Popping Productions : Film Opening Analysis: Mamma Mia

The story of a bride-to-be (Amanda Seyfried) trying to find her real father told using hit songs by the popular 70s group ABBA.

Title: Mamma Mia
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Production: Relativity Media, Littlestar
Distributor:Universal
Genre: Comedy, Musical
Budget: $52,000,000
Box Office: $144,130,063
Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan
Released:

opening-scene from Mamma Mia! (2008) - Video Dailymotion

The ident from Universal

Then we get text saying universal pictures and Littlestar/Playtone productions. This text is quite 70s text so it links to the ABBA music in the movie., since ABBA was a 70s band.

We first get the sound of waves before any image, then we get a gradual image of dark waves crashing against a boat.

Then shot pans up/zooms out as we get a silhouette of a girl on a boat as calming music fades in.

then we get a shot of the boat coming into the shot from the right, then it zooms out so we get a establishing shot of this island at night.

Then we cut to a wide shot of a path leading to a yellow post box. The yellow stands out as theres lots of dark blues and tones around the shot. This cold connote the importance of the post office if the letters she's posting are important to her.

Then we cut a long of the girl as she walks towards the postbox but she's still unknown as the shadows cover her face. Cut to another shot of the postbox as this is much closer, connotes that this letterbox is quite important. Then to cut back to the girl with a medium shot as she continues to walk, masked by the shadows. We cut to the last shot of the yellow postbox which is fully centre of the screen, then finally we see the girl; Sophie unmasked as she holds 3 letters.

We get this close up shot of the letters as she says the name of the men on the letters and posting them into the box.

Then the music quickly changes to a upbeat 70s track as we get a montage of shots of the three men. This emphasises the busyness which all three men are surrounded in and adds adrenaline to the montage.

Our first shot of the montage is a close up shot of a tattoo on one of the guy's knee. This tattoo could connote to a rebellious, spontaneous or inde side to this guy. In addition we see a part of a motorbike, again showing a rebellious characteristic.

Then we get a wide shot of Bill on his bike. Within the Mis-en-sence we see Bill's style more clearly as he's wearing shorts, sunglasses, a hat and a t-shirt. This connotes that the weather wherever he is its quite warm and sunny or it could show that he's into travelling a lot as he's on a motorbike.

Estblashing shot of large market, suggest that Bill is currently travelling.

Then we get a panning down shot looking down onto another male character, Sam. The shot pans from a tall building. This implies that he works in this building and this is answered as we see a small female assistant instructing or telling him something which causes him to walk over these Asian business men. This shot is at a low angle (just below eye level) this suggests that Sam is more important than the Asian men, she could be a boss of a company or of a section within the company.

The low angle shot and long shot of Harry walking out of his house and getting into his car connotes towards his home and social class therefore allowing the audience get a insight in Harry's lifestyle.