Textual Film Opening Analysis of Film ''Catch Me If You Can"

2. CATCH ME IF U
CAN
DRAMA / BIOGRAPHYDIRECTOR: 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

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
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

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 use
later in the film, this can
also be within in a film; i
red associated with blood
and death.