21 Jump Street Analysis

From the very beginning of the film the audience can already see that this film 21 Jump Street is a comedy. This can be seen as the first main character is an obvious mic take of Slim Shady, this is shown as over the top of the footage the song The Real Slim Shady is played.

As the first main character comes out from the bus he is first shown with a high angle. This portrays him being a vulnerable character. This portrayal is continued as the character walks ahead into school, but with the camera from his back. So the audience doesn't see his face until he later enters the school.

As the audience first get a front facing view of the character comedy is created as the character pulls a face of anxiety and awkwardness as he attempts to make a connection with someone else off camera. The next cut of the scene involves a pan zoom on a prom poster. This shows that this subject has an important purpose, therefore meaning it will either be relevant to the character next or later in the film.

After the poster has be shown it goes back to the main character quickly changing his general direction as he sees a girl approaching. Waiting for her to come past. This proves the point about the poster being an importance as the approaching girl is linked with the poster. This is shown by a two persons shot. This makes the audience notice that these two people are to be the main focus of this particular cut of the scene. As the main character comes to face the camera again, the music comes to a sudden stop.  The sudden stop of the music creates suspense as a new focus point will be coming up.

We are then shown the interaction of the the male and female characters through the use of over the shoulder shots. As the male character gets more to the point the camera slowly zooms more on to his face. Then as the girl understands his point the camera does the same slowly zooming more on to her. But then as she rejects him the camera is back facing him. He then pulls an awkward and upset face. This creates further comedy as the main character has gone for someone who is  out of his league.

The interaction with the male, female and newly added male is filmed by a mixture of close-up shots, two person shots and over the shoulder shots. This makes the conversation flow and look natural between the three characters. Comedy is created within this scene by the newly added male character insulting the first m,ale character to impress the girl, with subtle hint like "Well she's hot"

A sarcastic yet tense mood is later created in the scene where the character Greg is in the head teachers office. The mood is slightly tense because the cameras slowly zoom into both characters faces as they talk to each other. The camera also is mainly on the head teacher, therefore showing that she has dominants out of them both. The sarcastic mood is created by the head teacher saying to Greg "I'm glad you had a great time in school." 

Later on the audience are shown the two main male characters outside sitting on separate benches. Then using a combination of cuts the characters look at each other. This creates a relation between the characters as the camera pin points them looking directly at each other. Comedy is then created as the not so "cool" male try's to copy Greg's action of kicking the bin. But ends up hurting himself instead.

Throughout the scenes titles and credits are introduced. The credits help show the audience what the film has a link with. The link being police. This is shown as the titles and credits are presented in bright blue and red flashing colours that represent American police lights.