Personal analysis: My mad fat diary.

My Mad Fat Diary is TV series based on the book 'My fat mad teenage diary' by Rae Earl. It was turned into a TV series in January 2013 & has already made a comeback for series 2. The show follows the story of 16 year old girl called Rae Earl, who has just left a psychiatric hospital, where she has been for four months. When Rae leaves the hospital she begins to reconnect with her bestfriend Chloe and her new group of friends, however she doesn't tell them about where she has been for the past four months and sneaks off once a week to meet her therapist. Her therapist tells her to keep a diary which is what is read as a voice over.


My Mad Fat Diary – title sequence from Mr & Mrs on Vimeo.

The reason I have decided to analyse the title sequence for this show is because the main character in my mad fst diary (Rae) is very similar to the main character in our film. They are both highly influenced by music and both follow bands and they both have a tight group of friends. I also thought it would be interesting to see the difference between a film title sequence and a TV show title sequence.
The first thing we see in the sequence is a note with 'This Diary belongs to Rae Earl Private!' written on it, there are also some doodles of pizza and a girl on there. These are already clues to what the main character is like, these both show us she likes food and that she doesn't think very highly of herself as the drawing that is possibly of her, isn't drawn very neatly and didn't take much time. This also suggests that she doesn't care much for her appearance. Black scribbles then cover the outside of the note, this could suggest that her mental state isn't very well because she is using black and scribbling could connote that her thoughts are all 'scribbled'.
The next thing we see is a note with 'Mum' & a witchs face scribbled on it. This suggests that she doesn't get on with her mum particularly well. The receipt with chocolate repeated in the back tells us that she is not the healthiest girl ever and is quite large.
The next shot is of a pair of sunglasses which could imply that the area it is set in is sunny or that it is set in the summer when its hot. There is also a doodle of a naked lady which could imply that Rae is going through puberty and doesn't have anyone to share things about that with other than her diary.
We then see a doodle of her therapist Kester. The drawing is quite large which suggests that she thinks very highly of him and enjoys spending the time she can talking to him.
The title then appears and then a shot of spilt ink with 'based on my fat, mad, teenage diary by rae earl' written on it.
The next scene is a note saying 'lets do this' this suggests that she is trying to get used to trying new things and wants to live more. There is also a tape in the corner, this shows how much music means to her, the fact that the name 'Finn' is also written at the bottom suggests he is going to play a big part in Rae's life.
There is then a few doodles of birds which could suggest she feels more free than she ever has before With song lyrics/poetry written on some paper. This again shows how musically influenced she is.
The music then fades out and a shot of Rae appears.