One day - Credit

FILM OPENING CREDIT

One Day

- 2011 - 

Introduction

Genre: Romance - Drama

Budget: $15 million

 Director: Lone Scherfig

Box office: $59 million

Distributed by: Focus Features & Universal Pictures

Original (Screenplay):  David Nicholls's novel of the same name (2009)

Source of pictures: Pinterest

The story follows Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew's relationship across two decades, beginning on July 15, 1988, their graduation day. Each year, on the same day, the story returns to them, following the maturation of their friendship, the advancement of their jobs, and the final flowering of their love for each other.

  ⤹ ⊹ One day ୨୧ ☁️ ₊˚๑

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The opening credit

Source: https://cineb.rs/watch-movie/watch-one-day-free-18172.5300134

The production companies included Random House Films and Film 4 Production as shown at the very beginning of the sequence, along with an echoing, slow-paced melody in the background, encoding melancholy. This sets a tone of anguish and sorrow. Anne Hathaway, who portrays Emma Morley, swims calmly with heightened sounds of her breathing. The mood was overall soothing, almost sedative. A straight-jump cut directs us to another setting of Emma riding on a bicycle as the camera tracks the constant forward movement. Unlike how traffic is often expected to be loud and noisy, with irritating honks from vehicles and people shouting in the streets, the main diegetic sound was Emma's bicycle. The rest of the sound sources were either muffled or made quiet through editing. This shines a light on Emma's life, implying that she should be the person to whom the audience should pay attention.

 

Regarding her interaction with the surrounding environment, she is comfortable or is used to the occurrences of the road. For example, her facial expression doesn't indicate much unfamiliarity with the area, but rather confidence, possibly encoding that she lives near this area or that she travels around here pretty often. Moreover, the act of raising her hand to the side, signaling her desire to go in front of another vehicle further sustenance how familiar she is with riding the bike out in the street. This encodes that these activities make up the story's equilibrium, according to Todorov's equilibrium theory. 

As Emma entered a smaller alley, a date appeared and the year seemed to "roll" backward, signifying that the storyline is rewinding back from 2006 to 1988 when the movie first took place in a late evening. Many establishing shots were shown, each with views of numerous buildings and modern architecture encoding a bustling city that has come to rest for the night.  Extreme long shots were used to utilize those properties as compositional coverage while having one constantly moving group of people wearing what looked like graduation gowns. As the streets were mostly empty, their presence seemed to be more noticeable under the few low-key lights illuminating the pathways. The yellow light was also reflected off the wet street, which can be interpreted as having just rained.  However, despite the many extreme long shots and master shots, the genre was not indicated during the opening credits. The geographical setting was also not included and was kept as a mystery until near the end of the opening credit by the dialogues between characters, revealing delicate, British accent. We could now decode the place to be the UK.

The overall pacing was comfortably slow, creating a calming mood. Cross-cutting was used between shots of the newly graduated university pupils and master shots of the town, each lasting a certain amount of time for viewers to absorb the details (which is one of the benefits of slow-pacing editing). This was accompanied by an orchestral soundtrack, adapting the same gradual, almost romantic nature of the sequence. Most of the melody was made by a violin, commonly perceived as sadness and tranquility, but also sympathy and fragility due to the clear, pitchy sound of the strings.

    There was a tiny feeling of coldness due to the lack of warmer tones incorporated into the scene. However, the music seemed to eliminate the distant emotion that is usually associated with the color blue which was used as a filter to encode the darkening night. There were no special transitions such as fade in/out. In contrast, the sequence mostly stuck to straight/invisible cuts to maintain continuity, as if trying its hardest not to disturb the established contentment of peacefulness. Moreover, there were not many sources of diegetic sounds except the laughter of the graduates, so we can decode that they were having a great time, celebrating youth and the time they've spent together throughout their college years. 

    The fonts of the letters used to give names of those who participated in the movie's production also signify a little of the vibes of the text altogether. The letters seemed to be cursive, connoting formality and elegance. Cursive writings are often perceived to be more graceful and aesthetically pleasing than others, also having a vintage feel to them which overall gives a traditional and sophisticated impression.