16 Dec 2008

Life on Mars, Shot by Shot analysis

The sequence starts with a shot from inside a car, from the angle that the character is looking into the car we can tell that he seems as if he is looking for something, while we are not sure what at this point, we can make a guess that this is his car. The scene then shows a very quick, blurred shot of Sam Tyler flashing off the screen, he says he had an accident, but at that very moment in time we can’t be sure what it was, but we assume it was a car crash. The sequence then cuts to a slip of him lying on the floor, this shows the audience that the blur they just saw was in fact Sam being moved from where he was next to the car to this position. In the next shot, we can assume that he is ok and has stood up, because the sequence shows the outside of the car’s wing mirror, with Sam Tyler dressed in very different clothing. He says “I woke up in 1973”, from the first few clips you wouldn’t be able to work this out, but in the next clips where he gets back to civilization this becomes more and more obvious.
The camera cleverly moves around the side of the car that it was already looking at and cross cuts into a clip of Sam walking down the street, turning around to look at everyone, and seem to act like he is unaware of what is going on. Sam Tyler is then show walking into What seems to be an office of sorts, the camera here show him walking in then cuts to a short panning shot of the whole room with everyone looking near the camera, and thanks to the establishing shot of Sam walking in, towards Sam. Without following the rules on continuity, the scene is quickly cut to an outside shot of Sam, with a Radial tracking shot from a low angle, and Sam is looking around confused; Sam moves outside a tall building, looking lost, this is both that he is lost in the city, but lost in his mind, because he doesn’t know where he is or why he is there, and while he is expressing that through the non-digetic narrative, he is also showing that in the way that he is acting in each of the short clips.
When the sequence picks up, and starts the tile sequence, the main clip at the beginning is that of sam’s face, which then cuts to him sitting up on the floor, like he is lost, and has just woken up out of a nightmare or something. Next you can see a very short clip of him getting out of bed. The Room that he is in looks scruffy, and as if it was designed in the 1970s, from this the audience can assume that throughout the series, Sam stays in 1973. After that, and with the help of a diagonal cross fade, we are shown a scene where Sam walks towards the edge of the camera, holding and showing quite clearly a police badge, obviously from this we can make out that he is a police officer, and some of the audience will work out that the office he was in earlier was in fact a police station.
The next scene shown is that of another man sitting at a desk and smoking a cigarette, which quickly cuts to the same man grabbing and ‘assaulting’ Sam, this may confuse the audience, and they may think that this second man is a thief or a criminal of some sort that is out to hurt Sam throughout the series.
The shot after them is one of a large orange muscle car speeding around the bend, this is presumably a police car, and at this point in time perhaps the audience presume that this is being driving by Sam Tyler. As the car swings around the corner, the footage cuts to a static clip of the first female character, the clip itself is fairly boring, but the audience can clearly see that she is a police officer; wearing her uniform and hat.
The next couple of clips are just there to show and introduce more and more characters, some of which are cops as well as Sam and are shown with him, and some are thieves that are in one or two episodes max, and are there for that individual story. In this sequence you learn that the man you saw sitting at a desk smoking earlier; is in fact a police officer also. The final shot is that of Both Sam, and the new Male Police character, Gene Hunt, Punching a guy in the face, and although you haven’t already seen the whole story, you can assume that this guy is in fact a criminal of sorts, and has been caught by Sam and/or Gene.

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