Comedy openings

21st Jump Street

The opening gives examples of each characters simply, by showing one as the stereotypical nerd "Morton Schmidt" and a jock "Greg Jenko", it shows the two as very different guys. The comedy works in the awkward conversation between the two.

It shows the two as completely different characters so them being friends is quite stranger and funny and the audience remembers the awkward memories of high school. The comedy also comes from the strange and crude diolouge between the two mains and the over the top stereotypes of the two characters (The America Nerd and Jock).




Shaun of the dead

The opening to Shaun of the dead is the main character walking around his house, like a zombie, which goes with the theme of the zombie apocalypse, this is funny as it contrasts the real zombies later on in the film.It shows off how boring life can be.

Why this is relevant?
In Media we are using this to create our own comedic opening, for this looking at other already made comedies, we can get an understanding of how comedic dialogue and puns make the audience laugh.
With America comedies the bases are more positivist and more centered more about High School and the more about the comedy from characters personalities. While British comedy looks more on the dialogue and smaller details of the background.

Openings that I enjoy

 Hot Fuzz
Opening timing: 1:46
Hot Fuzz is a satirical idea of mainstream America Cop, movies mixing in the stereotypes of the police force and the realism of the hard work and dedication behind that, it explores modern cops films as well as the distention of the mind always in of criminal  justices. It is nicely rapped up in a comedic idea of the stereotypes of the West country and small towns imagine of the 'perfect life', the beautiful and skills using foreshadowing, always using tiny details which the audience will see more of after more viewings. The climax is action packed, and has the height of hilarity that will have the audience really laughing all the way  thought. The climax has an underlining feelings of the exception of modern life and peoples thrust to have a more exciting life, that they will even go to violent means to get this. A very enjoyable and delightful movie, that I would show others maybe a few more times.

The Opening itself.

I enjoy this opening because of it's shots and fast paced opening.It uses a series of panned and tilted shots, as well as Close ups on Nichols face, gives the audience a sense of who the character was and his motivation.
 It shows Nichols Angle fixation on being with the police force by showing him do excellent in his academic  studies, while the shots give the impression of a usual action movie, having a lot of close ups and cuts. The editing is sweetly accompanied by the sound of  fast paced music, a mix of guitar and smooth jazz really set the tone of fast paced and quick line delivery, as well as some diegetic sound sounds to add simple realism; which fit nicely in to the films gaps in the music score.
The most interesting thing about this opening, is the story of his police career, is a very boring story, made exciting by the quick way of his delivery and the juxtaposition of the flashing images of dramatic violent work he has to do.
What I like most about the opening  is it's simple sets up the character and the story, which expresses his enjoyment of his work, the determination in his voice as he riddles off his life. Ever second is like a racing heart beat, which is a contrast as the rest of Hot Fuzz is a satire of modern testosterone fulled actions police films, which ignore the realism.

The opening is humorous, exciting and sets the tone for the film. It's shot well and the acting is on point.When I come on to develop and make my film I will use this films editing and character establishing as an example.

Analysis of openings

What an opening should be:
The opening of a film should give the audience a sense of what the film is about and draw in the audience. It should be edited simply and still really show off the films characters and general. To make this I think that do this a director must show the theme with the choice in music, setting and decide which characters should be shown, it could be done in a flash foreword style of narrative, such as Easy A and Molin Rouge or they can just do a montage with a select song from the soundtrack.

Professional made films made openings:

This is England.
Director: Shane Meadows

This opening starts with quick cuts with really show off the 1980s culture and most important parts of that decade, the films uses a mix of happy joyful news such as weddings, and depressing violence of gangs. The film then goes into a close up shot of a young boy waking up, the setting around him is grey and quite common, I think that they used this to show the git of the film and the fact the film looks at the working class. The dialogue is plentiful, we get introduced to the main character straight away, for the opening scenes, who is a young boy. The theme is shown though the rough dialogue and the rough setting, showing it's dark rough idea of the film.
 The shots are next are wide, showing the education, then a fight breaks out between two boys, showing the friction of teenagers at this time, and foreshadows the conflict with will be relevant in the film.


My week with Marilyn
Director: Simon Curtis

This opening showed the famous Marilyn in a golden dress, showing Marilyn as her famous self and how she was adored by others, the camera then pans to show that she is being watched on the scene by a lot of men, which shows are main character, fore-showing that they will meet later on. We get introduced to the main character straight away, showing him to be mesmerised by Marilyn's beauty.
 The setting shows a traditional English home, which gives the impression of an upper class stereotypical England. We see this during a flashback narration, a choice as it was based on a true life story in the past, I think it was also used to draw in audiences to find out what happened with the young man and the famous actress.I thought the opening was slow however, it didn't really show what was going to happen, and the pacing was a little boring as most of the time was taken to establish characters.

Submarine
Director: Richard Ayoade 

This film opens with the main character looking solemnly on the weekday, the shot shows his bedroom with dark lighting. The room is very blue, with posters on the wall. It gives evidence of the characters mode, being that of sadness. Then it leads itself to a narration, where Oliver (the main character) talks about something profound, while the camera goes round the town in Wales where the setting is, showing a dark blue sea and sweet small British white town homes.
The opening is short and sweet, which shows the main character being a bit out of the ordinary.