If you were writing about the opening sequence of Lady Bird you might come up with something like this:

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Introduction

Specialist Writing Option A: "Finding The Frame" suggests that a "strategy to decoding the meaning of a composition or frame is to identify the themes and ideas that lie at the heart of the film; its essence; its core ideas". Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig, 2017) is a film about adolescence, identity and womanhood — themes that are established in the opening shots of the film and then explored throughout its runtime.

The article goes on to suggest that "anything and everything that is included in the composition or frame of a shot is there for a specific purpose" and that "every shot counts no matter how inconsequential it may seem". Lady Bird begins with three short pre-title sequences that exemplify these ideas.

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Idents (00:00:00 — 00:00:46)

As the A24 ident fades from the screen, it is replaced by a title card with a wry quote from feminist counter-culture journalist Joan Didion. These anti-establishment sentiments foreshadow the struggles of Christine "Lady Bird" McPherson as she embarks on the painful and distressing road to adulthood.

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Bedroom (00:00:47 — 00:01:29)

The title card fades to black and we cut to a birds-eye view two-shot of Lady Bird and her mother asleep in a hotel bed. They are wearing similar night clothes, are sleeping in similar positions, and have similar hairstyles. They lie facing each other, eye-to-eye, as equals. This opening shot lingers and we immediately see what they cannot — they are the same. Even the rhythm of their breathing is synchronised.

A J-cut overlays the diegetic dialogue from the next shot but we linger on the sleeping faces a moment longer before cutting to a wide shot of the hotel room. Lady Bird looks in the mirror and asks a question about identity while her mother tidies the bed. Both are stereotypes of their age.

Both characters move to sit side by side on the bed, silhouetted against the window, their backs to the camera. Again, they look almost identical, their outlines similar and their movements synchronised. They sit centrally framed, peaceful in each other's company.

This short sequence ends with a sound bridge connecting it to the car journey that follows. We hear the non-diegetic audiobook narration of John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath. The closing words of the novel, about a mother's love, transition the audience to the shots of big skies and arid farmland that surround the car.

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Car Journey (00:01:30 — 00:03:58)

The sequence begins with a wide, low point-of-view shot as a car travels down an empty country road. The road is long and the journey is slow. The metaphor is obvious.

We cut to a two-shot through the windscreen, showing Lady Bird in the passenger seat and her mother driving. The non-diegetic audiobook narration comes to an end and the two characters share a moment. The book has clearly moved them. They glance at each other in understanding.

The next two shots show each character in profile. The camera sits between them and the 180° rule is broken such that they seem to be travelling in opposite directions. Lady Bird is moving to the left; her mother to the right. Specialist Writing Option A: "Finding The Frame" suggests that "the framing of a shot conveys meaning through the arrangement of visual elements" and we can surmise from this juxtaposition that there will be no more peace between them.

We cut back to the windscreen two-shot. There is a moment of calm before Lady Bird leans forward to turn on the radio. This simple gesture provides the catalyst for the conflict that follows. The mother objects, Lady Bird bristles and tightens, and the argument is primed. Both characters sigh audibly.

The sequence continues, cutting between the windscreen master shot and close-up profile shots of the two characters. The sequence is entirely diegetic and the increasingly raised voices dominate the mix. There is a change in direction — both literally and metaphorically — and the argument intensifies.

The profile shots become longer and function almost as shot/reverse shot and the effect of two characters moving in different directions is increasingly disconcerting. A final, wider, profile shot of Lady Bird shows her unbuckling her seatbelt, opening the passenger door, and throwing herself out of the moving vehicle. Lady Bird has made the first in a series of self-destructive bad decisions, hurting herself to hurt her mother. A brief reaction shot of the mother shows her horrified scream and we realise the peaceful unity at the beginning of the film was the exception rather than the norm.

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School Montage (00:03:59 — 00:04:14)

We cut to a close up of the garish neon pink cast on Lady Bird's broken wrist and can discern "Fuck You Mom" petulantly written in biro. The graffiti is upside down, written — like the sentiment it expresses — from Lady Bird's point of view.

The close up of the cast introduces a short montage of Lady Bird's school. The up-beat non-diegetic soundtrack and rapid editing to the beat contrasts with the bedroom and car sequences that preceded it. Likewise, the unkempt and bored-looking Lady Bird seems at odds with the traditional, religious appearance of the school she clearly hates.

The pre-title sequence ends with another title card, in full screen gothic, of the film's title. The traditional gothic lettering, set against the traditional backdrop of a religious school assembly, contrasts starkly with the young woman also bearing that name and showing for a final time that "every shot counts no matter how inconsequential it may seem".

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