An analysis of the title sequence of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

I am going to talk about the camera shots and angles for each scene; the different mise-en-scenes and the unusual narrative in the beginning, I will also mention the different typefaces (text) used; the Characters; the language; colours and music

The Fresh Prince of Bel-air is a typical American teenage show, with a big multi-media star. The show has been a long-running success and is famous all over the world. I am going to begin this essay by addressing the unusual narrative. This goes on for the whole of the title sequence. It explains the story in RAP (Rhythm And Poetry). It begins off by saying: “Now this is a story all about how my life got twisted upside down, and I’d like to take a minute so just sit right there and I’ll tell you about how I became a prince of a town called Bel-air.” The music is an easy beat to attract all types of teenagers.

The first mise-en-scene which is Will Smith who plays the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air sitting on a rotating throne with the graffiti wall in the background. The titles and The graffiti are brightly coloured to attract teenagers to the show. The graffiti is also usually very popular to teenagers. A majority of teenagers will also see graffiti in their country as well as America where the show is filmed. The camera angles (high/medium angle) adds meaning to the shot and links the props to the theme. The throne is there to emphasise the phrase Prince and it also represents teenagers thoughts and dreams about being rich.

The second mise-en-scene has about ten seconds filming time, in this short scene Will Smith is seen writing graffiti on the wall and the policeman is shaking his baton constantly at him to stop. The directors make the policeman look silly because many teenagers think people with high authority such as policeman can easily be made fun of.

The third mise-en-scene is the basketball court scene, in this scene Will Smith is playing basketball when the ball swerved off course and hit some bullies in the head. The camera angle shows the bullies expressions as they approach Will Smith. Will Smiths clothes are bright and colourful and stands out against the bullies black clothes and complexion. The directors made the bullies dress in black to indicate that they are bad people.

In the same scene the bullies grab Will Smith and start spinning him around. The camera angle is a high shot, the camera was placed above to make Will look submissive.

The fourth mise-en-scene is Will Smith’s ugly mother waving her finger at the camera saying” Your moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air.” The camera shot was a close up to reflect her expression. The fifth scene is the scene when Will Smith is about to leave for Bel-Air. Will Smith is shown whistling for a cab, the camera is directed at the licence plate which reads ‘FRESH’ and the camera is directed back at Will Smith. The yellow American taxi pulls up besides him, he slaps the drivers hand and walks over to the passenger door, climbs in and calls out “Yo home to Bel-Air!”

The last scene is the scene where the taxi pulls up to the Bel-Air mansion and Will climbs out of the taxi and calls to him “Yo ho smell ya later”. He turns to the Bel-Air mansion and says:

“Looked at my kingdom and I was finally there to settle my throne as the prince of Bel-Air!”

This show does target teenagers successfully because the RAP story narrative is what many teenagers will like and take more notice of. The colours are bright and loud not dull and boring to make the audience take more notice.

The typefaces(text) are usually in graffiti style writing to attract teenagers to read it and to be more aware of what they are reading. The music throughout the narrative was an easy beat because its fun and easy to listen to. Many teenagers in America listen to RAP/R&B so the music in the beginning is similar to what they would usually listen to.

All the mise-en-scenes have a meaning, they show teenagers things they associate with and things they would like to have. All camera angles are positioned to show either:

Meaning to an object, Emotion towards the subject or link themes to their backgrounds. This show has been proved to target teenagers successfully because it is now very highly rated by many teenagers.