The opening sequences of Saturday Night Fever establish the setting, characters, and central themes. Through establishing shots of New York City landmarks and subway stations, the mise-en-scene sets the working class urban setting. Point-of-view shots from the subway introduce the main character and his environment. Scenes of the character browsing dancing shoes and moving to music hint at the disco theme. Styling and interactions portray the main character as an Italian American "player" stereotype. The sequences tease questions about the character and narrative through the enigma code while consistently tying back to themes of disco and dancing.

1. Mise En Scene and Cinematography of the first part of
opening.
Mise en scene
the beginning shot of Saturday night fever starts with a panoramic shot of the iconic
Brooklyn bridge and the New York subway, This shows the audience the setting of the film.
At the same time you can also hear the urban sound of the city, which shows me that it is in
a well populated area, this also shows how the main character (presumably) is travelling to
a certain place as the next cut shot is of the Subway, another iconic place that showed me
that they are in American. This is a use of the enigma code as I started asking myself where
is the character going? What is he doing? As this occurs there is a sound bridge that links
the two shots together as the sound of the train blends in with the urban sound of the city
and eventually gets louder. All of this is an establishing shot to set the scene for the film.
Cinematography:
the first 48 seconds of the film there is a POV (point of view) shot from a person in the
camera. These shots are extreme long shots and Showed me where the film is set and also
the movement of the Main character. This also gave me a feel of what the Character goes
through and where he lives. It makes me think that the character does not live in a high end
rich area put more of a working class/ suburban area. I say this because there are a few
graffiti marks on the Train. graffiti is usually associated with more poorer area’s.

2. Second part of the opening
After the train There is a cut shot that shows the main character browsing a pair of shoes at a stores window;
Though there is only a mid shot of the characters legs I immediately get a feeling that the character likes to dance
as Non-diegetic sound starts to play and the character starts to move to the beat. The shoes that the character is
window browsing are popular dancing shoes that used to be worn in the 70’s when Disco was a big thing. This
gives me an impression that this film will have disco themes and dancing in it. There is then a close up of the
characters feet, the person is walking in tune with the disco music, as this goes one the title of the movie comes
on. The font is a slick red neon colour, neon colours and the font style were generally used in 70 to attract
customers disco/dancing venues. The word “night” in the title disappears and reappears with the same beat of the
song and the pace of the Person moving. This further shows me that this film has something to do with dancing
as there are a lot of disco themes.
As the character carries on walking, the camera tilts upwards to reveal his cloths and face, this is all done on a medium
shot. I believe this is done so I, the audience, can get a better feel of what he is wearing and how he looks like.
The camera then goes to a medium long shot, this shows me that john Travolta is in a busy high street walking
with a can of paint. This is yet another enigma code as I ask myself, why does he have that paint can?
There is a Reaction Shot of john Travolta as a woman walks by. They both exchange a look, he stops and then starts
to approach her but carries on on his initial direction. This shows me that John Travolta is a sort of confident
player as he nearly approaches the woman. This to me suggests that as the film progresses, there could be
issues with a female. In the last 10 seconds of the opening John trovolta stops to buy pizza, there is a Two Shot
as they exchange a few words. This gives me a hint that john trovolta might be Italian as their stereotypes are
seen as liking pizza. It also shows me that the owner and him might have a relationship as he might go there all
the time

3. Editing
•
In the beginning of the film there is diogetic sound of the urban city, this is a match on action editing as it matches
what is going around in the shot. Once we are introduced to the character there is a non diagetic sound that plays
a disco song that is upbeat and happy, the song make me uplifted and get in the groove. This was perposly done
to hint a disco theme to the audience.
Theme
•
There is a consistent theme of a disco/ dancing, this could imply that such theme will develop and happen
through out the film

4. Character
As a first representation of the character, you see them
browsing for Disco dancing shoes. This has a clear indication of
a disco theme and shows the audience that this film will have
something to do with dancing
This medium long shot further supports the Italian American
stereotype as he is looking at women. As you can see he is
approaching her but then backs off. This shows me that the
character is a player and is confident, this is what Italian
American stereotypes were also seen as.
The main character is portrayed as stereotypical
Italian, this is due to the way his hair is in a typical
Guido style which is usually associated with Italians.
He also looks from left to right to see if people are
looking at him. This shows the audience that he is
attention hungry and want all eyes on him. You can
also see that he is wearing a sort of dancing suit
that was popular in the in the 70’s, showing me yet
another disco theme. Also the stereotypical Italian in
the 70’s liked to go dancing.
He also buys pizza at a shop where the store keep
addresses the main character by his first name,
Toni. This is a typical Italian American name and so
is further indication that the main character is an
Italian American. The owner addressing Toni by his
first name suggests to the audience that he goes
there often; This is yet another stereotype used.

5. Narrative Theories
Not many narrative theories are show in the first 2 minutes on “Friday night live”. However there is a constant use of
the enigma code, making the audience ask questions about where he is going and why he has a can of paint. The
use of John trovlta being a ladies man also hints that as the story line develops there could be issues with women
in a sense that he gets in a relationship and it starts to go wrong; as in many disco/musical films there are usually
a main male character that ends up going out with a female character and issues start to unravle. I believe that
the same sort of thing will happen here.

6. Narrative Theories
Not many narrative theories are show in the first 2 minutes on “Friday night live”. However there is a constant use of
the enigma code, making the audience ask questions about where he is going and why he has a can of paint. The
use of John trovlta being a ladies man also hints that as the story line develops there could be issues with women
in a sense that he gets in a relationship and it starts to go wrong; as in many disco/musical films there are usually
a main male character that ends up going out with a female character and issues start to unravle. I believe that
the same sort of thing will happen here.