CJ Film Opening: Teen

Superbad (Mottola, 2007) is an American teen comedy film.



The Superbad opening sequence is reflective of the style of many teen movies - the brightly coloured, animated and comedic opening sequence sets the mood of the rest of the film and lends a light-hearted overtone to the movie before it has started.

The creative use of animation to start the film is effective because;

• It uses bright colours and recognisable human figures to simply illustrate the tone of the movie.
• It adds an element of comedy to the film. The inclusion of animation is one of many ways of lightening the tone of a movie.
• We are partially introduced to the main characters; for instance, one is obviously larger than the other, and the taller one is made to seem more nerdy simply through clever use of camerawork.

Looking at the mise-en-scene in the opening sequence, we can see that;

• The colours used contrast with each other. This is used to emulate an eighties feel, as is the...
• Inclusion of a grain and image noise filter to the video. This gives the sequence a retro feel.
• Also notable is the inclusion of the eighties Columbia screen, another attempt to lend a retro feel to the opening.
• The characters move around the screen, and are consistently moving throughout the sequence.

Finally, looking at the sound, the only notable sound in the opening sequence is the soundtrack (Too Hot to Stop - The Bar-Kays). It has a funky rhythm, which is parodied by the dancing animated figures on the screen. This sort of music is usually associated with either awkward, nerdy characters or hipsters in the modern media, and it gives us a pretext as to how these characters are going to behave and act before the movie has started.

CJ Film Opening Research

In order to do some background research on film openings, I had a look at various films from the three set genres of film. In terms of films, I had a look at the psychological thriller Memento (Nolan, 2000), and The Dark Knight (Nolan, 2008). I also looked at Kick-Ass (Vaughn, 2010) and Scott Pilgrim vs the World (Wright, 2010) for teen drama research and Ju-on (Shimizu, 2002) The Ring (Verbinski, 2002) and The Shining (Kubrick, 1980) for horror research.

What I found in relation to horror movies:

• The preferred format for the opening scene will be a seemingly innocent/mundane setting, but with tensional non-diegetic music or another tension-building device.


• Characters which have little to no part in the rest of the film will be used to introduce the scene and familiarise us with the setting.


• Title screens, if used, will be simplistic and understated.

What I found in relation to teen movies:

• Methods of starting the film vary on the basis of subgenre. For instance, teen action film Kick-Ass starts with a voiced-over pseudo-superhero movie sequence, whereas teen crime drama Brick opens with a visual introduction to the lead character, with the inclusion of a situation designed to leave the viewer out of the events.


• In both these films and Scott Pilgrim, We are introduced to the lead character immediately, albeit in different ways. In Kick-Ass, the character introduces himself through the monologue voiced-over the top of the scene, in Brick, we are allowed to study the lead character for several seconds in BCU, identifying his main features, and in Scott Pilgrim, we are introduced to the lead character in third person format (we're placed with the asian girl coming into the band's room, and thus we learn more about him as a character through their interactions.


• In most of the teen film openings I watched, the colours are bright, lending an optimistic and almost naive sense to the narrative. Brick is an exception to this, being a darker film than most would imagine an archetypal teen drama to be.

Finally, my findings in relation to thriller movies were:

• Similar to teen movies, and because of the wide range of subgenres, there is no set pretext for thriller movie openings. However, the majority will start with an action scene in order to get people into the mood of the movie. This will invariably have a tensional soundtrack, punctuated by sharp diegetic sound inputs. (N.B. Psychological thrillers will have a far less defined opening sequence, and dependent on how mainstream the film is [i.e. what sort of audience is being catered to], may make use of a simplistic shot of an item of high importance within the movie [case in point; Memento, where a polaroid picture is the main focus of the first minute of the film]).


• The opening will have an unknown object/person/situation utilised in it to push the narrative into the start of the film. This is consistent with many thrillers in order to leave the audience 'out of the loop', and to keep the pace and direction of the film steady.


• A prominent character will be used in the narrative, but not necessarily leading it. This then enables the audience to progressively identify with the main character(s).

Click here for Ali Hookway's opening research

Click here for Ben Wadey's opening research