Opening Sequence- Just like Heaven (2008)

Opening Sequence of Just Like Heaven (2008)

The movie starts with the Dreamworks logo and some incidental music of a guitar over the top of it (the music isn't the expected company sounds they use) its a happy tune. From this screen, the camera tilts down from the Dreamworks into the clouds, this creates a 'heavenly' atmosphere which links into the title. Whilst the camera tilts the titles begin to fade in and fade out, the colours used for the titles are very bold and bright the colours consist of Pink, Blue, Yellow, Green and Red to accompany the upbeat music. The camera continues to spiral down into a heavenly garden, may be ideal from 'Garden of Eden' theme. Next, the director has used a dissolve to show the passage of time from a dream to reality, she could of been in the dream for hours. Reese Witherspoon is sitting center screen, she is wearing the outfit of a doctor which makes her seem stereotypically peaceful, like a protagonist in a fairytale.
      We then see an out of context plastic chair and the song lyrics of 'Like a Dream', then an arm appears to reach out for her and the music stops when she wakes up from this mysterious dream. Reese Witherpoon is portrayed as a stereotypical protagonist of a romantic comedy; she is an original innocent person with blonde hair, blue eyes, young age, white with a homely persona. It shows that her life revolves around her job as a doctor, we can tell this by her commitment of her 24 hours at work. Elizabeth (Character name) is overworked, in the next sequence there is a constant use of cuts to different doctors giving her work, this shows the us lifestyle she has. Non- diegetic music becomes upbeat and happy again. From this point the cameras cut from different scenes to show the 'realistic' speed of how she works everyday nonstop. It appears to use as the viewing audience that she only works for a living, this is also shown by the fact their is no man in her life to balance it out and no children to keep her attention of her work all the time.
       It then cuts to a bathroom scene where Elizabeth is talking to a few of her colleagues about their lives in general, it turns out that one of her friends is married, another one of them is divorced and she is the only one to have not found love in the past and present day, this shows that she is not as confident around men as her friends and that she needs to get out more. Elizabeth then begins to speak on the phone to her sister. Her sister is the stereotypical 'housewife', she works at home taking care of the family whilst her partner has gone to earn money. We can also tell she is well off because of the size of her house and multi-tasking, whereas Elizabeth is living in an apartment. At Elizabeth's work the head of department is a black male, this indicates a dominant person, we can also tell this because the fact their is a "Kiss My Ass" comedy to it because they want a specific promotion and Elizabeth and another person want the same thing so the other character 'Kisses ass'. Finally on the way to her friends house, she isn't paying attention to he road because she has a lot on her mind, then shes bright lights from an oncoming lorry which manages to hit her car, the bright lights are a connotation of heaven.