Pleasantville Opening Analyisis (to 3 minutes)

Right at the beginning, the opening for Pleasantville is quite eratic in the way the shots are with a jagged change between what looks like different types of news reports and broadcasts which confuses the viewer and makes them wonder what the film is going to be about. From the colouring of the shots, we can tell that it is set in a different era. Also, by the fact that the one full shot we are allowed to see is either in a very odd colour or in black and white we can tell that this is meant to be set in a different decade. Furthermore the voiceover is a very American happy-clappy sounding voice. This sets a tone of something very forced and suggests perhaps there is something that has already happened that has challenged the equilibrium and created a problem in this seemingly perfect society. There is then a shot of text saying 'Once Upon a Time' which suggests there is going to be a fairytale theme to the story. This almost puts the viewer at ease with the situation after almost too much perfection in the first segment of the film. Then it restores to normal colour and a normal high school situation and shows establishing shots of what appears to be the main protagonist. There is a shot reverse shot with the protagonist, quite a dorky guy who appears very nervous as he talks to his crush, and the girl who doesn't seem too interested in the situation and as though he just wants to end the whole scenario as soon as she can. We then discover that in fact, he is not having a conversation with her but with himself instead as we see an over the shoulder shot of her quite a long way from him talking to someone who clearly has a higher social status than him and makes the girl appear very stereotypically 'out of his league'. We then see a long shot of all the characters that we have so far been introduced to so far which establishes statuses of the different chsracters and how they are linked or not so as the case may be. There is then an extreme long shot of what looks like a university lecture which slowly zooms into the main shot of the lectre where the man giving the talk has a very stereotypical teacher style droaning voice and doesn't seem at all enthusiastic about what he is doing with the children as much as he should be. The viewer can see fidgeting going on in the audience showing them that the students in the clip are clearly bored of what they are having to listen to and how they are being spoken to - in a monotone way that lacks any entertaining attention holding features. The last shot we see is almost a clone of the one previous, with a silent room and a monotone clear superior figure lecturing the children in the room where they look very bored and as though they aren't getting much out of the session. This leads the audience to feel the same way and as though they are inside that same room with no real feeling towards the situation or any of the people involved.