MAN OF STEEL - Title sequence analysis

Man of Steel opening sequence analysis

How does the director use media techniques to make the “Man of Steel” opening sequence effective?

The director uses mise en scene to help reveal who the main character of the film will be. Many shots of the name “Clark Kent” are visible on objects within a house hold setting, this shows that he is perceived as an “ordinary” child, living in a normal house doing normal things that children do. An example would be the panning close up shots of sport statues. The name “Clark Kent” is a commonly associated with “Superman”.  This helps to show the audience that this is a “Superman” movie and thus will be si-fi genre based. There is also a photograph placed of “Clark Kent” as a boy, showing what he looks like and therefore adding understanding of what the character will look like later in the film, one main future which stands out is his black hair which is another convention of “Superman”. Another thing which helps explain the character is the non-diegetic voice over of a news reporter, “for this 11 year old the sky’s the limit.” This has been done to show that at a mere 11 years of age the character was able to do so many things and hence ties into the whole idea of si-fi and superheroes with super powers. It is also a commonly known fact that “Superman” can fly and so by saying “the sky’s the limit.” Is ironically making the audience think about all of the things which “Superman” can do, this helps to make sure the audience knows the fundamental characteristic and powers of this character. This adds to the effectiveness of the sequence as it allows us to understand a complex character quite simply and thus less time will have to be spent on character development during the actual film as their traits and abilities are already explained. These panning shots also have been used to reveal things one by one, the sheer number of trophies are slowly shown and those who maybe do not know who Clark Kent wonder why a child has so many trophies for so many different things wondering how he can be so good at all these things.

Another part of the mise en scene which is effective is the use of space as an explanation of the genre. There are a lot of extreme long shots of space or the sky, referencing to something from another world, something which is not from Earth, it also reveals that some of the film will be set in our of space or another planet as well as on Earth. This also helps to present the genre of si-fi to the audience. These shots also focus on the flying object, falling towards Earth. This could emphasize the supernatural falling towards Earth and the ordinary. Something which could also help do this is the camera work, the extreme long shot which I have print screened is shown as a hand held shot, this helps tied the idea of the ordinary and super natural combining as one within this moment. An ordinary person is filming, with some kind of recording device like a phone, something extra ordinary and super natural falling from the sky. This is effective because it shows the audience that this film will be about super natural and they can therefore work out that the genre is si-fi. It also helps to make the title sequence effective because the audience will want to know what the falling object is. It is also effective because the fact that we do not know what the object is contains a certain amount of mystery which will be revealed within the film making the audience want to carry on watching.

The sound is mostly made up of a non-diegetic voice over in the form of news reports. These explain what is going on the screen. For example, when the object is falling towards Earth there is a news report about a “ufo landing”. Also when there are the close ups of all the trophies the news reports are talking about Clark Kent. This has been done to make a direct link between our character and the UFO. Anyone who knows the Superman story line will know he came to Earth in a UFO type spaceship and so this sound link helps the audience to make this connection as they are both explained in a similar way. Another interpretation of this choice of voice over is to tie it into the idea of something supernatural affecting the ordinary. News reports are something we associate with everyday life and thus something we label as ordinary. This helps to make the title sequence effective because we can understand the situations as if it something which could happen in our everyday lives making the film appears more realistic as well as helping to introduce the background information needed to understand the film.

Towards the end of the sequence the reporter is signing off and she states her name which is placed next to a shot of her name on a news report of some kind. This has been done to again help introduce another key character into the film without actually showing them. Within the shot, this allows some air of mystery as to what Lois Lane looks like. This is effective as it doesn’t reveal too much about what this character looks like, possibly so she can appear in the film before we know who she is. The director has put this in to make the audience know she is a main character without giving away too much about her; all we know is that she is a reporter of some kind which is key to the storyline. This gives room for the director to develop this character later on in the plot and thus makes the audience want to carry on watching so they can find out more about this character. To those who know Superman would know who Lois Lane is, and therefore adds to the idea of the connotations of a Superman movie so the audience can make that connection.

The overall editing pace of the opening sequence is very slow, which is unexpected of this type of film as typically si-fi / action movies are fast paced. This makes the audience stop and watch, wondering why this has been done. It has been done to make this stand out from the other films of this genre, hence adding to its overall effectiveness as the audience will be wondering why this has been done, it also contrasts heavily with the content of the film which comprises of lots of fast paced editing. This itself makes the opening sequence stand out against the rest of the film so more attention can be drawn in. Also these constant changes in editing speed will allow the audience to not get bored, they continually watch as this creates tension. This slow paced editing also helps to create tension, alongside this there is non-diegetic music which is slow using a full orchestra. This creates a very tense “build-up” making the audience feel like something big and exciting is just about to happy, this makes the sequence effective because the audience won’t want to look away in case they miss the pivotal point.