textual analysis of opening credits of CATCH ME IF U CAN

2. CATCH ME IF U
CAN
DRAMA / BIOGRAPHY
DIRECTOR: Steven Spielberg
PRODUCER: Walter F. Parks
PRODUCTION COMPANY: Amnlin Entertainment
RELEASED DATE: December 25,2002
MUSIC BY: John Williams
EDITED BY : Michael Kahn
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Janusz Kamiński
MAIN CHARACTERS: Leonardo DiCaprio (as Frank
Abagnale) and Tom hanks (as Carl Hanratty
the FBI Agent)
SYNOPOSIS: Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) worked as a
doctor, a lawyer, and as a co-pilot for a major airline -- all before
his 18th birthday. A master of deception, he was also a brilliant
forger, whose skill gave him his first real claim to fame: At the
age of 17, Frank Abagnale, Jr. became the mostsuccessful bank
robber in the history of the U.S. FBI Agent Carl Hanratty (Tom
Hanks) makes it his prime mission to capture Frank and bring
him to justice, but Frank is always one step ahead of him.

3. FILM OPENING
ESTABLISHING
GENRE
The opening title sequence has a
mysterious style to it, keeping
the audience interested before it
has even starter and giving the
viewer a small insight to the basic
plot of the film that follows. As
soon as the title sequence starts,
the viewers hear the non-diegetic
sound of the music, which is
mysterious, reflecting the genre
of the film.
CHARACTERS , SETTING
AND TIMING
The film opening of “CATCH ME IF U
CAN” is for for about 2 mins and 32
sec. The majority of the opening
sequence of "Catch Me If You Can"
features animated man to appears to
be representing the main character.
The character clearly hides himself by
changing outfits as the character is
places into different surroundings,
showing he makes an effort to blend
in to prevent being found then there is
a detective who is trying to find him.
The setting in the animated opening
sequence of "Catch Me If You Can" is
constantly changing showing a lot of
transport which signify that the film
will consists of a lot of different
locations.

4. CINEMATOGRAP
HY
The film opening is animated with two main
characters. The establishing shot is used at
the start of the scene to establish the
relationship between the character and
location. In this case we are introduced to
an airport. The character moves around a
lot, showing he is trying to avoid being
caught and providing an obvious link with
the title.

5. EDITING AND SOUND TECHNIQUES
The shots dissolve and change quite quickly, with similar timing to
the music, meaning that the overall effect is much more impressive
and successfully increasing and decreasing tension and excitement
by using either faster or slower edits to mirror the music. In additon,
each shot of the opening sequence use different transitions. in the
animation, when it seems like the character is going to be caught, the
music becomes quite dramatic and new characters appear on the
screen. This causes the audience to feel tense and creates suspense.
however, as the character avoids getting caught, the music and the
pace of the sequence calms down, suggesting again that he is
difficult to catch.

6. MI SEN SCENE
In this animated film opening
mostly blue and black colors are
used to create mystery and use
fresh and attracting colors. Then
in every scene there is different
location and the costume of the
main character changes like into
a doctor and the FBI agent trying
to catch him is in a suite with a
hat creating a more detective
look. All these things are helping
audience to understand or have a
point of the story and be able to
understand the genre.

7. TITLES
This title sequence has a very large
number of titles integrated intothe
graphics this could be because the titles
match the images on the screen.
‘’Leonardo Dicaprio" appears directly after
the director's name, suggesting that he
plays a large role in the film. Leonardo
DiCaprio is a very well know actor and his
name being the first (of the actors)
reinforces the idea that he plays a large
role and helps in promoting the film.

8. ENIGMA
The filmmakers intentionally arise questions
to the audiences head, making them think
‘what is happening, why it is happening’ etc.
It is done so that tension is built towards the
film and gives an element of mystery to the
viewers and slowly unravels as the film
progresses. For example relating back to
Memento, when the man has bullets in his car
seat it makes us the audience think why are
there bullets and what is has to do with the
storyline.
In the opening title
sequence there may be a
gun which may make us
think that this gun will
come in handy or be used
later in the film, this can
also be within in a film; i.e.
red associated with blood
and death.