Film Analysis 2 - The Proposal

FILM TITLE ANALYSIS 2 - The Proposal

This film is a 2009 romantic comedy starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, and is about a pushy book editor blackmailing her secretary into marrying her to renew her visa or else she'll be deported to Canada.
As our Main Task involves creating the first five minutes and opening titles to a new film I have only watched and analysed the first portion of the film to keep my analysis relevant to what I will be doing.

This film is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

CHARACTERS:
Actors:

Margaret Tate = Sandra Bullock

Andrew Paxton = Ryan Reynolds

THE TITLE SEQUENCE:

The text presented to us in the opening theme such as the actors starring, director and production credits are shown to us through a simple crossfade and sliding pans. But the text is skilfully layered behind windows and other props to give the text a very fluid entrance and exit. The majority of the text is shown when Sandra Bullock's character, Margaret Tate is on screen, this character is presented as having a perfectly stable life at the beginning of the movie, and this fluidity may represent how smoothly the characters life is at the time that the credits are rolling. 

Music

The opening song of this motion picture is a lively rock song, contemporary to the setting of the piece as it was released in 2008 only a number of months before The Proposal was released. This song is 'Find My Way' by 'Gabe Dixon'. The lively and upbeat pace to this song perfectly reflects the built up metropolis of New York City that the film opens us onto, the song which is light on its base line and conveys positive emotions to us through its vocals and instrumental is perfect to open us onto the idea of a romantic comedy film.

ROMANCE:

COMEDY:
Comedy in the film derives from humorous dialogue and events, such as the characterisation of Margaret as a demonic tyrant in her work and their fear of her. The workers of the office send each other messages as to when they can or cannot slack off in their work depending on where Miss Tate is within the office. This level of coordination and teamwork surrounding their hatred of Margaret that even involves the main male protagonist and love interest is comedic to the audience.


Another mode of comedy found in the film is physical comedy, which mainly involved male protagonist and love interest Andrew Paxton befalling misfortunes. Examples of this in the opening five minutes including bumping into someone so that his coffee spills and getting stuck in elevators. This generates and presents the character of Andrew as a lot more carefree and clumsy in comparison to Margaret, but his hardworking attitude must be paid tribute to as he is extremely dedicated to his job. This physical comedy shown is only one form of comedy in the film.



CONVENTIONS:
A general convention of the Romance genre is the idea of 'boy meets girl' were the two protagonists move, but instead of this occurring in The Proposal it betrayed this convention and instead the relationship between the two main characters is readily established and is in fact a negative relationship between editor and secretary.

A convention in the Comedy genre is the use of props for comedy. This is very clearly seen and the movie stays true to this form of convention during the use of the coffee cup and mail cart used in the physical comedy scene where Andrew bumps into the cart and spills the coffee over himself.

SHOT TYPES:

The first shot presented to us is a wide shot of the forest, which foreshadows the later setting of the film and gives us the impression of a more naturally set film before the shot pans outward and we are greeted with Margaret Tate's modern New York apartment. 





This wide shot gives us a better idea of the first set of the movie, and the rush that protagonist Andrew Paxton faces. He is presented as a very average young man in an office job and the shot demonstrates his struggle in the wide bustling jungle of New York city and creates pathos and sympathy for him.

The slightly upward angle used for this shot has been implemented so to demonstrate the superior attitude and elevated position that Margaret Tate possesses in comparison to the other employees surrounding her, such as the office worker sitting down in comparison to she walking.

MISE EN SCENE:
This is the arrangement of everything in a scene.

In the first scene with Margaret Tate getting herself ready for work in her home we are greeted not only with the luxurious setting of Margaret's apartment but with the luxuries in her home. We are shown a large flat screen TV that she uses as an immersive exercise experience as well as a cycling bike. We may gather from this that she is a well off individual. 
In every scene we also see a file of papers that later in the movie we assume is a book manuscript due to the nature of Margaret Tate's profession, but due to her reading these papers in each opening shot of her even as she works, has her breakfast and exercises we may infer that she is a very hardworking individual and even a workaholic.

In contrast we see Andrew Paxton's studio apartment and although we are not given an extremely vivd idea of it we can see from what we are given that he has a messy bedside table, cluttered with things. We may assume from this that the character of Andrew Paxton is generally unorganised, and in contrast to Margaret Tate is a lot less well off despite working in the same area.

The lighting is bright and natural as after the set transitions to Sitka, Alaska it allows for a lot of natural lighting. Most of the shots are taken during the day so to set up the comedic genre within the movie.


And thus concludes my analysis of The Proposal.