Notes on 'Life on Mars'

On thursday's lesson we looked at the clip called 'Life on Mars'. The first time we have seen it we were asked to watch it without making any notes but just to get some ideas about the clip. The purpose of this is to prepare us for the exam.  We have seen it about four times in total.
These are the things we had to look at while watching the clip:

• Sound
• Camera shots
• Costume
• Setting
• Editing

  The opening of the clip opens up with a busy road and we get introduced to the male character who is laying on the street next to the car. First time we see the character the high angel shot is used and at first we do not see exactly who it is however the next shot which is a horizontal tilt shows the angle of the character on the street. Straight away we can tell he had an accident and it was most likely to be a car accident because we see a car next to him which probably belongs to him. We can also see the cars registration number which tells us what period of time he is in.
The second time we see the character in different situation this time the camera rotates 360 degrease around the character and the place he is in. This is because the audience can see he is in totally different place than he was before and the clothes he is wearing are very different than he had on  before. (the first time we saw him) The costume the character is wearing can be clearly discovered it belongs to 70's and the setting around the character such as cars and civilisation gives it away to the audience who can compare the times he was in before and the times he is in currently in this scene.
The sound used in that scene starts with non diegetic which is the music in  the background while the camera rotates around the character in 360 degrease because the character cannot hear it however it turns into diegetic when the character picks him self up from the ground and walks towards the car where the music is getting louder while the character moves closer. The music played in that scene is from 70's and its played from the casset player which is inside the car. This automatically shows the audience that the character has moved back in time which helps the audience to understand the story line and from the music we can tell what are the times the character is in.
Another scene which takes place in the police station clearly shows what is going on even tho the character is confused because of the changes and the times. The setting of the station shows that the times are different because there are no computers in the office, the sound of the telephone ringing is very old. Also people smoking inside the room shows that the rules were not introduced to them yet about smoking in the building.The office is full of men which shows that women were at home taking care of the kids while men were working to earn money , now days this is very different which shows a lot have changed since then. At that time male were a dominant gender therefore women were housewives.
The editing of the clip is very effective so the audience can understand the story very clearly and it brings the message across to them straight away.