Analysis of film opening - The Hangover

Analysis of film openings - The Hangover

Genre
I am going to be analysing the movie ‘The hangover’. Firstly, after watching the film opening I have noticed that there are a number of different genres that could be drawn from this opening , the one that I spotted straight away was romance, this is due to at the start of the clip you see two people taking flowers from the van to the house, also you see a cake which looks like a wedding cake, then a wedding dress and lastly people setting up the venue for the wedding therefore this links to romance making people think that this film could actually be a romance. However after 1 minute into the clip, the atmosphere all changes as the bride to be looks worried whilst on a phone call to a man who looks stranded in the middle of nowhere, this then creates a twist for the audience as it opens up questions for the audience members to ask themselves as it could be a romance or a mystery due to the fact one of their friends has gone missing at this point. Moreover, I only know from watching the film that it is actually a comedy.  When listening to the phone call numerous times the storyline is actually being  told when they bride to be and the man are on the phone however  the audience would not realise this due to the fact they would not have seen the film before.

Characters
The opening sequence gives us as the audience members a clear idea into what sort of characters are involved and what they are like as people. We know from the opening scene that there is a bride to be and 5 men who are on a stag do in Las Vegas, the fact that it is located in Las Vegas connotes that something bad is going to happen due to the saying “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”. In addition to this we know that one of the characters has gone missing, he is likely to be one of the main characters due to the fact he is the one marrying the bride. All the characters seem to be hiding something in order to keep the bride happy as they don’t want her to get upset on her wedding day

Sound

The first piece of sound we here is a non-diegetic sound track which is calm and relaxing, it is played over the top of the camera panning down a long road. The type of music we hear is the type of music you would typically hear being played at a wedding venue, this creates a sad atmosphere as instead of the music being played at their wedding venue its being played to make the audience feel sorry for the couple that are yet to get married. In addition to this the lyrics that are used are very hypocritical as they say “I wasn’t born to make trouble”, but in actual fact the men have caused trouble as one of the friends provided the drugs which lead to the groom going missing. The second piece of music we hear is when the friend of the person who is meant to get married reveals that they have lost the groom, the music starts to slow down to very slow and get deeper, which connotes a sense of sadness, this suits the mood of the scene very well.

 

Themes

There are a variety of themes that can be found from the opening sequence of this film. The first one I found was distress, the bride to be looks upset and distressed as her husband to be has gone missing and she doesn’t know what to do as she’s preparing her makeup for the big day and has everything planned to make the day perfect. The next theme I found was death, this is because he man who is meant to be marrying the woman has gone missing as stated above and his four friends do not have a clue in the slightest where he could be as they took drugs the night before therefore this leads me to think that death could be one of the themes. Moreover, death is like a hidden theme in this film opening as it is a possible outcome but no one actually mentions it leaving me to believe it could be a theme. The last theme I notice was searching/hunting as they need to find their fiend urgently in order to get to the wedding on time to make bride happy.

Setting/Atmosphere
The film is set at a wedding reception/venue which is clearly shown in the very first location in the opening scene. The next location is at Las Vegas, this is shown at the start of my bit when they are having a phone call. These locations are good as they do not say how far away the wedding reception is from Las Vegas making the atmosphere tense and gloomy and also the fact that the bride to be is already situated at the venue and the man is nowhere to be seen in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is a good location as it is a popular spot for me to go on their stag do making the location realistic for the audience. Also the fact that the groom cannot be contacted on the day of his wedding creates a tense atmosphere within the opening and makes the audience want to know what is going to happen next.

Titles
The titles that are displayed are good as they are come in the right order; however the one that isn’t is the one where the mina character comes after the film title when really they should really be put before. The font that is used throughout fits each section of the film opening perfectly for example when the wedding scene is playing at the start the font that is used for the titles is the type of font you would see on a wedding invitation, this shows that they have thought about titles before doing them. Also, when the bad news is revealed the colour of the font changes from white to red which connotes danger/death. This is good as it could be trying to tell the audience that some sort of danger or injury is going to occur during the film, however the audience probably wouldn't realise this.

 

Narrative

The narrative that is used is closed narrative as you can clearly tell that there is going to be a beginning, middle and an end. You plot is actually quite simple as someone goes missing on a big day and then they find him just in time for the wedding.