Film Opening Genral Research - Comedy Revised 10/10/10

Napoleon Dynamite by Jared Hess 2004 [IMDB]

• Made by MTV films begins with still frames of credits incorporated in the mise en scene , such as in dinner plates or on credit cards.
• The film is digital contains no big stars and is budgeted at $400,000 hence it made a loss and only grossed $116,000.
• The film uses lots of still framing this signifies that the central protagonist is gormless and therefore creates comedy.
• The protagonist wears a t shirt, is ginger with curly hair, has braces and glasses this signifies he is a geek and he is in outsider signified by his ginger hair.
• The music is non diagetic and has an upbeat tempo with a clash in alternating pitch this signifies comedy.
• The still framing created narrative enigma because the shots are polysemic their is no using the commutation test tracking, panning or tilting shots if these were in it would signify action but still framing signifies polysemy and comedy.

Where the Heart Is by Matt WIllaims 2000 [IMDB]

• A hybrid genre of film between comedy, drama and romance.
• It was produced by 20th century fox and distributed by the BBC in the UK on a budget of $15 million.
• Their are no big stars in it and this is a low budget film for Fox.
• It would appeal to teen-young adults. It begins with the logo with an audio bridge of the sound of dripping and a shot of a car to create narrative enigma because the shot is polysemic.
• The mise en scene shows a small hut like housing and an old fashioned car which signifies the characters are working class.
•  The dialogue provides exposition as the the setting and relationships of the characters.
• Theirs accents signifies southern America therefore a stereotype of this is less educated and poorer as this film represents.
• Normally you'd expect the first character seen to be the protagonist but the person we see isn't.
• He signifies he is disrespectfully because he slaps the females bum a stereotypical representation of male power.
• The use of Natalie Portman appeals to the male gaze although she was not a star before this film it made her famous. Because the film is a romance comedy the audience it appeals to is mainly female 15-35 and working to middle class.

Shaun of the Dead by Edgar Wright 2004 [IMDB]

• When we see the Universal and Working title logo's we hear the non diagetic Audio bridging sound of an American police car this appeals to an American audience and creates narrative enigma.
• We begin with a long take of a medium close up of the protagonist much like how Napoleon Dynamite begins.
• It then slowly zooms outwards their is the diagetic music this along with his gormless day dreamy look add comedy.
• The use of the diagetic bell ringing is edited to be quite and raise up in volume to signify he is coming out of a daydream.
• We then see a shot reverse shot of him having a conversation with a female this signifies they are in a relationship.
• To anchor this we see a cut away shot of them both but we also see a man in between in the background to signify that he is getting in the way.
• This person Ed isn't as smartly dressed as the protagonist played by Simon Pegg hence signifying he is lazy. The dialogue provides exposition to this.
• The use of the gambling machine, bar and diagetic music signifies they are in a pub.
• The use of the empty glasses on the table is a good way of signifying they are drunk.
• The two shot of David and Diana signifies that they are a couple but because they are sat separately from the protagonist and girlfriend this signifies that they don't get along.
• This film was made by WT2 and is rated at 15 so the audience that it appeals for would be 15-30.
• The use of the signifies of Rom Com with the two shots may also appeal to females as well as males.
• They would be between E-C2 class.

Hott Fuzz by Edgar Wright 2007 [IMDB]

• This opening begins with an establishing long shot of a police corridor this is a long take we see the protagonist walking down the corridor the length of this take because it contradicts the codes and conventions of an action film by not varying the shots it creates comedy because of the timing it is similar to Shaun of the Dead and Napoleon Dynamite.
• The uniform of the protagonist and office signifies a police office and creates verisimilitude.
• We go from a long shot to a medium shot as he sits down.
• We then juxtapose the long takes with short takes of elliptical editing of the protagonists life.
• The juxtaposition of the binary opposites of a serious voice over which provides exposition and the image of him on a bicycle adds comedy.
• There is music as we go through this story of his life of Goody Two Shoes by Adam Ant which signifies that the protagonist is a Goody Two shoes this preferred reading would have only have been signified by a 25-34 year old audience.
• The audience would be mainly male because action appeals to a male audience.
• The equilibrium is signified by the exposition of his character through the elliptical editing of his life and voice over.
• The disequilibrium in this film is when he is put in a local rural police station.
• His character provides a countertypical minority ideological view that thew police force is good.
• While the main disequilibrium signifies the stereotypical dominant ideological view that the police force is useless.
• Male power is represented stereotypically.
• This film was budgeted at $16m and another of WT2's production because Shaun of the dead was so successfully they spent $12m more than Shaun of the dead. It was distributed by Studio Canal.

Anchorman by Adam McKay 2004 [IMDB]

• This film begins with the company logo of Dreamworks.
• We then see the typography of sans serif titles which are black on white this along with the voice over which we hear as we see the helicopter provide exposition.
• The protagonist Ron Burgundy could be signified by Propp as a hero he is signified as the protagonist because we only hear and see him.