Research into existing products - Love Actually.

 Love Actually is a romantic comedy (rom-com) film made in 2003 and was directed by Richard Curtis, who is renown in the media industry for writing other famous rom-coms including, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones Diary.

Love Actually had a budget of £30 million (estimated) and it received a gross profit of $247,472,278 worldwide. To date, Love Actually is one of the most famous and recognisable British rom-coms and starred some of Hollywoods finest actors and actresses, this includes Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley and Colin Firth.

Universal Pictures was the distributor for Love Actually, and some of the studios involved in the production of the film were Studio Canal, Working Title Films and it was in association with DNA Films (which are all British studios).
Working Title films is an important studio in the workings of the films distribution and production. Working Title Films was founded in 1983 by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe. In 2004 the company made a gross profit of £17.8 million.
As of 2007, all of the companies films were distributed by Universal Pictures, which owns a 67% stake in the company and the studios co-producers are Studio Canal.
Studio Canal itself is a French based production and distribution company that owns the third largest film library in the world.
BBC films and independent investors own the remaining stake of the company. This shows that all these companies have close business connections which helped them to collaborate in producing Love Actually.
We are greeted with each of the company logos before the opening of the film begins, all unique from each other and recognisable.

The opening sequence begins in a documentary filming style, as the camera appears to be hand-held, recording the Arrivals terminal at Heath-row airport and recording peoples reactions as they meet people at the terminal.

The general reactions of people are that of joy, there are reunited couples, reunited families, friends greeting each other and the whole scene appears to be serene. The shots themselves are well lit, so the setting is in the daytime, the first sound we hear in the opening is that of non-diegetic music, which seems harmonic, simple and slow paced, to set the mood into one of calm and serene.

Often the camera zooms on the people in the terminal to shoot close ups of peoples reactions, following them further with shots such as horizontal pans. People are hugging, kissing and laughing, while nobody is arguing, these loving actions are often assosiated with rom-coms.

Over these images, the credits fade in and out, in a white simple text and most of the focus is on the people being recorded, often in close ups to show the emotion on their faces. Next we hear the non-diegetic sound of a voiceover, which is Hugh Grant, one of the stars of the film, who plays 'David', discussing the idea that we live in a world full of love, even if it isn't noticeable on a daily basis.

"Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion love actually, is all around."

This monologue is very well known and often associated with Love Actually, making the film recognizable alone for the opening narration. As the sentence "Love actually is all around." fade onto the screen, the "is" is defined in red coloured font compared to the rest of the sentence, making it stand out. Then the sentence fades into "Love Actually." which is the title of the film and the "Love" fades into the colour red, which has the connotations of love and romance, which relates to the storyline of the film and to draw the audience's attention to the contrasting red and white title. 

The image then fades out into a black screen where only the film title is present at the bottom left of the screen, remaining the same, as the serene music fades into a song being sung by Bill Nighy who plays Billy Mack, a close up of Billy fades in, he is dressed in a bold, slightly cheap looking Bahama shirt and is singing into a mic in a recording studio as the credits of the actors and actresses involved in the film fade over the shots in the bottom corners.

There are sharp cuts between Billy singing and the studio recorders reactions as they sit behind a mixing board desk. We hear the diegetic sound of the echoing of the microphones, as the music is suddenly cut off and dialogue between the producer and Billy begins; whose telling Billy that he keeps getting the lyrics to the song wrong and at first Billy doesn't mind being told this and attempts the singing again.
The introduction to the song begins again as we see a mid shot of Billy and the backing singers and they all sing to the tune. Soon enough Billy gets the lyrics wrong again and we see a close up of him swearing (suggesting stereotypically that he is of a lower social class than most in this film by the 'loud' shirt and use of bad language) and covering his face, showing his frustration, as the music abruptly cuts off. We then see a mid reaction shot of the producers, who look less than impressed.

Billy decides to try again and the music fades back in as we see a determined Billy singing in a close up, it then dissolves into a high angle crane shot of Billy singing and dancing, who is managing to get the lyrics right. We see a close up of the main producer who is laughing, clearly happy that Billy has succeeded this time.

The music then overlaps into a tracking shot of a Christmas tree being carried in the winter across from Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament, this links to the storyline later on, and showing a main landmark of London to distinguish the setting.
We then see a montage of famous London landmarks, often in long shots, which begins with the title "5 weeks till Christmas" at the bottom of the screen, some landmarks included are Somerset House Ice Rink and Trafalgar Square again reinforcing the image of what London should look like.

The shot then cuts to a man called Jamie, who is played by Colin Firth, running around his room, filmed in mid tracking shots, telling her that he's going to be late for a wedding, while his girlfriend, who is played by Sienna Guillory is sat on their bed and appears to be ill, dressed in woolly clothes with a box of tissues. The instrumental to Billy's earlier song can still be faintly heard behind the couples dialogue. Then there is close ups of the couple kissing and Jamie telling his girlfriend that he loves her before he runs out the room.

The next setting is that of a man sat at a desk in an office that appears to be related to some designing career, as shown by all the filing and canvas' on the wall behind. This man is Daniel, who is played by Liam Neeson. The faint tune of the earlier song still remains, but is getting quieter with every scene that passes so far.
We then hear the dialogue of Daniel speaking on the phone to Karen, who is played by Emma Thompson. The scene then cuts to a shot of Karen in an apron stood in her kitchen, preparing some sort of meal as Daniel confides in Karen that he wants someone to talk to, but Karen insists she must call him back later as she is busy. Credits still fade in and out over the images, in white simple font. The shots then cut back to mid shots and close ups of Karens dialogue between her and her daughter, discussing the nativity play.

The scene then cuts to a shot of Colin who is played by Kris Marshall, there are mid tracking shots of Colin running around an office, handing out food to women out of a hamper, attempting to deliver them with charm and charisma, but the women seem less than impressed, often ignoring Colins charm. Faintly the tune of Billy's song can still be heard.

The shot then cuts briefly to introduce John played by Martin Freeman and Judy who is played by Joanna Page, who are acting on a movie set and introduce themselves to one another.

The non-diegetic music now gets faster in pace and louder as we see a close up of two men stood at an altar in a church, who appear to be friends and are conversing with one another. This is the wedding of Juliet played by Keira Knightley and Peter who is played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. We then see Juliet enter the church in a close up of her smiling and looking 'radiant' all in white with light behind her, like the ideal bride.

The scene fades out to reveal a car driving to 10 Downing Street, where we see a new British Prime Minister in the forms of David, played by Hugh Grant, in mid tracking shots being greeted by applause and cheers when he approaches 'number 10' to receive a tour of inside the famous building and meet the staff that will assist his time there.
This is where David meets Natalie, who is played by Martine McCutcheon, who makes a fool of herself by swearing multiple times infront of David due to her nerves on her very first day, this conversation is often shot in close ups and is edited in a 'shot, reverse, shot' style as the incidental music is still heard in the background.

Before the scene ends, the incidental music ends and we see David turn around to look at Natalie, who is being comforted by other staff, as non-diegetic music of pan-pipes can be heard, possibly to suggest that this will be key later on in the storyline.