Catch Me If You Can: Opening Scene Analysis

Based on a true story about a man called Frank Abagnale Jr, when before his 19th birthday he had conned millions of dollars worth of checks as a Pan AM Pilot, doctor and legal prosecutor. It was released in 2002.

Lighting is high key throughout. It doesn't change very much and maintains similar the whole way through. The only difference is the background and moving images we see change. By having high key lighting it means the audience can see everything clearly that is occurring on screen. However, although the main lighting is high key, some of the images are against a black background, but the images are clearly visible as they are coloured making it easily identifiable as to what is happening.

The camera work is very basic and just follows the action. We see figures appear on screen and then the camera follows them in a clever way to makes it look like one is after another. This makes the opening scene mellifluous and easy to keep track of. No real identifiable shots can be recognised as its mostly one basic tracking shot of the action.

Editing is used lots in this piece. Its continuous as one scene links to another, by the use of subtle transitions which makes the scenes flow and make it easy to understand for the audience. It allows the audience to get an understanding of the film before seeing any of the actual movie. Acts like an opening story to set the scene for the audience.

We have background music. This is sound in terms of a music piece. It is very mysterious and works in harmony with the visual moving images we can see. When the action increases the music speeds up and visa versa. Music counts as a storyteller in itself as it adds tension and makes the audience pay attention by making the audience engage using a different sense (ears so they can hear) opposed to just watching using their vision.

Mise-en-scene is throughout the whole opening. To start with the background is very dark. However, it then gets lighter and as an audience we can see that the first scene is in an airport type environment.



Image showing the airport environment.

We see the pilots in their hats and smart clothes, along with their what could be perceived to be their cabbing crew. We then see two characters behind, one who we find out is Leonardo Di'caprio based on the sign above him with his name that points down at him below. This is a clever way of introducing characters without making it blatant and obvious. This helps the audience engage because if they aren't watching closely they could easily miss the subtle sign.

Image showing the way characters are introduced using subtle signs which point to which character is which.

These two characters behind move into an area that looks like a boarding lounge, before we then se aeroplanes in the sky which a transition is used and makes the plane look to pull the film titles in from thin air. We next see cars on a road, the audiences eyes are mainly drew to the yellow cab. This straight away allows the audience to know that the setting for the film must be America or more specifically New York. Finally we see luxurious hotels, swimming pools and cocktails. All of which are very colourful compared to everything else that has been on screen up to this point which was very dark and not as intriguing. Throughout all this we see the trend of one character appearing to chase the other, linking into the title of the film, 'Catch Me If You Can'.

Helps set the location by using yellow cab. We immediately then know where the film is going to be set.

This films Genre can be broken down into three main ones, these are:

• Biography
• Crime
• Drama

Being a 12A, I believe its target audience is quite loose, and its more a less targeted at most people. However, potentially more so for teenagers and young adults.

It was produced and distributed by DreamWorks. They had a budget of $52,000,000. Being a large film company, this meant they could afford to get big names in, such as Leonardo Di'caprio and Tom Hanks. This film made $30,000,000 on the opening weekend in America alone. It was shown across 3156 screens in America. If the film company wasn't so large, and more of a niche company, it would not be able to afford big actors meaning audience take up may be less. Also it means they wouldn't have been able to put so much money into advertising campaigns and wouldn't have been able to show it across so many screens. This is the undoubtedly the biggest benefit of being a large film company that is very mass market compared to a independent film company that doesn't have anywhere near as much surplus cash that they can afford to spend it on advertising campaigns and on large chain cinemas, instead small picture houses.