Mis-en-scene/composition

The shots the director has put into the opening title of 'Exit Through The Gift Shop'  sets the tone for the rest of the film with this constant use of different shots of the same type of thing.

The main recurring shots in the opening sequence are:

• Preparation

• Installing images/paintings/stencils

• Before/After shots

• Running from the police

These are used by the director to re-enforce to the viewer that street artists take what they do seriously, with all the preparation and planning they do. 

As a viewer you are given what the film is about in the basic sense by the directors choice in mis-en-scene. It makes you understand the street art movement, making the world a more beautiful place. The shots of some of the artwork once it's finished show you as a viewer why street artists do what they do and begin to explain to the audience the difference between vandalism and street art.

The order in which the montage is set out also contributes towards idea that street artists plan and prepare. It begins with close-up shots of different media being prepared (paints, stencils, spray cans...), to long shots of artists leaving with their bags of paints and cans out into the darkness, then the artists actually putting up their work, you are then shown shots of some of the finished artworks, and the last shot you see before the title of the film is an artist escaping the police by climbing onto the roof of what seems to be the first floor of a car park. As an audience you are given what seems to be a regular kind of day in the life of a street artist. because of this as a viewer you are beginning to sympathize with the street artists which puts in into a perfect mindset for the rest of the film.