Life on mars - shot by shot analysis

When analysing a sequence you look at four micro areas which are sound, editing, camerawork and mise en scene. These four micro elements help to inform us of the macro areas such as the main story, characters and to help us understand them.

The camera in this sequence works with the shots - mainly to help us establish the main characters in the actual TV drama. We first get a shot of Sam Tyler getting into his car. This is a fairly casual shot and although it is not a long shot, it informs us of the location and what the character is doing. The first sound we hear is dialogue of 'My name is Sam Tyler'. This immediately gives us the characters name and is shown immediately at the start because it helps us to understand and establish him as a character. He is dressed in a formal suit, suggesting he is upper class and in a representation of class.

We then get a shot of him laying on the floor, after we have established him getting hit by a car - the camera is at a strange angle and perhaps this links to the confusion the character is feeling. The shot is a long shot then cutting to a close up, to show that Sam is clearly distressed. The fact that the camera is on floor level, aswell as Sam's eye level suggests this may be a representation of society, it is quite low suggesting his social status may now be low - and this is due to his position towards the camera (it is at a very low level - everything is higher up eg. the car and the building.)

We then get shots of him both looking at himself (in a car mirror) and shots of characters looking at him. This suggests to us he does not belong where he is, which we later establish is 1973 and that he has gone back in time. While this is happening we also get an explanation of what happened to him, 'I was in an accident, and woke up in 1973' this informs us of the main story of the TV drama and is there to explain this.We get a pan across shot of him walking to an office which informs us of yet again the location, and get in unison Sam Tyler questioning himself 'Am i mad? In a coma?' and this informs us of his thoughts and helps us to understand what has happened. After, this is followed by him entering the office.

This shot is a first person view and shows his eye view, it is a long shot and pans across the office, showing he is looking around & showing us detail of the office, the office staff are in suits too suggesting a representation of class once again. This is followed by 'Whatever's happened, if i can find out why im here, maybe it'll help me to get home.' and this is here to attract the audience to watch the TV drama as you want to find out why he is actually back in time. The title sequence music then comes in and is shown throughout the rest of the clip, after this there is no dialogue and i think this is because the main storyline has already been explained.

This then cuts to the intro to all the characters from what we assume is the title sequence, and we establish all the characters are dressed formally, in shirts, suits or poice uniform which shows they are of higher class. In the block effect shown in the intro, we first get lots of small shots of Sam Tyler, in what appear to be blocks - first his facial shot, then to a slightly longer shot of his head and shoulders, these are here to show us detail of the character. This title sequence is here to introduce us to the characters in the drama.

The characters are all portrayed in a similar way, they are all either cops or detectives (apart from the character 'Dean Andrews' who is shown in a balaclava and with a gun) and you establish the majority are police or detectives by the character 'John Simm's' police badge(which is a prop), and the others are seen to be in police uniform or suits, one is leading away characters in handcuffs. The camera shows us detail in order to help us establish the characters. There is no non diegetic sound in the sequence apart from the title sequences music. The rest of the sound is of dialogue and background noise, e.g cars screeching.

While watching the introduction you notice the clips at the start are extremely fast, with the car collision lasting less than a second. This suggests something bad is happening, or has happened quickly. While the sequence prgresses the shots are slower than the first one lasting less than a second. There are roughly 45 shots in the sequence, and considering this sequence is only a minute long, we can conclude from this that the sequence is quite fast paced. This is shot fast paced to show us the TV drama may have some action in and maybe to represent the characters fast paced lives in society.