Analysing Opening Sequences - Hot Fuzz

Scene Summaries- Hot Fuzz

The film opens with a mid-shot of a man walking towards the camera from a distance. As the man gets closer, we can notice that he is a police officer because of his clothes. It then goes into a close up of his face, so we can begin to establish a relationship with the character.  While in the close up, he starts to introduce himself as Nicholas Angel. 

The next few clips show a montage of his achievements and activities.  This collage begins with a clip of him and fellow colleagues participating in riot training, which looks professional, without any mistakes. It then moves onto another clip of him excelling in the written paper and finishing it a lot quicker than anyone else and an extreme close up of his pen in shallow focus, which gives the impression that he is skilled and has precision.  Next, we see him receiving an award named ‘the baton of honour,’ again, showing his talent and outstanding ability.  The following clip is of him showing a more friendly side to him, which is then counteracted by him giving a speech in a completely dark room, apart from the board light, about crime which gives us a hint on his more aggressive side. These clips are then followed by a few more of him driving a car, riding a bike, playing chess and fencing, with great skill and precision.

During these clips, we only see him either his uniform or training gear, this gives the audience the idea that he is very work based and the only achievements he talks about, involve his job in the police force. This opening sequence changes from a very slow scene of him walking towards the desk/camera, to a collage of various scenes and short clips played quickly, to give the audience the impression that he is very skilled with many achievements, as well as allowing us to establish a relationship and a decent understanding of the main character (Nicholas Angel) very quickly in the space of a couple of minutes.

Sound

Before the film starts they play the sound of a police siren as the Universal Studios logo appears, this allows the audience to know the basis of what the film is about. At the beginning of the film, it starts off completely quiet with loud footsteps in the background; these footsteps get louder and louder, creating suspense among the audience. As Nicholas Angel gets right in front of the camera, we hear him talking to the audience which is a sign of transparent editing. He then continues talking to the audience, while it shows him doing his job and personal achievements but this time, there is music in the background, which has quite a fast tempo which, combined with fast paced collage of clips, makes the audience fell like there is a lot going on. The music is also light-hearted and upbeat so that even when Nicholas has a serious face or looks angry, we still have a positive impression of him as the music tells the audience that it’s not supposed to be taking seriously.

Screen Shots

The film opens up with the usual Universal Studios opening sequence with a police siren in the background so the audience knows what the film will be about.

The film then begins with a short sequence of Nicholas Angel walking towards the camera with other opening credits at the bottom of the screen. They did this as it helps the film get straight into the action instead of playing the opening credits beforehand. The sequence of Nicholas walking towards the camera creates suspense among the audience as they try and wonder who the silhouetted character is.

The next shot is a close up of Nicholas’ face, this allows the audience to feel more at ease as they know who he is and they are able to establish a relationship with him from the beginning.

The next shot is a shot to audience as he is showing his police badge towards the audience; this is an example of non-transparent editing. Also the facial expression of Nicholas’ face is almost identical in the shot before and the one in the police badge. This is an example of transparent editing as it is used to make the shot change flow more naturally.  

The following shots are a compilation of Nicholas talking about his many, work related achievements.

 

These shots are shown rapidly in a short space of time, this gives the audience the idea that he has done a lot and is obviously excelling past anyone else in his job (e.g. receiving the award and finishing the test first.  His facial expressions in the 19^thand 20^th photos shows his determination and focus on the job, this allows the audience to develop a relationship with him as they are close ups of his face. Also a lot of the clips are in shallow focus (e.g. the close ups of his face and the one of the pen), this means that the director wanted all our attention to be drawn to these objects as they are relevant in some way.

 

Things we can use:

- how to establish a comic tone even when the action seems serious (mainly through non-diegetic music)

- use of close ups of exaggerated facial expressions

- use of montage style editing to give a quick impression (e.g. our football match)

- lots of credits appear together over a scene of someone walking - something we want?