Breaking Bad Opening Sequence Analysis
In ‘Breaking bad’ we can see that all the characters have different personalities and roles in life. This is shown through camera shots, editing, sound and aspects in the Mise-en-scene.
Firstly we are shown a wide medium shot of the school lab. By using the wide shot it allows us to see the students, the location and the professor. We can see from the Mise-en scene that there are lots of students sat at desks some working hard and some messing around showing the personalities and setting of this school lessons environment. By using a slow paced shot it connotes how dull the lesson is and the boredom of the students due to how visual unattractive and the lack of excitement from the shot.
After this we can see a medium shot of the professor, Mr White, for the first time. We can denote from the mise-en scene that he is wearing a jumper that is not very stylish suggesting he is of a Lower class and not a high class man. We can also denote that he is wearing glasses and has a mustash. The professor is presented is a stereotypical manner and image, suggesting that he is not a very exciting teacher and not unique. This implies to the watcher that he is going to have the same qualities as the stereotype of a profferer which may consist of boring, dull and old. The medium shot allows us to see the professors body language and what he is doing I.e the experiment. A medium shot was an effective chose as we can see the engaged facial expressions of the professor but also his physicality of conducting the experiment.
Later on the mise-en-scene we see Mr Whites facial expressions change from being excited and enthustiastic about the class to spotting something in the corner of his eye and changes his facial expressions to a frustrated angry look. We then see an eye line match to what he is looking at. We see a distanced medium shot of two students talking in a flirtatious way. Mr white then uses dialogue to express his frustration. However, we can see that he composes himself and speaks with and calm and collected voice this juxtaposes from the emotions he is feeling inside. Mr white then says ‘what is wrong with your table’. The boy gets up swaying his body side to side suggesting he is not bothered for being told off and is a bit rebellious. We begin to see that characteristic of the chatter just by the body language. The boy is then followed with a tracking shot all the way to his seat. When walking to the seat we can hear the diegetic noise of the chair screeching, this is very distracting and we can see from the boys facial expressions he is being deliberately annoying and trying to disrupt the professors lecture.
After this we are then shown a slow paced, panning shot of the professors office. This emphasised to the watcher how hard Mr white works. In the wide angel shot we can see that Mr white shares his office with other teachers as there are a number of computer spaces that are shown in the mise-en- scene. The fact that no other teachers are in the office highlights that they have all gone home and finished for work. However, this is different from Mr White as he is still busy and investing a lot of his spare time for his work. The emphasis in how much he works could be suggesting he needs more money and that this is the only way he can survive is by working hard to get the income he needs.
We then have an establishing shot of a car garage. We can hear some diegetic music coming from a radio this helps create the atmosphere and tells the watcher what location we are now in. We are then taken to the inside of the garage where we can see from a medium shot Mr white serving a customer at the till. His physicality and body language connotes that he is exhausted as he is slightly hunched over suggesting he can hardly hold himself up.
We are then shown another man who clearly works at a garage, with a confident stance and a name tag, come towards Mr white and tell him he needs to do something. We are shown a shot- reverse- shot of the two men talking. Mr whites looks frustrated but goes off into the background of the shot and completes the task. The way in which the other men from the garage were acting implies that he is not the boss but more of a work colleague this is connoted from the formality of the way he speaks and the joke gestures he does. For example, when he says ‘what am I meant to do’ and dramatically shrugs his shoulders but from his facial expressions we can see that he is smiling.
We are then brought to a low angle shot of Mr white crawling down on his hands and knees pulling up his sleeves. A point to note is the costume he is wearing at this point. The fact he is rolling his shirt sleeves up shows that perhaps he isn’t used to doing this job as he is not wearing the approbate uniform form this job in the garage. Unfortunately, comes the cheeky student from his class that we saw before. We then see a slight low angle shot of them connoting that perhaps they have more dominance of this situation which juxtaposes from before. We see a high angle shot of the Mr White coming out from behind the car looking embarrassed and a little red in his cheeks. By using a slight high angle shot it creates a vulnerable state that Mr white is in of being caught in this what is stereotypically know to be a poor job. That the non educated or Low class may do as a job.
After this we see a slow paced, two shot of the two students looking at him. The boy is holding a camera taking a picture of Mr white to presumably show his class and spread around the school causing great embarrassment. The girl with him is calling a friend and the mode of dress and dialogue in which she is saying is ‘you won’t believe this Mr white is washing my dads car’ This portrays a very gossipy characteristic about this girl, suggesting the stereotypical popular girl at whom spreads roomers and gossips.
We then see a close up shot of Mr white in his car. Mr white takes something of the mirror of his car and put it in the cubby on the passengers side. However, when he comes to closing it he realises that it is not closing, we can see how frustrated and agitated he is by this. He try’s to open and close, open and close in hope it work but eventually we see how exhausted his is in his body language, he eventually gives up and cant be bothered. It appears that the hardship of his life is getting the better of him, feeling as if everything is going wrong. When he gets in the car we can see from his facial expressions that he doesn’t appear to be pleased or happy about the place he is driving to, connoting that his is reluctant to go to this place that could potentially upset him or annoy him.
After this we are taking to a house were there is a party. We are shown a short take, long shot of Mr whites body and we can clearly see that his is uncomfortable and confused. He brings his arms in to make himself seem small this connotes that he is scared and uncomfortable. When he arrives everyone says happy birthday all of them seem excited to surprise him, which is a complete contrast his Mr Whites reaction. We then see a close up of his wife come up to him saying how is late from work on his birthday.
Notes when planning:
Long paced shots making it seem boring like the class
School class room- medium shot of the class room lab and students
Medium shot of professor showing body language and what he is doing with the experiment
Mr whites facial expresion changes when sees students annoyed
Eyeliner match cut on students flirting
We see medium shot followed by a class of cheeky student boy
Panning shot of office - still working
Car grage music from radio
Shot reverse shot with man from the garage frustration about cleaning the car
Low angle shot of man cleaning car Mr white frustrated with the car broken
Close up of man in the car facial expressions annoyed and exhausted darting eye contact of the road
Two shot with the two students gossiping one on the cellphone taking pickteure ‘you wouldn’t believe he is washing Dads car’
Over the shoulder shot of Mr white in car
Comes through to the party looks scared long shot seeing physicality uncomfortable
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