Action-Comedy Opening Sequence Research

Hot fuzz Opening

Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Martin Freeman

Directed: Edgar Wright

Written by: Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg

Released: 2007

Genre: Action Comedy Mystery 

Rating: 15

• Opens with police whistles and bells sound as titles of company plays through the sounds are joined by the sound of police sirens whining
• Long shot, gates open near us, yellow lighting, camera slowly pans in and up
• Continuing shot of man walking towards us, titles come up in white text at the bottom of the screen
• Close up of Pegg's face head and shoulders, he is angry/frowning he whips up his police badge and introduces himself: Police Constable Nicholas Angel
• Quick cutting montage of him walking, looking angry and going through police school whilst he voiceover introduces himself, he tells us about himself in school and how he got to this point- being the best cop there is
• He tells us about his strengths as a cop and we see him in practice exercises excelling at what he does
• He tells us through voiceover that he is good at dealing with tough and dangerous situations 
• He tells us how he graduates with distinction and is top of his class
• He tells us how he continues to train in advanced cycling and advanced driving
• Also does lots of other activities such as chess, fencing, martial arts racing- he excels at all of these and holds the met record for 100 metre dash. This is all still in montage to humorous sounding music- 'Goody two shoes'
• Montage cuts in between thing she has done and him walking though a big shiny police station with purpose
• He receives a bravery award while working with a special armed forces unit

• All during the montage we cut between close ups and long shots that pan and zoom quickly

• During the advanced cycling and advanced driving scene Simon Pegg looks to camera this is a kind of self parody and one we've seen also in Copout

• Also when he shows us his police badge the face he is pulling in his photo is exactly the same as the face he is pulling in that particular scene

All of these humorous touches are very subtle also like Copout the beginning has very quick cutting

From this opening sequence I will take the ideas of playing your main character straight/him being funny without realising it, and the use of montage and voice over as an introduction and of the main character being just too good for their job.

Genre conventions:

• Self parodying 
• Self voiceover
• Use of humourous music that contradicts whats happening on screen