21 Jump Street: Film Opening Analysis

Lighting is high key throughout the opening scene. This in turn sets a happy and jolly atmosphere. This then rubs off on the watching audience making them engage with the film.

Camera is used effectively to make it easy to understand what's happening in the film. To start with we see who's to be one of the main characters get off the school bus. As he walks off the camera pans and follows him. This ensures the 180 degree rule is followed. We then get an establishing shot of the school. This helps set the scene for the watching audience. When he enters the school we get an over the shoulder eye level shot. This giving the audience an almost point of view shot from his perspective. We then see him talking to a girl in the school corridor. A over the shoulder shot reverse shot can be seen here. This is a type of editing.

Shot of characters getting off school bus.

Sound is used from the off, the moment we see people start to get off the bus we can hear background music of rapping being introduced into the scene. This continues all the way through until it is faded out and instead we hear dialogue between the protagonist and a girl. It is used to add an extra dimension and the dialogue is so that the audience know exactly what is happening.

Editing used is continuous. This means it is mellifluous and flows nicely. One scene leads to another and it flows in chronological order. Also the pace doesn't change much throughout meaning it's easy to watch without getting confused. A shot reverse shot is used to as I briefly mentioned above. This helps the audience clearly understand who is talking and see the reaction on the other persons face. This helps them follow the storyline and understand every characters emotions.

Mise-en-scene is everything we see. It is set in a school and this is the main proportion of the opening scene. It is a stereotypical American school with the yellow school busses and non uniform style dress code. Also we can see how different types of people can be stereotyped in society and how this can effect people.

Stereotypical American school setting.

This could be seen to be an ideology of the film. It could be saying that everyone's different and no one should be judged for it. That is purely based on the opening scene however. 

The genre of this film could be:

• Action
• Comedy
• Crime

It is classified as a 15. This therefore indicates to me that discriminatory language or behaviour must be within this film. There are many of things that may be found within that mean the film is classified as a 15. As a result of this I would say the film is mainly trying to target young adults and adults.

The film was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures.