'Burlesque' - Opening Sequence Analysis
- 1. BURLESQUE - OPENING SEQUENCE ANALYSIS
- 2. SOUNDTRACK Burlesque begins with a typical convention of Teen Musicals: an opening song. Before the protagonist starts singing, there is very faint diegetic ambient sound of birds singing, shuffling from the character moving and general background noise. The first sound that really draws our attention in however is when Ali drags the chair along the wooden floorboards, and the diegetic sound is louder than any other previous ones. The scene is generally silent with only a few noises until diegetic sound is used for Ali singing a cappella. This is significant because it breaks the silence and establishes the musical genre for the rest of the film. The diegetic singing is broken up several times by non-diegetic jazz music and backing singers. After this, the non-diegetic music continues with the protagonist’s diegetic singing until she says in a separate scene, “How much to Los Angeles?”. This diegetic dialogue gives us a small piece of information about the narrative and tells us that the story is progressing. After this short scene, the non-diegetic music and the diegetic singing continue without any other sound effects until the end of the sequence.
- 3. MISE-EN-SCENE Mise-en-scene is key in this opening sequence. To begin with, we are introduced to a setting that is dark and fairly dirty, shown through low-key natural lighting to create the impression that it is dusk (through longer shadows). Props that are used are mostly tables and chairs to tell us that the setting is in a cafe, which links to the stereotypical waitress-to-fame story. We can also see this through Ali’s costume, where she is wearing a ragged apron. Her costume consists of mainly browns and dull colours, similarly to the background, which connotes with dirt. Because her outfit doesn’t stand out against the background, it tells us as an audience that the character is in a place where she does not belong and isn’t in the spotlight.
- 4. MISE-EN-SCENE Mise-en-scene really establishes the genre for this film by completely contrasting between each shot. Whilst the cafe shots have mostly dark colours, the shots in the Burlesque bar are filled with colour and lights. It is evident that the characters are on a stage because they are in a group, performing a dance behind lights and a glittery backdrop. This establishes both a musical and a dance genre for the film. The young adult actors also appeal to a teenage audience because people generally tend to admire people older than them (for example High School Musical, it is mostly a young teenager’s film yet the actors are all older teens). The costumes of all characters are a glittery purple and are fairly revealing, giving a sexual connotation (a key theme of the film). However, none of these characters stand out from the background so that we maintain focus on Ali, the protagonist. The contrast between these Burlesque shots and the cafe shots tell us that there will be a change in the protagonist’s life and symbolises better things due to the brighter colours.
- 5. EDITING In general, the pace of editing is slower when the setting is in Iowa. This is again to ensure that a viewer’s focus is solely on the protagonist. The pace is faster however during the shots of the Burlesque Bar in Los Angeles; for example, a shot of Ali singing in the cafe is 11 seconds long whereas the Burlesque shot is only 3 seconds. The editing throughout is continuous, apart from when the scene cuts to the Burlesque Bar. Other than this, it shows the story progressing as Ali gets on a bus to leave for Los Angeles. The interruptions are important because it establishes the typical glittery conventions of the Teen Musical genre.
- 6. CAMERAWORK When in the cafe scenes, the camera is usually filming in a close-up shot of either an object or the protagonist. This is because the film wants you to focus directly on the character when she’s singing whereas in the Burlesque scenes, there is no one character to directly focus on. The camera is handheld when focusing on Ali singing to give the scene a more of a raw, natural feeling. The camera usually films in a medium-shot to keep Ali the focal point in the sequence. However, many different camera techniques are used during the Burlesque scenes, such as a dolly shot to reveal the dancer’s shoes and hands, another where it is in a close up of one of the dancer’s faces to show their facial expression in detail, and another where the camera is in a low angle shot. These different angles aim to give the perspective of somebody in an audience watching the Burlesque show.