In today's session, we watched the opening sequence to the film, Election. I wanted to analyse the sequence myself once I got back to my house so once I got back, I watched the sequence again and analysed it myself.
The first thing that I noticed about the editing in this sequence was the way that we see the main character, Jim, running and working out early in the morning before getting a shower and then going to work. We were shown that it was early morning because the very first shot that we see is a water shooter shooting water onto the football pitch and this only happening in the morning. We hear the sound of the waters shooter whilst the titles are on screen and we don't know what the sound is until we are shown the first shot. This very first part of the sequence doesn't have many fast cuts in it and is very calm, which tells me that this is a daily routine for Jim.
We then suddenly cut to some close ups and quick cuts of a fold away table being put up. This came as a shock to me when I was watching the film and caught my attention instantly. We also see a series of close ups of the table being set up afterwards, including gum being placed in a bowl and sellotape being wrapped around pens and attached the clipboards. This tells me that the girl, Tracy, is very precise in everything that she does and is very neat and tidy.
We then cut to Jim again, walking down the corridor and towards a room with a fridge in it. The cuts are minimal again and the camerawork is very calm and wide, showing us everything around him. He goes into the fridge and he we see him his point of view and we cut to a shot of him reaching into the fridge. He starts throwing food from the fridge into the bin and a janitor comes into shot and Jim misses the bin and Chinese food goes all over the floor. The janitor sees this and then walks away. This sequence tells me that Jim is a tidy person, as he is throwing old food out of the fridge. The fact that the janitor sees the food hit the floor and he walks away could tell me that he doesn't enjoy his job and doesn't like clearing up other people's messes.
We then cut back to Tracy sat at her table and then the camera slowly zooms out and we see that she is the only person in the school and then Jim walks past her and stops to talk. This tells me that she is very dedicated and eager to get all of the votes that she can. During the conversation between Jim and Tracy, there appears to be a lot of tension between them and as Jim walks away, a voiceover from Tracy starts playing.
After that, we see a shot of Jim sat in his classroom alone, and then his voiceover begins, explaining that he loves his job and he can't see himself doing anything else. During the voiceover, we cut to a montage of how Jim sees himself in his eyes, and then afterwards his voiceover is finished, we cut back to reality and see that everything is different to how he sees himself.
When we cut back to reality we see Jim teaching his class and he asks a question and Tracy puts her hand up straight away and Jim doesn't want her to answer. He asks several over people to answer first before he asks Tracy to answer. This tells me that he doesn't like Tracy.
Voiceovers are used very well throughout this first scene, as they are a good way for the characters to explain themselves how they feel about themselves, which establishes the characters very well, and we also see clearly how the main characters feel about each other.
