Bridget Jones' Diary

This is the story in the diary of the 30 something Bridget Jones and her quests with family, friends and men. A romantic dramatic comedy this film contains all aspects of each genre. The film begins with a narrative opening where Bridget Jones' herself is explaining her story. We automatically get an insight into the film and the character as she talks about what she does around Christmas time - often considered a more private, family time of the year. The music playing in the background is All By Myself - Mariah Carey. This incidental music is placed well, as it is at a time were she is telling the relatively bland story of the christmas period and how she spends it, it therefore provokes feelings of empathy from the viewer for Bridget therefore making the audience feel more involved. The non-diegetic sounds change when Bridget enters her mothers house, from this relatively emotional music, to an upbeat, almost silly music. This signifies a change in atmosphere, however this change may not be seen in Bridget who goes on telling her story of woe. We see the costume style of Bridget who already is dressed in several different outfits in the beginning, she smokes and drinks and wears relatively normal clothes and pyjamas, signifying she is your typical working class middle aged woman. When we are introduced to her mother you get a completely different impression as through her accent and behaviour we could interpret a certain snobiness, especially after we are introduced to her father who seems to fit into the same category as Bridget. The target audience as specified by IMDB is overall a woman/teen girl film, I can understand this is as it is written from the point of view of a woman, therefore making it more understandable and relatable for a woman. While there are so comedic moments throughout which may appeal to the males, overall the storyline is more tailored for a more feminine person, and i think that the film does very well to keep their feminine target audience interested. The titles are done in a style of handwriting, this is understandable because the film is called Bridget Jones' Diary and a diary is used to write in - this link between the title and title sequence is good as it keeps all relevance between the story and filming. The location used is also good as it is a relatively normal setting, a snow covered area, around christmas, in England. This therefore makes the scene that more reliable and believable. The use of 2 establishing shots can be scene at the start of the film, once when Bridget exits the car - this helps to set the scene and give the overall sense of normality and allow the viewer to associate with the character. The second is when she enters her mothers house, establishing this second change in scenery and also conveying the sense of normality. Overall i believe that the opening scenes do well to set the viewer up for a good film without revealing the plot.