Waterboy is a comedy film that was created in 1998 by Frank Coraci, and featured Adam Sandler, Katy Bates and Henry Winkler. The story is about a boy who works as a water boy for his local football team and by chance discovers his talent for tackling and is put on the team, the rest of the story is about his rise to fame.
The film starts with a Touchstone Pictures title, as this company helped produce the film, in the background is the sound of someone scratching on vinyl decks. You then hear a noise that is associated with Australia, a bouncy sort of didgeridoo noise. A bass line then joins this and the first shot is shown. It shows a river on a sunny day, the camera is panning up to show the forthcoming river, it then flashes to the next shot, which is of the trees on the side of the river. Some of the producers name is shown on screen as well. The upbeat song, does suggest to the audience that the film is a comedy as the music isn’t quick, which would suggest Action, or scary, which would suggest Horror or slow and mellow, which would suggest Comedy. This then is taken of screen using a ripple effect, this links in with being on a boat. The next shot is looking down on the river, which is moving, suggesting that the audience is viewing from a boat. It then shows the directors name, and uses the same ripple effect. It then also shows Adam Sandler’s name, it does this as he is a famous actor and showing this to the audience might attract their attention even more as they know he is a good actor. The camera then pans up to show a football stadium and the title the Waterboy rush’s at the screen. The font is blocky, and reminisant of American Football team logos, but the colors do not correspond to any actual teams. The colors are bright and clash, which do give off a comical vibe. The next camera shot is then on the inside of the stadium, you can tell the team is training as a man runs across the pitch with equipment in the background and the stadium is empty. The music fades out quickly as the player runs past the camera. The camera slightly follows him to stop panning on to coaches. You can tell this from the way they are not wearing any football gear and they are holding a stopwatch and clipboard. The man says something, from this you can hear that he is from America and this suggests to the viewer that the film is set in America. You see a quick shot of some players training with some dummies. The shot after this is a group of cheerleaders practicing their routine. The rest of the shots until 01:03 are footage of the team training. While this is shown some more names are shown discreetly at the corners of the screen. This means that they are less important than the people at the start. A convocation then occurs between 2 men, the second mans accent is American, confirming that the film is set in America. This is strange, as you cannot really tell that the film is a Comedy as nothing comidical has occurred so far, this could mean that some comedy fans may loose concentration from the film. The 2 men’s conversation carries on until 01:27 when the shot changes to the tunnel. You can see the teams Waterboy walking out, this shot is used in many actual Football games, making the audience guess the plot a bit, and that the Waterboy will one day become a Footballer. The music starts again, but this time is a bit more rocky, as it is played on an Electric Guitar. The Waterboy sort of staggers out of the tunnel. The shot then switches to a huddle of team members. This is reminisant of what they do at the start of a game when they form plans, this suggests to the audience that they are plotting something, and as the way the camera shots are putting together it makes it look like they are looking at the Waterboy. It then goes back to the Waterboy and you see the first sign of it being a comedy. The Waterboy’s facial expression is crumpled as if he is making a face, but it looks like it is his face. Also the way he comically pumps his water machine suggests that it is a comedy. He then takes a sip of his water and tastes it as if it was a glass of wine, he then starts describing it, his voice is high and in a funny tone, making the audience laugh at him. The way he also describes it makes the viewers laugh as well, “its clean. Its cold. Now that’s what I call high quality H2O.” This last bit shows for sure that the film is going to be a comedy. I like the start of this film as it starts not showing that it’s a comedy and then at the last few seconds of the first 2 minutes, they show that it is a comedy.
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