Analysing the opening for 'Forrest Gump'

Analysis:
The film 'Forrest Gump' was made in 1994. The director was Robert Zemeckis. The production company was Paramount Pictures and this was also the distribution company. The film as rated a PG-13. The box office takings in the initial weekend was $24million. The lead actor in this film was Tom Hanks, accompanied by Robin Wright and Gary Sinise.

Target Audience:
The target audience for this film would have been males and females from the ages 18-29. There is various things in this film that would appeal to both genders, for example the war aspect of the film would widely appeal to males as the target audience. However, the romantic aspect of this film would be aimed mainly at females. This film would mainly be targeted at young people because it is based around young people. This film's target audience would also be people who enjoy watching action or romantic film, because the film isa slight differentiation of genres. This links to the audiences expectations of a romantic film, which then meets their viewing pleasures because it is a very romantic film, which holds suspense to do with romance.

Credits:
The titles were unanimated, and in plain white on the screen whilst a feather is followed by the camera in the background. The titles start with the production company, then go on to include the director, the lead actor, then the film title. After this, it includes the less important aspects, such as the other starring characters, the casters, co-producers, music producers, visual effects supervisors, costume designers, music, editors, production designers, and more. The typography is quite a plain, gentle white font. This reflects the narrative, because the story is mainly based on a very gentle guy. The titles last for most of the opening of the film, and most of the time there is no more than a few words on the screen. This helps to not overwhelm the audience with lots of writing and actually helps them to focus on the words that appear in front of their eyes.

Music:
The music used is very gentle, quite recognisable piano music. This makes the audience feel quite relaxed and comfortable with the film. During the opening, the camera follows a feather over the city of Alabama, and then lands at the main characters' foot. During this lots of text is shown and soft piano music is played. This opening portrays the narrative by showing the town the film is based in, and the soft piano music and credits calm the audience. The opening also features an introduction of the main character to the film. By making the feather land at his feet, it makes the audience realise he is a big part of the film because he is the first character introduced. The non-diagetic soundtrack also fades out as the feather lands at Gump's foot, and this ends the opening of the film.

Narrative:
The narrative is set up in the opening in a number of ways. Firstly, when you follow the feather, it almost represents the fact that you are following Gump float through his life. Through the whole narrative, you watch Gump float through different parts of his life, so this feather almost foreshadows the narrative. Also, at parts, the feather ends up going under cars and getting shaken around a bit. I think this is foreshadowing the narrative at the parts in the film when things aren't going too well for Gump, or when he is going through tough times, such as when his mother dies or when his wife dies. There are also parts where the feather floats high above the city, which may represent when Gump is going through the best parts of his life, such as when he gets married to his wife or when he becomes a world famous table tennis player. This feather almost shows the audience that they are going to follow an motional films with many ups and downs, and in this way the opening foreshadows the narrative a lot.

Editing:
The feather used in the opening is edited on, so the camera must have filmed going through Alabama then the feather was edited on afterward. This use of editing does a lot for the opening scene, because without the feather it would be quite boring and the audience would be switched off straight away. By editing the feather and the credits onto the opening scene, it keeps the audience interested and they ant to keep watching and find out what happens in the narrative. The opening foreshadows the narrative, but the only part in the opening where any part of the narrative is given away or is very obvious is when the main character is introduced right at the end of the opening. The atmosphere created in this opening is a very relaxed one, the non-diagetic soundtrack and the feather edited onto it makes the atmosphere what it is at the start of this film.The location shows the whole city that the movie is set in, o in a way that also foreshadows the narrative.