Film Openings - Hot Fuzz (Representation) // Research

Characters/Social Groups

Throughout the opening scene the main character is shown wearing various uniforms (mostly police uniforms but also training uniforms, cycling gear, and other plain clothes for activities like chess and running).




Nicholas Angel wearing police gear

His police uniform appears most throughout and varies as props like protective shields and headgear are added when he is shown doing dangerous activities. This often appearance of the police uniform emphasises his power and represents him to be a stereotypically strong, confident and ideal policeman to have at a police station near you. The extras throughout the opening are never properly focused on but you can see they are wearing the same things as the main character, Nicholas Angel. This shows Nicholas surrounds himself with people who have the same aspirations as him but as he is the main focus throughout he must be much better than all the other people. As well as this some citizens are shown wearing normal, everyday clothes showing that Nicholas talks to regular people and cares about looking after all citizens. The contrast of the police uniform next to the citizens regular clothes also emphasises his power as you can see how more important he looks.

Nicholas Angel does not wear any obvious make up throughout the opening scene which gives an image of an archetypal male as he does not enhance his looks and instead focuses on more practical, physical things to make him more dominant and powerful. His hair is also short and practical which would be expected for a policeman.

The only voice heard throughout is the main character's (Nicholas Angel's). His accent is British but not in an obvious, stereotypical way and more of a realistic, social-realism way (as the actor, Simon Pegg, is actually British so he does not need to put on an accent).

Nicholas is shown in many locations all associated with the police training and work he is doing. This makes the audience see how he spends a lot of his time in places doing things for his job which as I said before makes him seem like an ideal policeman. The locations themselves are pretty typical and don't look like sets which enforces how it has more of a realistic style as the opening doesn't make things out to look better than they are.

Settings/Locations




A conveniently quiet road

Nicholas Angel is shown in many settings throughout the opening scene including offices, training academies, classrooms, and many more. However, the scenes are rarely notable or important as the main focus the entire time is Nicholas Angel. The locations vary from busy training centres to a fairly quiet road near a car park to conveniently film him showing his 'advanced driving' and 'advanced cycling'. All these locations appear to be urban as he is in offices a lot and when he is on a race track running (at 1:24 in the video clip) you can see blocks of flats and other buildings in the background which suggest he lives in an urban area.







Location: A police station

It's hard to pin point certain details in the shots in this opening as they are all so fast moving and change quickly from one location to another. The audience doesn't really get a chance to micro analyse many scenes and see what is in them. By micro analysing the shots myself I can see that they are fairly basic locations with not much smaller details added to the composition. This reinforces the audience to see Nicholas Angel as the important, powerful protagonist that will almost definitely be the main character in this film. There are exceptions as when he's in a police station you can see office desks and things on the desks in the background but they are blurred and Nicholas Angel is focused on. The mise en scene of this location looks quite expensive and tidy implying that Nicholas Angel has a high up job where appearance of the workplace matters. Although in this scene I don't think it reinforces any reading into the shot (the same goes for all the other shots) as they change so fast and as I've said before the focus is on Nicholas Angel and not the locations themselves.

Sound

At the start of the opening a police siren is heard which I assume is non-diegetic as it immediately fades out. This acts as a sound bridge as it comes at the start of the scene and gives the impression that the police will somehow be involved in this film. After this you hear the diegetic sound of the doors sliding open, this sound slightly echoes which makes the audience realise the location is pretty big and not much else is going on. Diegetic footsteps are heard as the character comes closer and these sound strong and forceful which gives the impression that the character himself will be strong and forceful. To establish the narrative the most dominant sound overall is the non-diegetic, voice over which is the voice of the main character and explains the main character (who he is, where he's from, what he's done, etc.). Non-diegetic, incidental music is played under this voice over and during this time diegetic sounds of what's going on in the scenes can be heard which makes the scenes seem more real and believable. The shots quickly go from one to another very fast and as some of the shots change sound effects are used which tend to be a 'swooping' sound. Very little dialogue is heard and diegetic sounds are used throughout but tend to be exaggerated. For example at 0:55 when Nicholas Angel is ticking the correct answers on a question paper you can very easily hear the sound of the pen on the paper. Usually this sound wouldn't be that loud especially over all the other sounds going on but in this case it is as it emphasises his power and how easily he can get the correct answers.

Creating Mood/Atmosphere

At first quite low key lighting is used and it gives an impression of back lighting as the character walking towards the camera is almost a silhouette. However, this effect fades as he gets closer and we can see him more clearly. To me it doesn't look like any lighting is used in the rest of the opening however it is very likely that some high key lighting is used just to improve the general lighting of the various shots. No obvious filters are used whereas a grey filter could have been used in places to make the shots seem more British and real. The incidental music gives an up beat mood to the character implying he is likely to be the protagonist in the film. At the beginning the use of silence (except for the footsteps) makes the atmosphere tense as you do not know who's walking towards you and why. Overall I think all these things establish quite a light-hearted, jolly feel to a police officers life so far with the added humour in the voice over and dialogue to make the audience like the character or even slightly warm to him.