From watching the opening title sequence of The Hangover, there are a couple of different genres that can be found from it. The first one is romance, as the very first scene is a wedding cake being pulled out of a truck, then you see a woman in a wedding dress. Most people would think they were about to watch a romantic film. I think this is clever as later in the opening sequence, it is revealed that is is not a romance film. Later in the opening sequence, during the phone call, it is revealed that the film could be potentially either a mystery as they have lost somebody or a comedy as it could be a funny situation.
The storyline is told through the phone call between the bride and the best man, but the audience do not really realise. They see that they have lost the groom, and that they are going to find him, which is basically the whole story line summed up in not very much detail. This is cleverly done as the audience do not realise but they have been told the basic storyline before the film has even started.
The opening scene gives quite a clear insight to which sort of characters are going to be involved. There will be a bride, and her parents as they are shown in the scene, a groom, who is the one that is lost, and they grooms friends, who are shown in the scene. The personality of the characters isn't really shown to the audience, however this is a good thing as not too much about each person is given, making the audience want to ask questions about each person.
There several theme that can be found from the opening sequence of this film. For example one theme that I found was death, as they have lost the groom, and they don't know where he is, therefore most people would assume that he is dead. Another theme I found is depression as the bride believes that the groom is gone and isn't going to be able to marry her, therefore causing depression to her and a lot of other people. One last theme I found was about hunting/searching, as the friends of the groom need to go looking for him, in order for the marriage to continue.
The setting of the film is as a wedding reception, which is shown as the very first location in the opening scene, and Las Vegas, as this is also shown by using an establishing shot whilst the phone call is happening. These are very good locations as the fact that the bride is already at the location of the wedding, makes the fact that the groom is lost even more dramatic than what it is, and Vegas is also good as Vegas is very popular with stag dues, and is famous for its nightlife, therefore the groom getting lost in Vegas is very stereotypical and is also realistic, as lots of people get drunk in Vegas, which is what the groom has done.
The sound used at the beginning of the scene is quite pleasant, and is the kind of song you would expect to be played at a wedding, so it fits the mood of the moment very well. During the phone call between the bride and grooms friend, there is no music playing. This adds tension to the phone call and makes te audience feel more part of the film and the tension makes the scene feel more dramatic. Also when the friend of the groom reveals that they have lost the groom, the music changes to very slow, deep toned music, which connotes negativity and depression, which suits the mood of the scene very well.
The titles are very good as most of them come onto the screen in the correct order, apart from the main actors are revealed after the film title, whereas they should really be put before. The font of the titles during the scene at the wedding is very calligraphic, and looks like the type of writing that would be used on a wedding invite, so it fits the scenario very well. It is very clever how the font changes from being calligraphic during the scene at the wedding, to then becoming a very blunt font when the bad news is revealed. The colour of font used for the name of the the film is red, which connotes danger and death, and this is trying to tell the audience that some sort of danger or injury is going to happen in the film, however the audience probably wouldn't realise. The colour then changes from red to white when showing all the actors names. This is clever because the film title in red is letting the audience know that bad things will occur, but then changing to white could make them think that the film will possibly have a positive outcome, as white is quite a happy colour, and is used for positive occasions.
No comments:
Post a Comment