Comparison of the Opening Scene of The Hangover and The Ring

Comparison of the Opening Scene of The Hangover and The Ring

Every film has a film opening; they always vary in time length and are unique. I have chosen two very different films from the comedy genre and the horror genre. I will compare both their film openings by the conventions that they use.

The Ring has a rather unique film opening in the fact that it has no details of the cast and crew or even the film’s title. The opening here is more based around setting the scene and the actual story line for the film. The two characters that we see in the opening aren’t even main characters so we therefore can’t be introduced to them properly or relate to them as you would expect to with a main character. The very first shot is a long shot and it is showing the mise en scene which happens to be a cottage-like house all on its own, at night, which gives you an indication of the place and how the scene may be. The fact that it’s raining and you can most definitely here the rain,  (pathetic fallacy) adds to the mood of the scene and also makes you think/realise the tone in which the scene will be. This also gives an indication of the genre that the film is along with the lighting throughout the opening which happens to be very dull but in a way almost quite clinical. This lighting is echoed throughout the film and always gives the film a tense feeling.  We can tell by the two girls and what they are wearing in the scene that it is a modern day story that is set in present day and that this is most definitely when the rest of the film will be set. There is strangely no theme tune either, unlike most film openings. The only music in the opening scene is when the camera zooms in on the clock and there is a brief piece of music which sounds like something is zooming in, almost giving the impression of something getting closer, in this case, something frightening. The tenseness builds up more and more throughout the opening until something nasty happens to one of the girls right at the end, although we don’t know exactly what it is that happens. We see evidence of her face looking very pale and almost monster-like as the camera very quickly zooms in onto her face as an extreme close up. This leaves us asking the question, “What happens/happened to her?”

In comparison, The Hangover does use the details of the cast and crew. These appear after the main part of the opening, one at a time, in front of a scenic aerial shot of either a desert road or Las Vegas – the setting of the film. After about 2 minutes, when the main part of the opening is finished, the theme song starts playing and the shot moves up into the clouds and blends into a white screen with ‘The Hangover’ written in bright red, capital letters. We get a brief introduction of one of the main character’s, Phil, and we start to get ideas of how this character may be and his personality. This could even make us start to gain a thought of what the other characters may be like in the friendship group and how they could all relate in some way to the film. The start of the main opening shows the mise en scene which is a wedding venue and we also see the bride panicking in her room with her parents because the groom isn’t back from what we must assume as his ‘stag’ night. This gives us an idea that the film will relate to a group of people rushing back in time for a wedding. After the title of the film has appeared we see desert roads and we also start to see some famous landmarks of Las Vegas which reveals where the film is going to be based – in Las Vegas. Again, exactly the same as The Ring, we can tell by the costumes that the characters are wearing, that the film is set in present day and is modern – a modern film is much more relatable for an audience because this means that not just the look of the film will be modern but the characters will have personalities like a modern day person, this will also make it more funny. The lighting is realistic and the use of pathetic fallacy through the weather, which is sunny, is providing us with a sense that the film is going to be light hearted and comical. There are no huge clues about the genre of the film although there is a slight hint on one of the voicemails that the bride rings and it says, “Hey it’s Phil, leave me a message, but don’t text me... It’s gay!”. This hints at the comedy genre as it’s a full grown man saying not to leave a text because according to him it’s “gay”!

The film opening of The Ring definitely draws its target audience in straight away. It does this by having something dramatic happen very suddenly – there is no waiting around, the film gets straight to the point. The first minute of the film then goes onto one of the main characters, a very young boy, sat in a class room, drawing. Because this is such a change from the opening it draws the audience in and makes them wonder firstly, “what was the opening about?”, and secondly “who is this boy?”. On the other hand, The Hangover doesn’t hugely grab the target audience attention until ‘Phil’ appears, talking on the other end of the phone to the Bride. Once we realise that they have got themselves into trouble and say that they won’t be able to make it back in time for the wedding, we automatically get drawn in because we want to know why they won’t be back in time and from this we can tell that this is what the film will be about.

A typical film will use the technique of having an opening that gives you a brief idea of what the film is going to be about.  It will be short and snappy and hopefully draw you in straight away. The opening, however, doesn’t necessarily have to draw the target audience in straight away because people decide to watch films mainly from seeing trailers on television. If the trailer draws them in then they will most probably want to see the film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYkw8PMyGAc&feature=related (The Ring - Opening Scene)