essay

Two diffirent movie openings Jack de Carle

How different can two film openings be? If we were to compare to different types of genres and analyze there opening how many differences would we find?

The two films I would like to compare are rocknrolla and anchorman. Both films are my two favourite films of all times and they couldn’t be more different, “rocknrolla” a gangster/action flick while “Anchorman” is a slapstick comedy.

Both openings have completely different styles for example the opening to anchorman starts with an opening paragraph reading, “ this is based on a true story… only the people. Events and story has been changed” which already made me laugh but then the opening scene is a close up on the protagonists moustache, and the voice shouting “guys, guys come look how good I look” While on the other hand you have “rocknrolla” starts off alot darker and more mysterious with fantastic up beat music which adds to the atmosphere. The character is standing up listening to music while lighting his bong with the lighter shaped as gun while the narrator is explaining what a “rocknrolla” actually is.

I think both films are very good but completely different, I think the acting and performing of rocknrolla is much more serious and darker but that is the genre of the film but I think if it was as slapstick as Anchorman it would of completely ruined the scene and the way it was making you feel. I really enjoyed both films but the reason I liked them is because of the fact that they are so different from each other and when I analyse them, it really opened my eyes about how contradistinctive they are from each other.

The way each film opening is shot are completely different and I believe that’s because rocknrolla is an English film with a low budget where as anchorman is a Us film with a high budget and I thought that was peculiar when I re watched these films for this essay; because anchormans style of directing is much more relaxed and easier shots such as a lot of panning shots and master shots where a lot of the actors are on screen. Where as rocknrolla was much more intuitive with there shots where they had some great angle shots and some close ups not to say Anchorman didn’t have complicated shots but I felt that because of rocknrolla’s poor budget they had to make the film a directorial masterpiece. The reason both film openings are so fantastic is because they both tell us just enough about the film to keep you interested and to keep watching.

To concluded though both films have different directorial styles, both films are equally as good, the fact the comedy genre is all joke based rather than clever story line it means directors don’t have to worry so much about the types of shots and to make it very well edited not to say comedies are all the same.  But the way rocknrolla is shot is very complicated with endless different camera shots to make the film look more appealing to a wider audience.