1. Anchorman,
The opening scene for Anchorman, starts off with a voice over of a
commonly sounding news voice over, explaining about the star of
the film ‘Ron Burgundy’. Once you finally see Burgundy for the first
time in the opening scene, the voice over stops as begins to talk
about his appearance and he then shouts, to the rest of the news
cast “Hey everybody! Come see how good I look”, this certainly gives
you a feel about what Will Ferrell’s characters personality is really
like. It then turns back to a black screen as the title ‘Anchorman:
The Legend of Ron Burgundy’ appears in block blue and white
letters, and above is 3, fading in and out images of Burgundy
practicing and continuously saying popular quotes that are known
for the film Anchorman today, already making an impact on the
audience of out-going and a comedic character. Different sized
rounded blocks, changing from faded blue to red then begins to
appear in different areas of the screen, displaying the actors names
and directors by their sides as Burgundy is saying different things
while sat at a news desk inside the appearing boxes, drinking scotch
and looking in a mirror, this then begins to fully complete the total
characteristics of Ron Burgundy to the audience. This continues up
until the end of the opening credits, where there is finally a box,
which appears in the center of the black screen, showing Ron
Burgundy rushing, finishing his final glass of scotch and sorting out
his papers as the news cast counts down until they go on air, this is
the end part to the opening credits, and then the film begins.
Superbad,
Superbad has an opening credit scene without any official character
introductions, apart from the outlines of the two main characters,
Seth and Evan. It begins with Evan, solo dancing to ‘Too Hot to
Stop’ while the actors names etc. are sliding onto the screen, in
colours such as, purple, yellow and green, these could show that the
characters, Seth and Evan, have quite childish qualities, however by
their silhouettes you can see they are high in their teenage years.
The dancing which Evan is performing is really over the top, and
very much like an embarrassing Dad’s dance, and then Seth begins
dancing, with only an outline of his silhouette, dancing in the same
style however, in a more confident way. His silhouette then begins

2. to multiply so there is four of him, and then goes back down to him
singly. After they have both danced alone, the screen then slides to
being both of them dancing together, this introduces both of the
characters, not in a personality way or their characteristics, but
shows the audience that they are best friends and have the same
type of humor about life. However, whilst Evan is dancing behind
Seth, while their silhouettes are mirrored, Seth stops Evan and
shows him another ‘dance move’, this gives off the impression that
Seth is the ‘higher’ friend and is more controlling over Evan than
Evan is of him.
Stepbrothers,
“Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream”
an actual quote from George W. Bush, appears on the screen,
without music etc. It then goes to ‘Columbia Pictures’ etc. in quite a
childish looking writing, with noises of birds, a packet of crisps
opening and rustling in the background as production and directors
names continue to be shown on the screen. It then changes to
someone putting grated cheese onto a plate on nachos. As this
character sets the microwave up to the right time, ‘A-punk’ by
Vampire Weekend begins to play, as Will Ferrell leans down and
looks through the glass into his nachos, this may become a
humorous shock to the audience as due to the style of title writing,
and nachos with grated cheese being made, you would be expecting
the character to be quite young, however this character is a fully
grown man. The next scene in the opening credits is John C. Riley,
the other main character who is again a fully grown man, smelling
clothes out of a washing basket. It then continues flicking back and
forth from these two characters having the behavior of young
children and not acting their age, doing things such as playing
guitar hero and getting told off by their parents, this automatically
gives the film a childish humor about it before it has even fully
began, successfully capturing the comedic genre of this film. In the
title sequence of this film it also includes the parents side of the
story and shows how one of them meets the other and gets
together, showing the audience that it is clear the two fully grown
men are now becoming ‘Step Brothers’.