Analysing the opening scene of ‘P.S I Love You’

Analysing the opening scene of ‘P.S I Love You’:

In the opening scene of P.S I Love you, there is a long deep focused shot of two characters walking down a thin hallway. This is a tracking shot and it makes the audience feel that they’re there as a resident in the building witnessing. As the actors get closer, the shot changes into a medium and close up shot to view the facial expressions which are angry and upset from the woman and a confused look from the man.

There is non-diegetic sound as music, in the back ground, the film score is a slow song reflecting the situation on screen. There is also diegetic sound of dialogue of the man talking to his wife yet she is ignoring him. This creates enigma for the audience as they don’t know why the woman is angry or what has happened. Therefore they sympathise with the man as he too, is confused.

There is then a tracking shot of the woman walking up the stairs and looking down on the man, there is a high angled shot from the woman’s point of view as if she is looking down on him. This angled shot reflects the superiority of the woman at this point as she has information that the man doesn’t know therefore creating a divide between the couple.

The camera then tracks the male actor as he follows his wife up stairs, the angle is still a high angled shot as if the woman is walking away from the man however is still looking back at him. The man is still using diegetic sound of dialogue, speaking to his wife, yet she is still ignoring him. There is also diegetic sound of the woman’s shoes as she walks up the stairs. The sound is exaggerated to show how the woman is walking. The sound of the shoes and how she walks reflects her feelings, therefore showing to the audience that she is angry.

The shot changes to a low angle shot of the woman as the man’s point of view. The point of view shot at a low angle shows the man’s inferiority as he is having to apologise for something he doesn’t know what he has done.

A high angle shot of the spiralled stairs show how far they’ve walked and how long they’ve been arguing. The colours are quite dark and low lighting is used, this creates an atmosphere to the audience. Over the shoulder shot of the woman shows some of her facial expression but the whole of the man’s face, showing his apologetic expression.

The couple then walk towards and past the camera, showing the audience that the setting is going to change. The shot changes to a small establishing shot of the apartment with low key lighting showing the mood of the characters.

The camera tracks the couple as they move around the apartment getting ready for bed, the editing is fast paced to display the argument between the pair. This creates tension as the audience still don’t know what the couple are fighting about. Panning around the apartment creates a ‘messy’ looking scene, this reflects the mess of the couple relationship and the argument.

Medium shots are used of the characters so the audience can view their expressions and their body language. At this point in the apartment there is no non-diegetic sounds of music, there is only diegetic dialogue.

Props used include clothing such as shoes, as the woman takes off her shoes and hurtles it towards the man. They also use lamps to create more light for the audience to view more of the setting. Also the use of blinds, as if to represent having to block out other people from their conversation and the man wants the conversation to be over and is trying to make sense of it.