Opening Sequence Analysis: Hidden Figures

As part of my research, I am going to analyse the opening sequence to Hidden Figures and Baby Driver. The beginning of a film is very important, as it has to be entertaining for the viewer to be interested and want to watch it further. The colour palette, mise-en-scene, shot types, etc. all play a part in making the film interesting to watch. Hopefully, this analysis will give me a couple ideas of what to do for my own opening sequence.

Hidden Figures is a historical drama based on true events on the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit. The film follows the lives of three African-American women Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson working for NASA. This film uses Todorov’s narrative theory which create an interesting structure. The film consists of various ups and downs these female mathematicians faced, such as the gender and racial divide that existed in society back then.

Hidden figures begins with a flashback to when Katherine was a young girl. The producer has done this to give the audience some context to be able to understand the scenes that follow. Katherine was given a place at a higher education and got taken on early due to her incredible potential. This introduction to the protagonist’s childhood is shown in a slight sepia tone suggesting it is in the past. The producer conforms to the geek stereotype as Katherine wears glasses however, he breaks stereotypes by having three African-American female protagonists.

The hue changes to the current time of 1961 with a pan into an establishing shot. The sepia tone fades and we see a broken down car. The characters are set up almost immediately with the wide camera shot showing Dorothy trying to fix the car, Katherine daydreaming and Mary standing on the other side of the screen irritated by the situation. Suddenly, a police car is seen in the distance. The three women seem nervous signifying they don’t belong there setting the tone for the civil rights movement and what black women endured at the time. As the white male police officer walks up to the three women a close up shot shows his hand on the baton suggesting he’s quick to judge and does not trust them. However, when he finds out they work for NASA he quickly becomes friendly representing the importance of the space race to the entire country. This leads to the police officer offering them an escort to NASA.

In conclusion, the use of a flashback at the beginning fills in the audience on important information without distracting from the current time and helps get to the point quicker. The different colour palettes help indicate the different time zones effectively. I will now compare this opening sequence to Baby Driver which will hopefully give me some ideas of what to do for my production.
Screenshots from http://moviescreenshots.blogspot.com/2018/01/hidden-figures-2016-part-1.html