene. The voice over is conducted by title character Ramona ("My name is Ramona Q"), portrayed by child actress Joey King. Ramona's narration is reflective of how young children typically talk, for example the way she tells the audience her exact age and making point of telling them that her sister is wrong: 'I'm 9 and 3 months and no matter what my sister Beezus tells you, I'm not a pest!', which seem like the primary concerns of someone who is nine years old. This effectively introduces Ramona's character and personality, as well as some details about her relationship with her sister. Furthermore, the fact that she calls her sister 'Beezus' suggests that this is a nickname, so both Beezus herself and Ramona can be assumed to be jovial, imaginative people to some extent, and the manner in which Ramona menions her sister causes the audience to presume that Beezus is Ramona's older sister, as younger siblings are stereotypical seen as being annoying or 'a pest' in comparison to older siblings, who are often seen as more responsible or obsessed with teen culture and boys.
4) Text/Font
The only words written during the opening scene are the words that make up the title of the film: 'Ramona and Beezus'. The title font is written in a tall childlike font, to reflect the nature of the main character and her view of the world around her. None of the letters are quite on the same line either, they're somewhat mismatched and squished together, which suggests that Ramona has bad handwriting or that she is imaginative and spends a lot of time writing, so rushes to get everything down. The text is orange in colour as well, which connotes happiness, warmth, creativity, enthusiasm, joy, success, sunshine, encouragement, change, determination, health, stimulation, fun, expression and fascination, to name a few, which is representative of Ramona as a character and of how she sees the world and the people around her. The camera pans downwards as the the writing shows up and it appears to get stuck in the clouds, which could also be a reference to imagination and Ramona's nature as a dreamer. There are no title credits in the beginning, expect the film title itself. This may be due to the target demographic being children and how children are unlikely to read or care about who the actors or crew are. It could be argued that some of the target audience may not have be at a high enough school level to which they can read quickly and effectively either, so it is pointless filling the screen with titles when the audience is more focused on the visuals.
5) Main Characters
We learn that Ramona is the main character as a result of her introductory voice over and the fact that her name is part of the title of the film. Beezus, her sister who Ramona mentions in her narration , is assumed to be the secondary protagonist, as she is also mentioned in the title of the film. However, the audience does not hear or see her in the opening two minutes of the film. The only other significant character we meet is a boy called Howie, who appears to be Ramona's only friend. Ramona and Howie are shown playing on the monkey bars during the beginning of the film, starting the beginnings of the film plot and suggesting how close the two are as friends.
6) Technical Codes
The camera starts with a shot panning downwards as it shows the titles, we do not see any thing other than the title and the blue (which we presume is the sky) in the background. The titles then get stuck in a cloud. The camera continues downwards to an establishing shot of an elementary school. It shows the building as well as an area within the playground. The camera (still in the same shot) moves to the left and begins to focus on some children on monkey bars. The shot zooms closer towards them.
There is then a cut to the main character, Ramona. It shows her face in a close up range, as you can only see her torso upwards, with her arms dangling and swinging across the monkey bars. The shot moves slightly every time she gets to the next ring, it helps us feel like we're there in the moment on the bars with her. This shot uses the rule of thirds, she is nearer the left side of the screen rather than the middle so we're more focused.
There is another close up showing just her hands gripped onto the ring and pans back down to her face. It then shows another child who we later find out is called 'Howie'. It is a medium shot and we see him stood on the steps the other side of the bars. He is shown nearer to the right hand of the screen rather than the middle, so again they're following the rule of thirds. There is an over the shoulder shot of him, we can see him watching Ramona, coaxing her towards the end, as he appears to have already completed the monkey bars.
A close up on Howie's face is shown when he realises Ramona is stuck in the middle. It shows the disappointment and confusion in his face but he continues to encourage her. There is a close up on her face when she replies, clearly slipping into her imaginary state. The camera continues to flit back and forth between the two as they converse.
Once Ramona slips into her imagination, the camera pans downwards rather quickly to a close up on her feet so show that they are apparently dangling above a canyon. This suggests that is her fear of heights trying to psych her out of the monkey bars that produced the vision. The camera spins one side of her face and zooms out to an incredibly extreme long shot, it shows the whole canyon moving further and further apart. This symbolises that her mental struggle to finish the monkey bars is getting harder and harder, making it seem almost impossible for her to reach the end, or the other side of the canyon. The camera cuts back to her panicking face and suddenly switches to her placing her feet in the rings beside her, a technique she thinks it will be more stable and make it easier for her to cross. There is a long shot from behind her and we see the school in the background showing this is all in her imagination.
As the school bell rings, we're brought out of her imaginary trance and zoomed forward towards the school again. The camera does a shakey effect to pull you back. Ramona who is still on the monkey bars falls upside down and gets stuck in the process, showing that her panic and fear has led to her current position.
7) Mise-en-Scene
The background setting is identical to that of a typical American elementary school. This adds to the idea that they're everyday children in a normal town, following the stereotypes of the American school system in that every one is the same or similar. There is a yellow school bus in the background that helps us with linking it with the American school rather than just a building. This is also supported by the fact that Ramona and Howie are playing on monkey bars, which are a typical outdoor kids play structure. The play structure looks slightly worn down, which in turn implies that the school may not be the best school or is somewhat old or underfunded (it is public school, not a private school). The monkey bars also seems to be the only 'toy' is the playground but nobody seems to be wanting to go on it other than Howie and Ramona. This again emphasises the fact that it's old, it's been there so long it's not fun or fascinating anymore. The character of Ramona is dressed in a typical 'tom boy' outfit. She is wearing blue, which is considered more of a boys colour ad connotates creativity, inspiration, safety, serenity, trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth and heaven. The majority of these connotations could compare to Ramona's personality, but in particular the creativity aspect matches her best; she is so incredibly creative that her brain overthinks everything and provides her with the most complicated or outlandish solutions to her problems. Her imagination is wild and jam-packed with adventure, as shown by her consistent imaginative visions throughout the film. Howie, however, is very smartly dressed with a pull over, shirt and trousers. They are almost complete opposites, he looks well presented where she is more scruffy. This goes against the regular gender stereotypes which suggest a girl should be perfect and care about her appearance while a boy should enjoy adventure and getting dirty outside. Ramona and Beezus flips this on its head by having a girl being adventurous and silly while the boy is instead the calmer, more neatly dressed one of the two.
8) Impact on Audience
The scene gives the audience an insight into what the mood and the themes in the movie will be like. It is established right from the beginning that Ramona is a kid with an overactive imagination and unique world-view. It allows the audience to align themselves with her by put themselves in her shoes, think about what we were like as children at her age and feel endeared to her, as a sort of underdog. The opening also aims to make the audience nostalgic and ask themselves questions, such as: 'Were we more like Ramona, wild and clumsy, or more like Howie, sensible and encouraging, when we were younger?' People may be able to identify themselves with both characters in certain aspects, which creates a connection with the characters through pathos and sentiment as well as emerging the audience in the film. The opening also matches the children/family movie genre well: we are introduced to our main child characters effectively, giving the audience insight into their personalities and traits, though Ramona more predominately. According to Propp's character theory, we have met the Hero (Ramona) and the sidekick/helper (Howie).
'Ramona and Beezus' tells the story of Ramona Quimby and her various unsuccessful plans to keep her life and family together, such as trying to help her Dad, Robert, earn money after he loses his job and trying to wash her neighbour's car. The film utilises the theme of childish wonder and imagination to take moments outside of the reality of the film and show the audience what Ramona, as a 9-year old, is seeing, creating various scenes that use animation and creative licence in an endearing, memorable manner.
1) Conventions
The first part of the sequence we see follows convention as it presents the film company logos of the various companies involved in production, in this case they're '20th Century Fox' and 'Walden Media'. The opening then proceeds into showing the film title 'Ramona and Beezus'. The audience can then assume that 'Ramona and Beezus' are characters in the film, likely the main characters. The main establishing shot comes next; it pans downwards, showing the audience a primary school where there are children playing outside, so the story obviously begins during some kind of break or lunch time. The opening, as such, mainly follows the conventions of a narrative opening, with a main character narrating over the scene while the story progresses.
2) How is tone/genre established?
We are first introduced to the main character Ramona as she narrates the opening and introduces herself. It can be assumed that she is a child from the narration alone, as she mentions she is 9 years old and speaks immaturely when she is talking. As this is before we see her, the voice-over allows the audience to form an opinion of her before she is seen physically. Additionally, it helps establish what tone and genre the movie will be and what type of humour the the can expect. In terms of genre, the opening sequence depicts images of animated clouds, creating a sense that the film will be of the family genre, as clouds, and by extension cloud-watching, are associated with childhood wonder, freedom and family. Also, most family films have a certain degree of CGI or drawn animation within them. 'Ramona and Beezus' establishes that the animation will be used scarcely by shoeing the animation slowly fade out into live action, making the main format of the film clear and obvious.
3) Music/Sound
Cheery and upbeat background music is played during the opening scene, setting a calm and happy ambience, much like one would assume would be the case in a primary school. There are various pleonastic, atmospheric sounds of children laughing and playing as well, creating a realistic setting and providing the build-up to the introductory scene. The voice over is conducted by title character Ramona ("My name is Ramona Q"), portrayed by child actress Joey King. Ramona's narration is reflective of how young children typically talk, for example the way she tells the audience her exact age and making point of telling them that her sister is wrong: 'I'm 9 and 3 months and no matter what my sister Beezus tells you, I'm not a pest!', which seem like the primary concerns of someone who is nine years old. This effectively introduces Ramona's character and personality, as well as some details about her relationship with her sister. Furthermore, the fact that she calls her sister 'Beezus' suggests that this is a nickname, so both Beezus herself and Ramona can be assumed to be jovial, imaginative people to some extent, and the manner in which Ramona menions her sister causes the audience to presume that Beezus is Ramona's older sister, as younger siblings are stereotypical seen as being annoying or 'a pest' in comparison to older siblings, who are often seen as more responsible or obsessed with teen culture and boys.
4) Text/Font
The only words written during the opening scene are the words that make up the title of the film: 'Ramona and Beezus'. The title font is written in a tall childlike font, to reflect the nature of the main character and her view of the world around her. None of the letters are quite on the same line either, they're somewhat mismatched and squished together, which suggests that Ramona has bad handwriting or that she is imaginative and spends a lot of time writing, so rushes to get everything down. The text is orange in colour as well, which connotes happiness, warmth, creativity, enthusiasm, joy, success, sunshine, encouragement, change, determination, health, stimulation, fun, expression and fascination, to name a few, which is representative of Ramona as a character and of how she sees the world and the people around her. The camera pans downwards as the the writing shows up and it appears to get stuck in the clouds, which could also be a reference to imagination and Ramona's nature as a dreamer. There are no title credits in the beginning, expect the film title itself. This may be due to the target demographic being children and how children are unlikely to read or care about who the actors or crew are. It could be argued that some of the target audience may not have be at a high enough school level to which they can read quickly and effectively either, so it is pointless filling the screen with titles when the audience is more focused on the visuals.
5) Main Characters
We learn that Ramona is the main character as a result of her introductory voice over and the fact that her name is part of the title of the film. Beezus, her sister who Ramona mentions in her narration , is assumed to be the secondary protagonist, as she is also mentioned in the title of the film. However, the audience does not hear or see her in the opening two minutes of the film. The only other significant character we meet is a boy called Howie, who appears to be Ramona's only friend. Ramona and Howie are shown playing on the monkey bars during the beginning of the film, starting the beginnings of the film plot and suggesting how close the two are as friends.
6) Technical Codes
The camera starts with a shot panning downwards as it shows the titles, we do not see any thing other than the title and the blue (which we presume is the sky) in the background. The titles then get stuck in a cloud. The camera continues downwards to an establishing shot of an elementary school. It shows the building as well as an area within the playground. The camera (still in the same shot) moves to the left and begins to focus on some children on monkey bars. The shot zooms closer towards them.
There is then a cut to the main character, Ramona. It shows her face in a close up range, as you can only see her torso upwards, with her arms dangling and swinging across the monkey bars. The shot moves slightly every time she gets to the next ring, it helps us feel like we're there in the moment on the bars with her. This shot uses the rule of thirds, she is nearer the left side of the screen rather than the middle so we're more focused.
There is another close up showing just her hands gripped onto the ring and pans back down to her face. It then shows another child who we later find out is called 'Howie'. It is a medium shot and we see him stood on the steps the other side of the bars. He is shown nearer to the right hand of the screen rather than the middle, so again they're following the rule of thirds. There is an over the shoulder shot of him, we can see him watching Ramona, coaxing her towards the end, as he appears to have already completed the monkey bars.
A close up on Howie's face is shown when he realises Ramona is stuck in the middle. It shows the disappointment and confusion in his face but he continues to encourage her. There is a close up on her face when she replies, clearly slipping into her imaginary state. The camera continues to flit back and forth between the two as they converse.
Once Ramona slips into her imagination, the camera pans downwards rather quickly to a close up on her feet so show that they are apparently dangling above a canyon. This suggests that is her fear of heights trying to psych her out of the monkey bars that produced the vision. The camera spins one side of her face and zooms out to an incredibly extreme long shot, it shows the whole canyon moving further and further apart. This symbolises that her mental struggle to finish the monkey bars is getting harder and harder, making it seem almost impossible for her to reach the end, or the other side of the canyon. The camera cuts back to her panicking face and suddenly switches to her placing her feet in the rings beside her, a technique she thinks it will be more stable and make it easier for her to cross. There is a long shot from behind her and we see the school in the background showing this is all in her imagination.
As the school bell rings, we're brought out of her imaginary trance and zoomed forward towards the school again. The camera does a shakey effect to pull you back. Ramona who is still on the monkey bars falls upside down and gets stuck in the process, showing that her panic and fear has led to her current position.
7) Mise-en-Scene
The background setting is identical to that of a typical American elementary school. This adds to the idea that they're everyday children in a normal town, following the stereotypes of the American school system in that every one is the same or similar. There is a yellow school bus in the background that helps us with linking it with the American school rather than just a building. This is also supported by the fact that Ramona and Howie are playing on monkey bars, which are a typical outdoor kids play structure. The play structure looks slightly worn down, which in turn implies that the school may not be the best school or is somewhat old or underfunded (it is public school, not a private school). The monkey bars also seems to be the only 'toy' is the playground but nobody seems to be wanting to go on it other than Howie and Ramona. This again emphasises the fact that it's old, it's been there so long it's not fun or fascinating anymore. The character of Ramona is dressed in a typical 'tom boy' outfit. She is wearing blue, which is considered more of a boys colour ad connotates creativity, inspiration, safety, serenity, trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth and heaven. The majority of these connotations could compare to Ramona's personality, but in particular the creativity aspect matches her best; she is so incredibly creative that her brain overthinks everything and provides her with the most complicated or outlandish solutions to her problems. Her imagination is wild and jam-packed with adventure, as shown by her consistent imaginative visions throughout the film. Howie, however, is very smartly dressed with a pull over, shirt and trousers. They are almost complete opposites, he looks well presented where she is more scruffy. This goes against the regular gender stereotypes which suggest a girl should be perfect and care about her appearance while a boy should enjoy adventure and getting dirty outside. Ramona and Beezus flips this on its head by having a girl being adventurous and silly while the boy is instead the calmer, more neatly dressed one of the two.
8) Impact on Audience
The scene gives the audience an insight into what the mood and the themes in the movie will be like. It is established right from the beginning that Ramona is a kid with an overactive imagination and unique world-view. It allows the audience to align themselves with her by put themselves in her shoes, think about what we were like as children at her age and feel endeared to her, as a sort of underdog. The opening also aims to make the audience nostalgic and ask themselves questions, such as: 'Were we more like Ramona, wild and clumsy, or more like Howie, sensible and encouraging, when we were younger?' People may be able to identify themselves with both characters in certain aspects, which creates a connection with the characters through pathos and sentiment as well as emerging the audience in the film. The opening also matches the children/family movie genre well: we are introduced to our main child characters effectively, giving the audience insight into their personalities and traits, though Ramona more predominately. According to Propp's character theory, we have met the Hero (Ramona) and the sidekick/helper (Howie).
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