Analysing Opening Sequences - Hot Fuzz

Hot Fuzz

Hot Fuzz covered a lot in the first two minutes. This gives the audience a chance to get to know the characters, location and general tone. There are a lot of shots, filmed at a very fast pace building up the tension and a sense of action. The first shot is an establishing shot of the house, allowing the audience to orientate themselves and a sense of where the action is taking place. This is cut to a long shot of the main character, where we get a chance to see him. However this shot is taken for a few seconds as the character is walking towards the camera until it is a close up allowing us to see his facial expressions. Overall by this shot we get chance to see that this film is in a non-transparent editing style as he looks directly into the camera.

 

This is then followed by many extreme close ups of the characters’ faces as it is showing us something significant, also allowing us to see his emotions and reactions. There is then a group shot of the policemen walking towards the camera take from a long angle shot which is for the audience to familiarise themselves with the characters and location.

 

There have been many shots of the main character, looking directly into the camera. This man gets a lot of screen time, which is a good indicator of how important this character is and allowing us to sympathise with him, also showing significance.  There is also a great use of ellipsis, where the action is cut out which the audience can easily guess at. This was very effective as it is used to build up the pace and keeping the audience interested in what is going on, creating mystery but also making us get into the story straight away. Slow motion is also used a lot in the first two minutes as it makes the police officer seem heroic and also giving a sense of time passing.

 

In the first two minutes of this film there is a great use of match on action, where the action is filmed from two or more angles which are then cut together. This makes the film feel conventionalhowever this film is non- transparent so overall the audience begin to realise that they first impression of the film is right. This scene is then cut to a canted angle shot of a fast moving car, conveying that something is wrong and things are not the way they should be. This is followed by a low angle shot and a close of the car and wheels, showing that this could be a key prop later on in the film. It is also an example of more unusual filming angles, again hinting at the non-transparent style often associated with comedy.

 

The use of titles and credits

The titles and credits used are white and stand out against the muted colours. However the audience were too interested in the action that was going on around the titles therefore paying less attention to the titles and credits. The main titles were made clear in the beginning of the film, in the form of a police officers badge, which made it clear to the audience what the film genre is based on, even though it is a parody.

The use of sound

The use of sound is a very important part in this film as it is used to build up verisimilitude and a fast pace. There was no dialogue used in the first 2 minutes of this film, but non diegetic mysterious music. There was a great use of ambient sound helping add verisimilitude and a sense of tension.  The sound has been enhanced for example when the building blew up and the sound of people taking in the background; this adds a greater effect to the film, drawing the audience in the action.