The Fault In Our Stars

The fault in our stars:

In the opening two minutes of this film you have the main character called Hazel Grace speaking/ narrating giving the audience a speech about life and how she wants her life to be in an ideal world. At this point in the film the audience do not yet know that she is battling with cancer and is seriously ill with it. From the speech Hazel Grace is giving the audience are able to tell that the film is going to be based around real life Events which makes it fiction. There is also a love interest in this film between characters called Augustus and Hazel, both of which are the two main characters battling cancer.

From the opening scene the audience are encouraged to ask themselves why is Hazel lying on the grass? What do the stars signify? What do the flashes from her past and her future symbolise? Why does she keep looking at Isaac at her support group and not her love interest, Augustus? The opening scene to this film creates many questions for the audience and helps them to feel involved and empathise with the characters better.

One of the most significant events of the opening scene is when Hazel attends her support group as this is the start of the real hard hitting story. The narration that is going on at the start of the film helps the audience gain context of the story up to now. Hazel portrays her honest feelings which allow the audience empathise with her throughout the rest of the film.

The music that is used at the beginning of the film is non diegetic. They have someone playing the piano in the background whilst Hazel Grace is speaking about the way of life. The music is quite soft which creates a mellow and gentle mood; it encourages the audience to think that the film is going to be happy but as soon as the film kicks off the mood quickly changes.

The camera shots that are used throughout the film are mainly Ariel shots to show how small the main characters are in comparison to the world. They have also used a lot of close up shots on the main characters to help the audience focus on them. The 180 degree line is not broken in the opening, this helps the audience establish normally.  They editing that they have used is slow passed to show the audience how slow life can be when battling with cancer and how much Hazel and Gus had to suffer. This could also connote how they are waiting to die. There are features of straight cuts which signify the normality of life without cancer. They have made it seem like everyday life and almost as if they are not battling with cancer but the audience always know that it is there.  The way they have edited it allows the audience to focus on the main character and their story. Throughout the film the costumes that the characters are wearing are contemporary to the time it is set in (modern day). The main characters are also seen in hospital gowns, they wear outfits which suit what they are doing at the point in time in the film. The lighting is natural throughout the film however it quickly changes low key lighting when they are focussing on the deeper and sad scenes of the film. To conclude, this film uses a range of technical elements in order to portray a message about cancer.