The graduate opening scene analysis

	Description	Shot Type	Visual clues to help communicate the idea
Shot one	A man with a serious look upon his face	A close up of a man’s face on the right hand side of the screen	His eyes and lips are motionless.
Shot two	The man is sitting on a white seat and the colours are quite plain.	The camera zooms out into a long shot of the man’s head	He is say down on a white seat which suggests, purity and the man could be a contrast to this.
Shot three	There are rows and rows of people sitting on plain white seats with one singular isle down the middle	The camera angle at this point is an extreme long shot to show the scenery	The colours are bland and all the seats are the same to suggest conformity, this is a very structured setting
Shot four	There is a man in a business suit walking undistracted alongside a white wall	There is a tracking shot of who seems to be the main character walking alongside a blank white wall, this is one long tracking shot ( mid shot)	By the uniform and the use of plain colours this could suggest a business environment. The tracking shot is to symbolise the journey the characters make.
Shot five	The luggage is grey and the background is dull and not eye grabbing, but the luggage has a red tag on it which could suggest an element of danger about either the content within the luggage or the owner of it.	Then the camera cuts to a tracking shot of a luggage bag moving forward by what the audience could only assume to be a conveyor belt.	Red symbolises violent or danger Grey is very dull business like
Shot six	A man in the grey suit which matches the colour of the luggage picks the luggage up from the handle	A close up of a hand coming into the scene to pick up the traveling luggage	The character is unidentifiable who has picked up the luggage which suggests mystery. (the suit could be a cover for the characteristic dangers that are underneath)
Shot seven	The man who picked up the luggage in the suit walks away into the crowd until he is unrecognisable	A long shot of the anonymous man walking away with the luggage in hand.	This suggests that the man is blending in to the environment given so that he is not ‘suspicious’ in any way. This shot creates a scene of cleverness to the character
Shot eight	A crowded area and the man is the only one to walk out the door on his way out. The scene is dull but his expression is happy. (showing a contrast between the character and the scene)	The next shot is of the man walking towards the door in a long shot.	This scene suggests freedom and escapism

Sound analysis of ‘The Graduate’

When the close up of the man first appears for the opening shot there is diagetic dialogue to show that the voice is relevant and is essentially talking to the audience and the character, creating a connection and introducing the audience into the movie.

Whilst the camera is zooming out and the voice is still talking this keeps the audience engaged but detaches them from the environment and is now just spying on what is going on rather than being in the scene.

The second sound we hear is a non-diagetic sound which is music as the man is walking beside the blank wall for a long period of time, this gives the audience time to establish the changing environment and to acknowledge the change in shot, the reason for doing this is to take the attention away from the man walking and move onto the text that is by the side.

As soon as the main text has gone there is a sound bridge between to two scenes with the man and the luggage, this is so the audience do not notice the change in cut and it makes the scene flow evenly, but as well it also suggests that the man the camera has been following is the same man that picks up the luggage. This sound bridge continues onto the next cut so that the editing is unnoticed and also so we establish as a audience that it is in fact the same man from the very first shot. Thus making this a invisible edit.  

Cinematography

The opening shot is a close-up of a man's face. I believe this has been used so that the audience have an instant connection with the protagonist. The framing of this shot depics an intimate opening scene that the audience is subjected to. The second shot is a zooming out, establishing shot to distance the audience from the character, thus making the audience a spectator rather than a character.This following shot detracts mystery opposed to the initial shot. The shot to come is a tracking medium shot of the man in his suit, this shot reveals his attire,  presenting ideas to the audience on who this character could be. This shot makes the audience have a distant connection with the character due to it displaying a side  profile of the character rather than a front profile. This shot goes on for 30 secconds.


Mis-en-scene
The audience is firstly subjected to a man infront of a white backround, this being so that the audience isn't detracted from the main protagonist. The audience can only see his face and no pieces of clothing at the begining to create enigma. The second shot depicts people sitting down in columns of chairs, but again you cannot see their clothing. I believe this has been done so that it creates suspense  for the audience. The audience has no idea who these poeple are, but all we know is that they are all congregated together in what seems to be a plane. I believe they are made to look all plain and unidentifiable to create a distance between the audience and the film. In the shot to follow the audience can now view the protagonist's attire. He is wearing a grey suit with a white shirt. This character yet again is placed behind a white background; in doing this the audience is forced to watch this character. The colours used thoughout seem dull and uninteresting, to create a generic environment. These shots present a lack of individuality due to the dull colours and generic facial expression, alongside the placement of structured props to reinforce this idea.








What I have learnt from this

In analysing the above, i have noticed that subtle tones, colours and placement of props can hint to the audience genre and theme. The shots used were simple yet effective, to attract the audiance into and out of the film.