The title sequence for love actually starts conventionally with the distributor’s logos and the production company logo. As the third logo fully appears the background music begins and instantly creates a calming and caring atmosphere as it is slow and orchestrated, this soundtrack sets the tone of the film as it is very evocative of love and romance. This last logo fades to black and then fades up on the first shot which tracks a woman with a backpack mid-shot as she walks amongst a crowd into the embrace and a welcoming kiss of her partner who was awaiting her. Their actions are very natural and in the foreground of this shot the heads of other people standing or moving about can be seen slightly out of focus but oblivious to the couple re-uniting. This, as well as the fact that the camera is at eye-level, makes it seem as if these shots are of one person’s observations and is emphasizing the fact that this loving and touching scene is easily missed by many as it happens amongst the bustle of everyday life. The high key lighting hitting the faces of the couple makes them stand out from others in the shot but this lighting is still accepted as naturalistic for in an airport and therefore backs up the idea that this is fly-on-the-wall footage of real relationships and emotions.
The music continues throughout the sequence and white titles dissolve in and out over the image at the bottom of the frame both these aspects seem quite simple and lightly done I believe this could possibly be to connote the simplicity of finding love in the world if you stop and look around you. An idea solidified by the voice-over: ‘It seems to me that love is everywhere’.
We continue to see a montage of tracking mid-shots of happy people greeting each-other with a modest but touching display of loving emotion: mother and daughters; two elderly ladies; parent lifting up their young girl; young adult girl running to meet an older lady; older couple hugging; a father playfully swinging his son up in the air. Different styles of everyday clothing are seen emphasizing the variety of different people with the common thread of the emotion of love in varying degrees. Slow motion is used on some shots to emphasize actions which show this love – the playful ruffling of the child’s hair, an embrace, a kiss – and the use of close-ups allows the viewer to acknowledge the emotion felt in these re-unions. But as a viewer we understand that these shots are introducing a theme and not characters as the repetition of camerawork puts them all on equal ground and they are not expected to appear in the plot.
However, one of the main characters is introduced to us in this opening sequence but through the use of voice over. David, played by Hugh Grant who has a distinctly recognisable voice and is a well-known actor in the Romantic Comedy genre, begins his monologue on the fourth shot of this montage. There is no establishing shot to set the scene in the airport, instead this is done in the first sentence of the monologue, ‘Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport.’ Hugh Grant’s well-spoken English accent is also a clue as to where the film is set. He also lists different forms of love which echoes the montage and hints that the film is going to explore how the emotion of love is evident in different situations as it follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely and interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.
I believe this opening setting in an airport is very cleverly chosen as Christmas is a time when many people travel to be with loved ones over the festive period. The real-life footage is something that as an audience we can relate to as we have seen such circumstances ourselves but is also made different in order to catch our attention by using no diegetic sound what-so-ever and there for changing what would usually be quite a loud hectic scene into a peaceful and moving one. It also ties in with David’s referral to the Twin Towers.
He then uses the words of the title in a sentence and the statement ‘love actually is all around’ appears on the bottom of the screen word by word as he says it. He puts emphasis on the word is to show that he is contradicting other’s opinions and this is shown by using red as opposed to white on the word ‘is’. The words ‘all around’ are shown in the literal sense of the words as the shot of a father lovingly swinging a young boy around in the air appears as the words are said. After this the words ‘is all around’ fade out fairly quickly from right to left and the red transfers to the word ‘love’ and ‘love actually’ then grows slightly on the screen and the gap closes between the words creating the main title as the footage in the background fades to black. Then the word ‘actually fades out slightly before ‘love’ and therefore leaving the main theme of the film to linger on the audiences minds.
The opening sequence of Love Actually successfully tells us who produced and distributed the film and also introduces the genre, themes and setting of the film and one of the main characters has been made familiar to us.
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