Analysis Napoleon Dynamite

At the beginning of the title sequence there is no music, just a plate of nuggets and a squirt of ketchup. This choice of food suggests a cheap and easy kind of food. Also we see the production company which is Fox Searchlight Pictures. The plate display is on a red carpet. 

We hear faintly birds chirping suggesting that the film is in the suburbs. The next two images is of different styles of plates with different food on different backgrounds. One says Paramount Pictures and the other says in association with MTV Films.

The music starts to play showing us a U.F.O card suggesting that Napoleon is into extraterrestrial things. It also tells us who is staring in the film. 






We then see that it goes back to food on a plate while telling us who else is in the film. We see a tray with food and a lunch paper brown bag suggesting that this film could be based in a school. This is similar to the way Americans carry their lunch to school. 








Here the title sequence gets creative when the person is holding a paper star and then the camera focuses on the star (dept of field). We find out that he has a library book ‘Bigfoot and me’. He likes reading. We see that he is interested in science and the universe. The image changes to a type of sweet which tells us that he could be quite nerdy as they are stereotyped to always have mints. Another dept of field is used when the name in the chap stick is revealed. This is confirming that Napoleon may be a nerd. 

Then we see that he is quite artistic as we see he drew a buff man with weapons. We see that he is interested in mystical creatures by his drawing. He comes across as childish because we see that he still plays with toy cars. We become positive that he is a smart kid as he likes maths.

This title sequence shows a pair of hands putting and removing different objects on a table. This title sequence is a low budget one as not much is shows other than a few things that Napoleon likes and is interested in.

This title sequence is clearly of the comedy genre. The title sequence is light hearted by the mood of the music and the presentation of the titles. Most of them are written out of sauce or written by pen suggesting that the film is not serious. 

We do not see the face of any characters but we already have a feel of what type of person Napoleon is and isn’t. We see that to make a good title sequence, you do not have to have an actual character or key scenes in the title sequence for it to be an effective title sequence. We only see a hand creating excitement and suspense of what the film will be about.

Sound: At the start of the sequence there is silence but then we slowly start to hear some birds tweeting suggesting that the movie is set in a suburban area where there is a lot of fresh air and everything is clean and proper. In other words posh.  There is music throughout the title sequence as we see what different types of things Napoleon likes to do. The beat of the music is quite awkward suggesting that Napoleon is an awkward character.

Cinematography: The cinematography is very limited in this title sequence as it is a stand still title sequence meaning that the camera does not move to give us different angles. They would have needed to get the camera still and in the right place.

Mise-en-sence: Mise-en-scene as used to create a persona of Napoleon. Different types of food that Napoleon likes were shown. His library books. Cards for clubs he is a part of. Chap sticks and sweets that you suck on was shown. Maths equipment and his drawing all give the audience a feel of what type of boy he is.

Editing: A type of edit used in this title sequence was dept of field which made the star in focus and the background not in focus. As this title sequence is not a moving one the only edit it did was cutting to different items.