Analysing Opening Scenes: '21 Jump street'

In the opening two minutes of the film '21 Jump street' it begins by showing the audience that the film is original, by showing that in the first shot, with the build-up of tension like music to go with that particular scene at the start where is reveals its and original film. Afterwards the camera fades out and fades into the next shot by telling us the year this shown by the shot where it says "THE YEAR 2005", which could tell the audience that it could some sort of story that is being told, by showing the year, telling us its rewinding back to past. The music at the beginning started off as non-diegetic sound, and music was a upbeat, but then changes slowly into a more goofy beat which suited the way the protagonist personality which has been presented in the first scene. The protagonist is represented as the unpopular student in the high school, this shown through his facial expressions, and how he enters into the school building on his own, also the way he tries to greet someone by doesn't get a response shows that not many people in the high like him.

The mise-en-scene includes of a high school, with bus which has stopped with students coming out of it, this tries to set the scene by showing us an ordinary school day with students coming into school, and this fits the conventions of a comedy film, because it is showing the audience a stereotypical location in which this type of genre of film, which is expected. Also it then turns out into black screen showing us the audience, the institution of the film. Also during the next scene the audience will meet the protagonist of the film, making an entry. It shows us that protagonist comes out of the bus, and the camera moves in on the protagonist, and starts to follow him into school, and the camera quickly comes out of the shot and turns to next shot showing more information about the institution and the title of the film is shown in one of the scenes, and so the afterward it continues to follow the protagonist into school. The camera follows along and shows a medium shot of the protagonist, and slowly turns around so that the audience can see his face, showing the audience that he not so eager in going to school at first.

Then his facial expressions change by greeting someone who is on the other side, and this shown by his hand being raised and a smile on his face. The non-diegetic sound starts to become quieter and then stops the dialogue starts between the protagonist and the women. After the camera shows his walking through the corridors, on his own, shows that he may not have as many friends. Then the camera moves around and shows the perspective of the protagonist and show that there is poster about the school prom which the protagonist is drawn into, soon after he turns around and sees the girls that he fancies, and the girl walk past him and he quickly turns and says 'hi', in an awkward way. The girl stops and starts to talk to him, and she has been represented as innocent looking, but when the protagonist asked her to prom, with non-diegetic sound in the background as starts to be tense as he was talking to her, then she suddenly turn as she wasn't too keen and the music stopped as she turned him down. Afterwards we get meet the antagonist of the film, as they were standing by the lockers laughing at the protagonist for being turned down. They have been representing as the most popular boys in schools, as there were a group of them laughing at him. This then put pressure on the protagonist as he felt embarrassed and starts to deny the fact that he was asking her to prom.

The colours used in the film are very bright, especially the title of the film, which has bright flashing colours, with the colours red and blue, these two colours put together shows us that it might have something to do with police or involvement of them, which suits the convention of a comedy film, and also the lighting is very bright, which compliments the colours and the location of the film.