Comedy Opening Sequences: Research

We have recently been set a new task of creating another opening sequence to a film. Instead of being given a film to recreate, in groups we were each given a different genre to base our opening sequence on. My group got comedy!

One of my all time favourite comedy films has got to be '21 Jump Street', starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill.

The film starts with a flashback to Jenko (Channing's character) and Schmidt (Jonah's character) in their high school years. Not much actually happens in this first couple of minutes but we do get to meet both of the main characters. In this opening sequence it clearly establishes the personalities of these two characters, or we can assume what they are like through stereotypes. It is clear that Jenko is a 'jock' and a part of the sports team (most probably the captain of the team) and he is popular within the school. Schmidt is clearly a 'nerd' or a 'geek' and is very intelligent; as well as probably being stereotypically unpopular. Whilst this is happening Slim Shady by Eminem is playing in the background. This is a very catchy, recognisable song that draws the audience in to the film, making the film more memorable.

 

 

Another excellent comedy film is 'Shaun of the Dead', which stars the brilliant comedy duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The opening sequence to this film is very good at establishing who the main characters are and giving us information about them. The film opens with most of the main characters in The Winchester, the local pub. After the scene in the pub, the focus changes to some shots of the town and people walking about, appearing to behave like zombies. Although these people are not zombies (yet) it is a very clever way of establishing what the film is about and what is going to happen. It certainly draws in the attention of the audience as we are intrigued to want to know how the main characters deal with the upcoming invasion.