Research - Pride and Prejudice

In preparation to filming our piece i looked at the film Pride and Prejudice staring Keira Knightley. To start the film a nice scenic shot of a sun rise is shown and the break of early morning. I think this shot looks really effective and gives a clear understanding that the film is beginning just like the day is which is a cleaver yet simplistic way of starting the film. The titles just appear central on the screen over the top of the landscape shot and are in normal font and plain white writing. I think here the producer could have thought of a more effective way to produce the titles as they are nothing special but it does get the point across to an audience what it is trying to convey. To show the main character (Elizabeth Bennet) we have a shot of her walking through the field of where the action has already taken place. This is a nice shot because it is merging the different aspects together. The titles continue to show but in a very minimalistic way as we only see about 3 titles without any mention of characters names. This is odd because Keira Knightley is a big star and not to have a title with her name on is very different to usual, although she is the first person seen as the titles show so i suppose you don't need a title as she is so recognisable. After this we follow Elizabeth Bennet (Knightley) on the way to her house displaying a range of shots. Right from the beginning a piano piece is heard and later when the character we have been following gets home the sound transfers to her sister playing the piano. This is a very cleaver way of showing this as we can then see a clear connection and it also gives us an insight into a character. The costumes are of the period and fit in well with the scene and the setting of the big manor house works really well as we can draw conclusions from the characters. I really like the opening to this film because it is done so simply and it works effectively although i think they could have explored a little more with the titles.