Film Genre Research - Dear John

The first two minutes start with Channing Tatum (John) lying on the ground in a military uniform with a voice over happening. He had just gotten shot and was explaining what had gone through his head in the minutes after he got shot before he blacked out. The first thing to come to his mind was coins. Then it flashed back to him as an eight- year-old boy at a tour at a U.S. bank and listening to the tour guide explain how the coins are made and stamped and inspected to make sure all are exactly the same. Throughout this portion of the voice over we see coins falling from the top of the screen infront of the face of a young boy. Then it goes to close images of the coins going down the assembly line and having the ridges engraved and being stamped. Afterwards it flashes back to the war zone he is in and he said "I am a coin in the United States Army. I was minted." Finishing off the first minute and a half it shows him in his army uniform laying in a shallow creek with a bullet casing lying on the rocks in the creek next to him as he states the last thing to come to his mind before he blacked out "you." referring to the lead female in the movie portrayed by Amanda Seyfried. The next shot after that has incedental pop/highland sounding music over the image of him surfing while the two lead characters names are shown in the bottom-right third of the screen. The camera shots use a variety of short and long takes within the first two minutes of the film. There are a few over-the-shoulder takes while the scene is in the war zone. There are insert shots in the flashback to John's eight-year-old self, along with close-up's of his face in the left third of the screen and a wide shot of him surfing at the beach after the opening voice over. After the voiceover incedental music is played over the long take of him surfing. The only credits shown in the opening are the actors names portraying the lead male and female characters in the movie.Dear John had a budget of 25 million USD and made $80,014,842 in North America, $34,962,262 in other countries for a grand total of $114,977,104 profit worldwide. Dear John was nominated for 4 Teen Choice Awards (Choice Movie Actress: Drama, Choice Movie: Drama, Choice Movie: Chemistry, Choice Movie Actor: Drama), 2 MTV Movie Awards (Best Female Performance and Best Male Performance), a People's Choice Award for Favorite Dramatic Movie, a Guild of Music Supervisors Award for Best Music Supervison for Films, an ASCAP Film and Televison Music award for Top box office films, and 3 CinEuphoria awards [Top Ten of the year (audience award and international competition) and Best Actor]. Dear John won the CinEuphoria awards and the ASCAP award.