The Hangover Opening Sequence Analysis

Enigma Code
With the start of this film you are automatically asking yourself questions and making assumptions. You assume that there is a wedding going on by the flowers and the cake, you start to ask yourself who is Doug and who is it trying to ring him? You then find out that it is the woman trying to ring him. The blood on the mans face and the ruined car in the background shows that something has happened. You ask yourself why does he have blood on his face and why does the car look like that?
Sound
   The music in the background sounds quite uplifting and happy, but fades out of the background when the woman is on the phone, which shows a disturbance to the happiness. You then assume that the woman on the phone is the bride by what she is saying. There is off shot sound, when you hear laughing at the beginning and you don't know who it is that is laughing as there is no image of anyone on screen.
Setting
    I started to recognise the scenery in the opening sequence as Las Vegas and wanted to know what relevance this has to the film, is this just a semiotic or is it really giving something major away about the film? Does it even have any relevance to the film at all? We don't know where exactly the film is set, we know that the woman is in some form of house, maybe preparing for her wedding? And the men are in a desert somewhere that looks in the middle of nowhere, although the film does show scenes from Las Vegas so we begin to wonder whether it is set in Las Vegas or not.
Lighting
     The lighting when it is showing the cake and the flowers is very bright and looks like a sunny day which could represent happiness. Although when it goes to the men by the car it looks like quite a miserable day, as it is cloudy, a complete contrast to the lighting in the first part.
Actors
The opening sequence gives you an insight to some of the main characters personality. We get that the woman on the phone is a bit of a control freak, and a drama queen. And the man on the phone is very laid back. The setting on the wedding gives us the impression that the woman is from an upper class background. The actors and actresses used for this film are good as they represent the character well. The woman that we think is the bride is pretty and looks perfect, so we get the impression that she is not used to things going wrong that's why she is panicking so much. The woman that looks like the brides mother, looks like a rich and upper class person which represents her role and gives us a bit of character background. The man on the phone looks like the typical 'jack the lad' which gives us ideas about what he's like and different ideas about what might of happened to the characters and why they are in that state.
Props
Because of the props used I assume that the film is set in recent times, instead of set in the past or in the future, as some of the props include mobile phones and convertibles, also the scenery that is shown looks quite built up as it shows sky scrapers. The flowers and cake represent an occasion, such as a wedding. The girl is also getting her hair done, this shows that she is most probably the bride.
Camera: Shots, Frame, Movement, Angle.
     The camera shots used at the beginning are very slow, which gives the impression that everything is calm and also allows the watcher to take on board everything that is in the shot, so they can try and pick up what is going on in the film.
     The fact that there is music, and a phone call going on in the background whilst the camera is moving from place to place means the watcher really has to be paying attention to pick up on everything.
Costume and Makeup
The woman that appears to be the mother of the bride is dressed very high maintenance. Everything is prim and proper with what she is wearing, and her makeup is done nicely. Because the bride is in a dressing gown this could represent that it is early morning and she is just starting to get ready. The men are all not properly dressed, they look as if they have just gotten out of bed. They are all very scruffy. The man in the back has no shoes on which is abnormal.
Editing
The only editing used for this opening sequence is the clean cut transitions between each shot, that flick from shot to shot. At the beginning the shots are very slow and flow from one to the other, but when they are on the phone and panic starts to strike they shots flick from character to character very quick. This shows the climax building up in the film. Also the opening credits are written over the images.