Analysis of "Catch Me If You Can" Opening Sequence

The opening sequence of catch me if you can is animated cartoonish, and everything is portrayed in a stick man-like world.

Colour

The colours used in the clip are very bright and vibrant, colours like light blue and orange, this makes the audience feel that the main character in the stick man scene lives a rich and lavish lifestyle. The characters in the scene are black stick men; this is of course because this is the normal blunt colour often used for stick men, but the fact that they are all black stick men gives some edge to the story and leaves unanswered questions as to why the director has decided to do this. The pink at 1 minute 52 seconds implies the feminist that is in the room, but again it makes the characters seem more upper class.

Sound

There is non-diegetic music used throughout the clip, it is a jaws like soundtrack but without the fast paced “da-DA-da-DA” it helps to build up tension, and when the main character turns his head (40 seconds) the music goes at a higher pitch, creating more tension, as it gives you feeling that the man is being followed. There is no actual dialogue or diegetic sound in the opening sequence, this helps add to the fact that they are living in a stick man world.

Mise-En-Scene
The setting for the clip is of course not a real place, but it is supposed to be Los Angeles as you later see in the film. It is a good area where a lot of the rich and famous live, as the man is there you get the sense that he fits in with these people and is one of them himself.
The fact that he is wearing a suit gives you the impression that he’s a man of high importance or holds a good job.
The man also is at the airport at the start of the clip, and animated planes suggest that he has just been on one, this implies that the man is always on the move for his business, something which is true if you watch the whole film.
There is a man reading a newspaper, he then turns and looks at the main character as if he is spying on the man, this implies that the main character is being watched and followed, something which is also found out to be true in the film.
The man seems to fit in and blend into everywhere, for example he is in a hospital and he then finds a doctors uniform as a disguise.
He also seems to live a lavish lifestyle as at one point he is swimming in champagne.

Camera & Editing

The same shot length, medium/long shots are used throughout the whole opening sequence, this is because there are often things happening in the backround which the director wants you to see. Furthermore there would be no real benifit for using close-up shots on actors as they are stick men and they have no emotions on their faces. There are many tracking shots used to follow the main character as he is always moving on to different places.

The arrows under the characters names, pointing to the characters shows which actors are playing the characters, this will draw in an audience as they are top drawer actors such as Leonardo Dicaprio and Tom Hanks who are world wide famous. This is of course an un-conventional opening sequence as it's stick-men animation, this is something which i have never seen before for an opening sequence. It does still have some conventions however such as production logos aswell as cast and crew info.

In conclusion I feel that this is a very good opening sequence, and I really like the “stick man world” as it’s unique and very Interesting. The fact that everything is like this implies that the whole thing is like a game to the main character. The opening sequence personally makes me want to watch the whole film as it’s very interesting therefore I feel that that this a very good opening sequence.