Juno opening:

Film Openings: Juno

http://www.shadowplaystudio.com/juno/index.html

Take Juno’s opening: it immediately tells us this is going to be a sweet, funny-sad film with an indie spirit. And, of course, it is.

Pick 5 denotations from the title sequence (you might include the music, different parts of the mise-en-scene, the titles themselves, the animation effect ...) and explain what is being connoted about the film and about Juno’s character. Provide an image for each point you make.

1

The font used for the titles shows the indie style of the film. The scribbled titles show that the film is going to be light hearted and good fun and a bit quirky. The writing also connotes childishness, so the audience can guess that growing up might be a theme in the movie.

2

The acoustic music also gives an indie feel to the movie; it also gives it an upbeat feel, so the audience can tell it is going to be quite a happy film with some elements of comedy.

3.

  The hand drawn style shows that Juno is a quirky character. The audience can tell that Juno is going to be an interesting character because she is all in colour but everything else is quite bland and plain, this shows that Juno’s life is quite simple; it’s all bland colours, whereas she is bright and colourful and lives in a world of her own.

4   

The bottle of Sunny D also connotes childishness; it shows that Juno is unconventional and individual, just because she is supposed to be more grown up doesn’t mean she will act grown up; because the Sunny D bottle has also got lots of colour it shows that the childish side of her is very important in the film.

5

  This shot shows that Juno is a world of her own and is completely removed from the rest of life, the fact that she is walking one way and the runners are going the other way shows that she doesn’t fit into the norm, that she is different from the rest of the people her age and does her own thing her own way. Also because she doesn’t acknowledge the runner it shows that she doesn’t really pay attention to the boring, average things around her.

Film Openings: Juno

http://www.shadowplaystudio.com/juno/index.html

Take Juno’s opening: it’s a lo-fi animation sequence in which the teen of the title strolls pensively through her neighbourhood, chug-a-lugging a jug of SunnyD in preparation for a pregnancy test. With cut-out Xerox images of Ellen Page, hand-drawn typography and a whimsical tune by kids’ balladeer Barry Louis Polisar on the soundtrack, it immediately tells us this is going to be a sweet, funny-sad film with an indie spirit. And, of course, it is.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/credits.html

In order to analyse the opening sequence of Juno (Jason Reitman, 2008) I will look at the different micro elements and try and establish how they are used to set up character, narrative and genre.
 The music chosen for the opening sequences is by anti folk artist Kimya Dawson. It is evocative of Bob Dylan and helps to establish the low key feel of a US independent film - on which the film was successfully marketed. The lyrics tumble along in the style of a quirky, downbeat love song listing partnerships like ‘if I’d be a tree you would be my leaves’, this helps set up the character of Juno as both innocent and pensive, alluding to the search for romance and the coming of age story that follows.

 However, I feel that it is the mise en scene that plays the most important part in establishing the tone and genre, as well as the lead character in the film. Juno is depicted walking through suburban USA, shiplap houses and mail boxes set up her small world in which the local shops - the guitars shack, beauty parlour and drug store - are the dominant features and from which the park represents a temporary break for reflection. The leaves falling from the trees show time passing and establish the time of year – this will become important when Juno gets pregnant. She passes an acoustic guitar and a retro TV that reinforce the teenager’s interests. 
 Juno’s costume acts as a kind of timeless unisex teen uniform; blue jeans, sweat top and canvass shoes. It indicates to us that she is perhaps a bit of a tomboy but neither extraordinary or pretentious. The sunny delight carton she is drinking reasserts the bland diet of the mid American teen. The college team that jogs past at the start and end of the sequence further set us in the teen world and act as a contrast to Juno’s lonesome figure. 
 The animation technique of rotoscoping (tracing over live action filming) suits the US independent style by alluding to independent comic books like American Splendour. This technique allows the director to simplify and mute the colours, making it graphically pleasing as well as mundane. The unfinished drawings also build on a concept of an almost incomplete environment. 

 Some interesting slide and push edits also allude to comic books. Juno s character is sometimes on the screen in two different shots and this along with her constant presence and dominant framing establish the centrality of her character within the film. Some of the more adventurous camera angles, for example the overhead shot, are pleasing to the eye. 
 Of course the key function of a title sequence is as a vehicle for the main credits. In Juno these are brought in as neatly hand drawn three dimensional block letters, continuing the comic theme and not unlike a teenager’s graphics project or doodling. An effect has been used that keeps the titles wobbling slightly in an organic way.The titles are framed thoughtfully to balance with the framing of the subject and many are brought onto screen from behind bits of the set or are integrated into the scene. An example is a title that appears painted on the fence by using perspective. Juno also walks in front of a number of the titles. These techniques are satisfying for the viewer and help integrate the title sequence into the film.