Sound
The music that is played in the background is quite fast, it starts off quiet when the main character is talking and then once he stops talking it gets louder and fits in with the action that we see on screen. It is quite tense music which fits in with the over feel / tone of the programme. There is a voiceover / narration being used too. The main character explains to the audience exactly what has happened to him, which is helpful to the audience but when I watched it without the sound switched on I realised that the audience would probably be able to work it out, even without the voiceover. At the very beginning you see him get run over by a car, and when the voiceover stops and the title 'Life On Mars' is about to appear on the screen, where it should say 'Mars' it says '1973' before it changes.
The voiceover is effective because it means that the main character can immediately establish a relationship with the audience by telling them what happened to him, and then can connect to the audience by directly asking questions 'Am I mad? In a coma? Or back in time?'. And then it leaves the audience on a cliffhanger which intrigues them and makes them want to carry on watching 'Maybe if I can figure out the reason I can get home.'
Graphics
The Graphics in these opening titles are interesting because they are different to most opening titles. As the title of the programme appears on screen, the screen is divided up and each section of the screen shows the main character, Sam, waking up in 1973. This continues throughout the whole of the opening titles. I think this is an effective tool because it reinforces the main storyline so the audience really know what is going on.
Representation of Place and People
This drama is set in the year 1973, and this is shown through the mise-en-scene. The props that are used, the costumes, the setting - they are all trying to point the watcher to realise the fact that it is supposed to be 1973. The use of props is interesting because at the beginning, when the man is lying on the road you can see his car behind him which you can tell is a relatively modern car, and then you see a car when he is 'back in time' and you can tell that it is a lot older. Also, when he walks into the office, nowadays there would be computers holding all the data and no-one would be allowed to smoke in an office, but he walks in and there are piles of paperwork everywhere and no computers, and everyone is smoking. This reinforces the idea of it being set in 1973.
