The document provides a detailed analysis of the opening scene of the TV show Utopia, focusing on its cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing, sound, and narrative/genre elements. It describes the bright, colorful visual style and how specific camera techniques like pull focus are used. It also analyzes how the editing, sound design, and juxtaposition of calm/violent elements establish an unsettling tone and set up the quest narrative. The scene introduces the main characters seeking something called the Utopia manuscript and kills multiple people in the comic book shop in a violent yet subtle manner.

1. Close Analysis
This is a model for you to adapt and follow for a tv show that you choose.
You don’t have to choose an Episode 1 but it makes sense to do so – you
don’t have to waste any time at all thinking about backstory, explaining who
people are, and it’s more simple to focus on technique.
It doesn’t have to be a ‘straight’ drama – students have done good work in
the past on Brooklyn 99, for example.
Utopia (Channel 4, UK - Dennis Kelly)
Key issues of technique in the opening scene, with some thoughts about
narrative/genre/representations
The two ‘killer’ characters are Lee (bright suit, the one who actually kills
people) and Arby (‘where is Jessica Hyde’). We don’t know their names yet
but I’ve referred to them by name in the notes to be clear.
1. Cinematography and Mise en Scene (I think these are the ‘big
issues’ in this scene in terms of cinematic technique – sound and
editing also matter but there isn’t as much to say about them)
a. Wide shots of the fields – saturated colours –
yellow/orange/green/blue -
b. The interior of the comic book shop is similarly bright and
colourful despite the shutter being almost down. This show is
bright. Cheerful? Happy? Morally clearcut?
c. A use of very specific technique - Pull focus – the back of the
shop comes into focus as Lee enters and the clerk’s attention is
called to it – so there is specific storytelling technique going on
here ...
i. We are in the shop with the clerk
ii. Somebody comes in
iii. The clerk pays attention to the person who has come in
...and this is signaled to us by the choices made in the
cinematography. This is a very small point but it’s part of the
‘craft’ of film making and would have been done very
deliberately.

2. d. Framing a shot at ground level as Lee puts the bag down. The
bag smiles. Bright yellow with black smile in a comic shop =
intertextual link to Watchmen (which suggests secret plans,
conspiracies, taking very very drastic action in order to try to
do good, unreliable characters...all of which are part of
Utopia, but which also suggests superheroes and alternative
histories and other things which aren’t really relevant here).
In the background, out of focus, Arby comes into the shop.
e. Lee kneels down ‘into’ the frame but not completely – we don’t
see his face (which is unusual) - instead our focus in the middle
of the frame is on the length of pipe he takes out. One idea of
characters is that they are more important as ‘narrative
agents’ then they are as ‘representations of actual people’. Lee
has a role to play – professional killer and torturer. That role
is what matters, not the kind of person he is as an individual.
The shot with his face out of frame emphasises this.
f. Here and throughout the scene there are very bright saturated
colours through the frame – not dominating everywhere but
always there – the red display units, green floor, bright yellow
bag, orange t-shirt and pink sunglasses of the clerk. It’s bold,
bright. Comic book style? Moral clarity? No shades of grey?
g. The interaction so far has been clerk speaking to Lee – there is
a bit of a dance going on because we are with Lee saying ‘come
here’ and then we cut to see that Lee is talking to one of the
customers and Arby has gone to see the clerk. Deliberately
disorientating the audience? What we see and how we see it
doesn’t entirely fit with what we hear. What are we supposed to
be focusing on? (Everything, obviously) These two men are in
control here.
h. Holding Lee slightly out of focus in the background as he kills
the man using the lead pipe – framing which mixes up where
the ‘action’ of the shot is – the two men are talking in the
foreground in focus – Lee and the customer are in the
background out of focus but in the centre of the shot. Pulling
our attention to and fro – this all happens very quickly but this
is a very big bold opening to a new show – violent messy death
from calm assassins in the first minute

3. i. Framing reaction shots –the clerk, the other customer, the dead
customer with red/black blood flowing from his head (with
bright red in the background and bright green all around – the
blood could have been bright shining red and it would have fit
in with the rest of the colour scheme. Realism? “I know this is
all bright and bold and fun but this horrible stuff is also
actually happening, okay?” Water/calm? )
j. CU on unfurling post-it note – unfurling to reveal the show’s
title, the manuscript’s name,what RB has been asking for. It's
the clerk’s POV again - does the framing of this make his
upcoming death more dramatic? There are a number of
meaningful POVs from him here. We are being positioned with
him, threatened by the intrusion.
k. CU Lee with a new weapon – CU on Lee’s feet walking through
the blood – white shows highlights the contrast. He is not
bothered by all of this at all, he’s a professional.
l. Other customer tries to back away from Lee as he walks into the
scene with the gas mask – Lee very calm.
m.This time the killing is to the side of the frame in the
background – and we cut back to clerk and Arby until Lee walks
into that shot with the gas.
n. Clerk’s POV of his obviously dead friend as he’s breathing in the
gas which Lee has said will just make him sleep
o. Framing on the box of raisins in Arby’s hands
p. Framing on Lee getting a cigarette just after breaking the gas
pipe
q. On RB looking disapproving and back on Lee realising what
he’s doing
r. On RB looking around - there is a joke here although it’s a very
bleak one given that they’ve just killed three people and are
about to burn the place down. (In fact, see note in
‘representations’ on Amazon’s edits – they're actually about to
kill a fourth person – a child – and then burn the place down).
s. Cut to white rabbit - (many intertextual links – Alice in
Wonderland which suggests surrealism and magical journeys
and dreams and nothing being real, and The Matrix and virtual
reality and rebellion and hidden ‘things’ in charge, and the idea

4. of reproduction – as in having lots and lots of babies – and
spring/Easter/rebirth) -
t. And then the opening titles – even brighter colours saturating
the screen,
2. Editing and sound
a. Cut fairly rhythmically between different landscape shots
b. Voice Over (VO) radio news – about food production and
shortages and costs – no obvious relations to what happens
next
c. Cut into shop with the audio providing a bridge – the news is
still playing
d. Sound of Lee walking in – calling attention to himself
e. Dialogue is meant to create relationships between characters -
that’s what we expect to happen - but Lee just completely
ignores what the clerk says. He’s in charge.
f. Sound of the pipe swinging and hitting the customer–
exaggerated, accompanied by ‘whoosh’ sound effect. The sound
carries the detail of the action here – the detail of the injury
isn’t shown at all.
g. Non-Diagetic score comes in just as that happens - fairly
ominous music
h. Splash of walking through the blood – it's kind of matter of fact
– Lee is used to this kind of thing.
i. Very simple stilted dialogue- repetition. They know what they
want.
j. Sound of the gas flowing as Lee turns the valve – we can build
meaning into this – they're going to destroy the shop
k. Exaggerated scared breathing from the second customer - him
and later the clerk gasping for breath
l. Repeated question from RB – almost the only thing he says.
“Where is Jessica Hyde?”
m.Cut from clerk’s face to his POV of his friend dead and his face
as he realises what’s happening to him just as he’s dying.
Having positioned us with him this cut is hard on us, we realise
without question that he’s about to die.

5. n. Non Diagetic score comes back in - it’s the theme music for the
show. It’s quick light and jaunty, especially considering what’s
been going on.
o. Sound of the gas escaping
3. Some thoughts on Narrative – Genre – Representations
a. We have no idea at all how the opening shots of the countryside
and the talk about food security tie in with what follows – it's a
strange juxtaposition (putting one thing against another for
effect, especially things you wouldn’t expect to go together)
b. The men are looking for something –and for somebody - they
can’t find the thing but they find a clue – they leave everybody
dead. There is a quest narrative set up.
c. Very different deaths – the first one is sudden, extreme, violent
– the next two are quiet and slow
d. Amazon have cut the end of the scene. Before we cut outside to
the white Rabbit, inside the shop RB notices somebody – a child
– hiding underneath a display cabinet where he’s been reading
a comic. He shakes his box of raisins at the boy to encourage
him to come out. We don’t see him being killed but it’s very
obvious indeed what is about to happen. Killing a completely
innocent uninvolved child bystander too much for Amazon?
(You don’t know this after a few minutes of episode 1, but this
is an even more strange thing to cut given some of the things
that are going to happen in a later episode which Amazon
leave in).
e. This is scene 1 of episode 1. What does it suggest to us about the
show?
i. It’s very adult – it involves close-up hands-on violent
death
ii. It’s very much a UK show – BBC Radio 4 in the opening
shots, the regional UK accent of the clerk in the comic
shop, the accents of Lee and Arby.
iii. These men want something. They appear to be hired to
be looking for something – they have a very limited focus

6. of what they’re looking for – the Utopia manuscript and
Jessica Hyde. They are extremely dangerous.
iv. We might reasonably jump to the idea that Jessica Hyde
has the Utopia manuscript and that that’s where we’ll be
going next. In fact we follow the idea of the manuscript
but not her.
v. All men (except the talk about Jessica Hyde). Would a
man killing a woman have set up different representations
in this opening? Perhaps. Women are going to have very
central roles.