The
Anchorman
The opening of Anchorman uses a serious sounding voice over with a
serious looking scene of a helicopter flying over a city. This is in complete contrast
with the personality of the protagonist, (a very cocky and arrogant person) the
fact that he gets his pilot to land the helicopter in the middle of a road -
right on a junction - shows that the protagonist thinks very highly
of himself, and looks down on the rest of society. This contrast of
the serious video and serious voice over and the funny
looking arrogant person that is the
protagonist emphasises just how cocky he is.
The camera angles that are used means that the protagonist gets
most screen time, making him the centre of attention to the audience. In fact
the protagonist is in almost every single shot. The music that is played over
the video is happy feel good music, showing that the protagonist is in a good
mood whilst also giving off a good vibe to the audience - which
is important in a comedy film. The opening two minutes also
uses techniques like match on action and jump cuts. The
jump cuts are used to speed up the films tempo a little, however the tempo of
the opening two minutes is rather slow and mellow.
The
protagonist's personality and the way he looks gives the audience an indication
of what the character is like, stereotyping him by the way he looks and acts
before the film goes on to more depth about the character. The
common cliché of the cocky protagonist is evident in the opening
two minutes to this film.
Step Brothers
Step
Brothers is a 2008 American buddy slapstick comedy film starring Will
Ferrell and John C. Reilly.
The plot
of step brothers is two unemployed, middle-aged and spoilt men who still
live with and are reliant on their parents. They have no intention of moving
out or finding jobs and behave childishly. Brennan's mother Nancy and Dale's
father Robert marry. Furthermore Brennan and Dale are forced to live with
each other as step brothers. Their parents warn them that they must find jobs
within a month or else be forced out of the house. When Brennan's younger
brother Derek - Adam Scott comes to visit with his oddly perfect family, he too
mocks them and entices Dale to punch him in the face. Brennan is awed that Dale
was able to stand up to Derek. Meanwhile, Brennan's sister in law (Alice) who
is also resentful of Derek, finds Dale's courage a turn on. Brennan and Dale
discover their many shared interests and develop a strong personal bond.
Within
the first two minutes of the film you can see that it’s going to be a
comedy as
we see two middle aged men who have to become step-brothers and live together
as their parents get married. The two middle aged men are seen to be in their
late 30's, which links to it being a comedy film as it is not shown as serious.
We also see one of the sons who makes coco pops and nachos which is a
stereotype of a youth more so than a late 30s man who you wouldn't imagine
to see having a bowl of coco pops.
Additionally,
we see the other son who is playing guitar hero which is stereotypically a
younger generations game and you would see a man of that age playing it with
their kids or for fun with their family, not by themselves taking it seriously.
Mis-en-scene
is used during the film. The costumes of the boys are quite childlike and more
suited for a younger generation and you wouldn't expect a late 30 year old man
to wear them.
The
location of the film shows the house where they are all going to live so it
gives the audience an indication of where the film is going to based.
Overall,
the first 2 minutes of the film shows where the film is going to be
based, located, who's involved in the film, what type of characters
they are and what the narrative is going to lead to. This infers to the
audience the storyline.
Comparison
The openings on both films are very comical, both have a
happy tune to it and are quite similar as they are the same genre - comedy.
Both films have been introduced as Slapstick like, with a lot of humour and
based on adult audience.
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