Hot Fuzz Opening Scene Analysis

 

Hot Fuzz is a 2007 action-comedy directed by Edgar Wright and starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It centers around lead character Nicholas Angel, a by the books determined police officer who is transferred from London to Gloucestershire after making his colleagues look bad.

The film opens with a long shot of a corridor in a modern building. Automatic doors open to reveal a man walking straight down the corridor towards the camera confidently. The sound the doors make as they open is asynchronous as their sound is amplified. This highlights the lack of noise in the shot and makes the character stand out as his footsteps are the only other sound. The audience can connote this character is an integral part of the story as the length of the shot is very long and focuses entirely on this character. The length of the corridor itself and the time it takes for the character to come close enough to the camera so his face can be made out also highlights his importance as the length of the opening shot acts as a sort of build up until the reveal. It is clear the man is a police officer by his uniform and this lets the audience know that police work will be involved in this story. The character is identified as "police constable Nicholas Angel" by a voice-over and by his I.D, which he shows directly to the camera. This works to immerse the audience in the action of the film.

A series of fast-paced shots begin, with a close-up of the characters shoes as he walks down a busy office corridor and a medium shot of the character from a side-perspective that matches his pace. The pace of editing suggests that the protagonist is a energetic man of action. The transitions between each shot are a wipe masked by someone walking past very close to the camera lens. This gives the scene a feeling of high tension as the audience are being shown things from many different perspectives in a short space of time. The costume-work suggests to the audience that this man is very professional and tidy, as his uniform is immaculate. This idea is reinforced by the ongoing voice-over that accompanies this opening scene, which lists all the achievements of, and gives us a brief history of , the lead character. This shows the audience that Nicholas is good at his job.

As the voice-over gives us the backstory of the character we see these events described played out. When Nicholas' time in riot training are mentioned, the pace of the shots increases dramatically. The audience only has brief glimpses of the characters as well as the fire that takes prevalence of these shots as it connotes danger and action. The shots in this segment are deliberately shaky to show the chaos of the situation. This action is sharply juxtaposed with the following shots, which show Nicholas completing a written examination. The film chooses to make out these shots to be carrying on with the action-packed feeling of the preceding shots for comedic effect. The film achieves this by zooming in on the leads face as he completes his test to show him with a serious expression as if in a dangerous situation. Also an extreme close-up shot of the pen as he clicks the end of it is shown, which is jokingly made out to be of importance. This lets the audience know of the comedy aspect of the film as well as the action aspect which is shown in the shots featuring the fire and rioting.

We get some low angle shots of the character back in the present, striding through the police station. This makes the character seem more powerful and confident. Action match is used in the editing to highlight the characters routine and the mundane nature of his job. We get a medium shot of the lead talking to 2 old ladies standing either side of him, then the following shot is set-up exactly the same, except in a different location and with a Chinese couple rather than the 2 old ladies. The action and comedy aspect of the film is reinforced again when we see the lead in an advance driving course. This features lots of high-speed driving and drifting, which contrast heavily to the advanced cycling course seen in the following shot. The driving would show the action of the film and the cycling would represent the comedy. What links the 2 genres in these 2 shots is the main character looking directly at the camera with a serious expression, drawing comparisons between the different shots.