A Hard Day's Night is a mockumentary from 1964 that focuses on the daily life of The Beatles. Since this film is shot in a documentary style due to its genre, it doesn't follow a narrative structure of- for example- a comedy. You could say that there is a sense of equiliberum in the beginning, and then it being broken in the middle when Ringo goes missing, however that is probably the only narrative convention it follows.
Something unusual about the film is the fact that it is filmed in black and white, as director Richard Lester could have chosen to shoot the film in full colour, as this was availible at the time. I think he chose to shoot in black and white for two reasons. The first is to emphasize how young The Beatles are, and how much further they have to go in the music world to stand out. Another reason is so that the music is more noticeable, as you don't have the distraction of colour and lots of things happening in the scenes to focus on.
Throughout the film the music is very fast paced and there aren't many rests. This is to match The Beatle's energetic style, as they are constantly moving around and getting up to mischief. There is a scene on the train when they are causing trouble for a posh man sat in their carriage who doesn't know who they are, so they decide to wind him up by opening the window when he doesn't want it open and playing music from their radio. Compared to pranks in films today, this seems very tame, however it still makes you laugh as it is "classic" British humour. If The Beatles were young today, and this film was remade, I would imagine that some of the humour would be more rude and crude and the film wouldn't have the same lighthearted edge to it.
Something else which helps to illustrate how energetic, young anf boystrious they are is the fact that the camera is moving pretty much the whole time. Not only is the camera moving a lot, but it is also quite shakey, perhaps this is to show how young The Beatles are, as they're not quite perfect yet. Another thing that shows this is their fans. At the start of the film, the entirety of their fanbase is made up of young (screaming) teenage girls, who are so excited to see The Beatles that they mob them, and this cues another funny sequence, where they very creatively have to escape from the shrieking girls. One particularly funny method of escape was where there was a line of cars parked next to eachother and they jumped through different cars to confuse the girls. The way that this sequence was timed was perfect, and although there was still the feeling of shakiness due to the high energy, it still flowed really smoothly.
Something unusual about the film is the fact that it is filmed in black and white, as director Richard Lester could have chosen to shoot the film in full colour, as this was availible at the time. I think he chose to shoot in black and white for two reasons. The first is to emphasize how young The Beatles are, and how much further they have to go in the music world to stand out. Another reason is so that the music is more noticeable, as you don't have the distraction of colour and lots of things happening in the scenes to focus on.
Throughout the film the music is very fast paced and there aren't many rests. This is to match The Beatle's energetic style, as they are constantly moving around and getting up to mischief. There is a scene on the train when they are causing trouble for a posh man sat in their carriage who doesn't know who they are, so they decide to wind him up by opening the window when he doesn't want it open and playing music from their radio. Compared to pranks in films today, this seems very tame, however it still makes you laugh as it is "classic" British humour. If The Beatles were young today, and this film was remade, I would imagine that some of the humour would be more rude and crude and the film wouldn't have the same lighthearted edge to it.
Something else which helps to illustrate how energetic, young anf boystrious they are is the fact that the camera is moving pretty much the whole time. Not only is the camera moving a lot, but it is also quite shakey, perhaps this is to show how young The Beatles are, as they're not quite perfect yet. Another thing that shows this is their fans. At the start of the film, the entirety of their fanbase is made up of young (screaming) teenage girls, who are so excited to see The Beatles that they mob them, and this cues another funny sequence, where they very creatively have to escape from the shrieking girls. One particularly funny method of escape was where there was a line of cars parked next to eachother and they jumped through different cars to confuse the girls. The way that this sequence was timed was perfect, and although there was still the feeling of shakiness due to the high energy, it still flowed really smoothly.
By the end of the film, you can really see how much the band has grown, as their fanbase appears to be much larger. In the video above with the fans sat in the concert hall, you can see that every seat is filled with excited people, and not only is it filled with excited people, but a mixture of both young and older. I feel that this is showing how far they've come, and how they're going to take the world by storm. Watching that scene you get that feeling of: "it's only the beggining".
During the film, not only do we see The Beatles develop with the size of their crowd, but the way they are treated. When they are out with their manager attending interviews and things, the band always want to have some drink (alcohol) however everyone always refuses it from them- including their own manager. I'm not sure if this is because they are actually too young to drink, or if it's to show how immature they are and how far they have to go until all the journalists and their manager see them in a better light.
When you compare this film to the other films, such as Casablanca, Rebel Without A Cause and Easy Rider, there is an abundance of energy in A Hard Day's Night and it is very lighthearted- there is no maliciousness or plotting like there is in Rebel Without A Cause for exaple. Perhaps this is due to the films genre (mockumentary) and nothing has been over dramamatised the way it has been in the other films. For example there is lots of romance in the other films, where as in A Hard Day's Night, there is no romance, but this is because the film is very factual as it is based on the Beatles actual lives (granted this is exaggerated in some places and most things have been done on purpose for the film, however it still seems a lot more believeable than Casablanca and Rebel Without A Cause).
During the film, not only do we see The Beatles develop with the size of their crowd, but the way they are treated. When they are out with their manager attending interviews and things, the band always want to have some drink (alcohol) however everyone always refuses it from them- including their own manager. I'm not sure if this is because they are actually too young to drink, or if it's to show how immature they are and how far they have to go until all the journalists and their manager see them in a better light.
When you compare this film to the other films, such as Casablanca, Rebel Without A Cause and Easy Rider, there is an abundance of energy in A Hard Day's Night and it is very lighthearted- there is no maliciousness or plotting like there is in Rebel Without A Cause for exaple. Perhaps this is due to the films genre (mockumentary) and nothing has been over dramamatised the way it has been in the other films. For example there is lots of romance in the other films, where as in A Hard Day's Night, there is no romance, but this is because the film is very factual as it is based on the Beatles actual lives (granted this is exaggerated in some places and most things have been done on purpose for the film, however it still seems a lot more believeable than Casablanca and Rebel Without A Cause).
Sources:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058182/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hard_Day's_Night_%28film%29
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058182/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Hard_Day's_Night_%28film%29