Planning - White Chicks Opening Scene Analysis

White Chicks is a comedy where two black FBI Agents have gone undercover to arrest a criminal in order to gain an appraisal from the Chief FBI agent in America. However, they fail to do so which leads them into being on their final warning and escorting the two ‘Hampton Twins’ to a weekend… they soon end up crashing the car and the sisters refuse to go to the weekend away. The FBI agents know they are at a high risk of being fired so they go under cover and pretend to be the sisters and dress up as ‘White Chicks’! This soon back fires as their true identity is soon revealed. However, they do manage to ‘get the right guy’ at the end of the film which leads them to the promotion they had been aiming for.

In the first stages of the opening scene, there is an extreme long shot of a city in America which helps set the scene. The music in the background being played is non-diegetic – this means the characters within the scene cannot hear the music that is being played.

Then, within the next shot, it moves inner the city until we finally reach where the characters are situated.  Then, we hear diegetic sound – actual sound that the characters hear. The diagetic sound consists of cars driving along the road, people talking aloud as they are walking along the strip of shops and the ice cream van pulling up outside the store.

The scene then moves into the store and focuses on the main characters. The main characters are FBI Agents in disguise whom are going undercover and dressed up as the shop keeper and are looking to catch criminals dealing drugs. The Mise En Scene within this scene focuses mainly on the disguise of the two FBI Agents. This consists of the costumes they are wearing, the facial disguise such as their moustaches, and props such as maracas, their dialect and accent they use and speak with. Which seems it is Mexican like.  This also helps set the scene.

There is a clear stereotype where the character that has been ‘mistaken’ for a ‘drug dealing criminal’ whom sounds, is dressed and shows emotion in a way which most films present a criminal. There is a medium shot which emphasise the emotion on the criminal like characters face.  Due to this mistaken stereotype and mistaken identity, this leads him to not being the man who the FBI agents are looking to arrest.

The lighting featured within this film is mostly high key because the genre is comedy and if there was low key lighting featured, this would enforce suspense which would add mystery to the film. However, high key lighting would make the film seem more enjoyable to watch.