Analysing an opening sequence - Lock Stock and Two smoking Barrels

Analysing an opening sequence

Lock Stock and two smokin’ barrels (Richie, 1998)

Genre

Lock Stock has English actors, an English director and it was set out in England. It has a theme of crime and violence throughout the film. This makes the film a British Gangster movie. When watching British gangster movies the audience will expect to see men committing violent crimes in the cities on England. It will involve guns, blood, drugs and a lot of violence. This is what Lock Stock brings to us so it conforms greatly to the genre of a British Gangster. From the first scene we see loads of people surrounding Bacon (Jason Statham). We can just about see 2 pearl necklaces lying on the table. The back ground is a metal shield door which makes the place look very unsafe and as though a lot of crime happens there. The pearl necklaces do not belong there. They usually belong in a high class shop with polite employees but here, it is on a dangerous street corner with a rugged, cockney man so it is obvious that he is doing something dodgy and that it is illegal. Already, within the first few seconds, the generic expectations of crime are fulfilled. Bacon speaks with a Cockney accent which shows that he is from the East End of London along with his bald head and his talkative attitude it enhances our image of a tradition cockney gangster; as a result Bacon conforms to the characteristics of the British Gangster genre.

Film language

The colour/lighting in the first sequence is very washed down and looks rather dull, this could be used to represent the time and era. It gives us a feeling of oldness but it is not so old that it is black and white; it tells me that it is set in the 80s or 90s. This is enhanced by the clothes that they wear, especially the police men’s uniform. The police men were wearing a suit which is what they wore in the 80s whereas in the present day that would be too impractical. The solid hat/helmet enhanced the time era.
Throughout the first scene when Bacon was selling the jewelry the camera acts as thought that it in the crowd, it moves often and we even lose sight of bacon and the goods he’s selling because people get in the way, this is what would happen In real life when you’re in a big crowd.
A theme tune starts 1 minute into the movie and gradually gets louder when they get chased by the cops. The song is fast paced which corresponds with the mood, it also has a 90s feel to it because the song was released in 1997 which anchors the image and time.
Bacons partner looks very suspicious and we see him looking around checking for cops where as Bacon himself is quite relaxed and is just entertaining the crowd. From Bacons partners actions we see that he knows he is doing something wrong and is keeping an eye out for the both of them. When they are running it looks as though they are used to it as they don’t seem to be panicking and they know exactly where to go. This tells us that they do this as part of their everyday life. Richie uses slow motion when they are going down the stairs; this gives time for the narration.

Narrative

The narrative is right at the end of the opening sequence. We see it when they are running down the stairs running away from the police. The narration is told by a guy with a strong cockney accent and introduces the characters to us. He tells us that Eddie (Nick Moran) can “make a few quid here and there, but his real talent lies in cards and gambling with cards”. This makes us curious and wonder why he is doing crime and not in casinos making money; it makes us want to watch on with the movie and see if he makes money through gambling cards. As for Bacon, the narrator says that “it’s time to move on and he knows it”. This gives us the feeling that he as finished with petit crime and is ready for much bigger crimes which makes us want to see it even more, as breaking the law is something an audience wants to see in a movie. The narration makes the audience ready for what is to come within the movie.
The strong cockney accent of the narrator and Bacons cockney accent enhances the East London feel to the movie. The narrative sticks on the main subjects of the petit criminals and how they fail at crime. This is unusual as no one usually thinks that you can fail at crime as it is against the law.

Representation & Ideology

In this sequence petit criminals from the East End of London are represented. When we see Bacon he has quite a loud mouth. Criminals would want to keep a low profile but Bacon looks like he is used to this, this indicates that he was bought up around crime. Because they are just selling stolen goods we know that this is only small crime as the jewelry they are selling only costs £10. This movie is about British Gangsters. I would’ve expected to see British gangsters come up with a cunning plan to get cash or a specific target but all we see in the opening sequence is 2 criminals selling stolen jewelry. It plays with the characteristics playfully.
When we see how easily Bacon and Ed pack up and leave this signifies that they do this often and they are well prepared for the situation. It shows us and enhances the fact that these are petit criminals

Media Audience

The target audience for this group is 18 – 40. I know this because the certification for this movie is 18 and in the movie the majority of all the characters fit into this age category. The movie is targeted for men. Most British Gangster movies are aimed at men as, this type of genre is not enjoyed by women so much. All the points of views and by men and there are no main characters which are women in this movie.

The preferred reading of the text is the easy money of being a gangster. All they did was steal some jewelry and sell them on the streets which got them a lot of money in a short but we know that this is against the law and is morally wrong. The negotiated reading takes exception to the robbery as it isn’t really that bad. They didn’t kill anyone and they just took some jewelry. It’s not like jewelers don’t make enough money. The oppositional reading however says it that does not happen. No criminals who rob a place will get away with it and be able to sell it to make huge profits. Even if they did they will normally get caught and be punished severely.
From seeing the scene I wouldn’t mind being a robber. We don’t see the stealing so I don’t know what it will be like but it sounds quite easy. Then I get to sell all the jewelry and become rich without putting in much work. I completely overlooked the law because the police there were so easy to get away from. This made the police look pathetic and if they chased me I could just out run them. You don’t need to do much work and you won’t need any qualifications. You get a lot of money so it sounds like a brilliant idea.

Institutional context
At the time this film was made there were no celebrities in it. It was Guy Richie’s second movie. His first movie wasn’t a success so expectations were not high. Jason Statham did not have any previous films. This was his first movie so there was practically no recognizable cast apart from Vinnie Jones. Vinnie was known to be an aggressive footballer but he was not a famous actor. This was his first movie. Using stars is important because people go out to watch movies because of the famous people. There are fans that follow celebrities religiously so if there is no fan base for any of the actors no one would know about it. The budget for this movie was £1million. This is considered small for a movie as normally, movies average about £20million or greater. It would be difficult to get funding by a Hollywood company because such a small cast and a quite new director the movie can easily flop. And cinemas would not like that either. So they would need to be funded from somewhere else. Ska films were one 5 production companies producing this movie. This is the first film they produced. This was also the 5th film that Summit Entertainment produced, so they used quite new production companies.
In the trailer they show Vinnie Jones quite a lot. He was known as an aggressive football player and in the trailer we see that he enters the lift with two people and when it opens again they are both on the floor. It also shows Vinnie slamming the door against some ones head. The trailer is continuing Vinnie Jones reputation to the public of being violent and ruthless. People will want to see this which is why they have put it in several times. There were also several types of movie posters to attract a variety of audience – one of which showed Vinnie Jones with 2 guns, this could’ve attracted football fans.

An Analysis of an Opening Sequence By Justin Bishop

The Italian Job ( Felix Gary Gray, 2003)


Genre
The Italian Job (Gray, 2003) would conform to the Britsh Gangster genre. Even though in the opening sequence you do not see british actors, and the director is not british, it is based on a film written by a british man, it contains actors like Jason Statham who is a british actor who takes part in many british gangster films such as Lock, Sock and two Smokin' Barrels (Ritchie, 1998) and Snatch (Ritchie, 2000). In your average british gangster film you would expect to see violence, drugs, organised crime, and also many others, but in this filom you hardly see any of those conventions in the opening sequence. But questions are put forward, there are a lot of quick shots showing somebody drawing on a map, and also you see some routes on a map which could shopw one convention of british gangster which would be organised crime. Also the first character shown, who is in Venice, is on the phone talking to his daughter. His daughter talks about how she thinks he may have stolen the diamond thing saying' Does it have a reciept', this shows that this man may be involved with crime. She also talks about him being on parol which shows that this man is a gangster of some sort. This text does conform to the characteristics of the genre to an extent because it does not show you what crime is going to happen, but it does show you bits of a man drawing on a map which can raise questions about crime, but it does speak about crime and how the people involved may have been involved in crime in the past or present.

Film Language
The film starts off with some quick editing of sifferent scenes which immediatly shows the audience where this film is being set and also if there is going to be and=y crime. Thsi is shown where the man is drawing on the map which would give the impression that he is drawing routes or enterances to a place that crime might occur. The Gondalas are shows to show us where the main characters are and where this is being set. The man is wearing nice clothing to show us that he may be a rich gan gster and he has just purchased whatr looks to be an expensive diamond necklace which shows us that he might be rich too. The close up on the Gondalas is to show a sense of place and to show the audience where this is set. Also there is a close up on the jewelry which also shows us how the characters might be rich and also as he says 'Optimistic'. They use a handy cam shot when following the main actor. This is used to make the camera un noticable and to make the effect that the audience is in the location with him. There is then a mid-shot to show how busy the city of venice is and the room tone shows us also how busy Venice is. The there is an extreme long shot to show the beautiful cuty of venice and also how the buildings are so big compared to the small people. This can show how powerful the city of Venice is. Also this scene shows us how he may be back into the crime business. Most of the shots on his daughter are mid shots. This is not only to show us what she looks like and that she is still in bed, but it also can show us her reactions to her fathers plans. They use quite a slow and mellow song, The it changes to an up beat sound halfway through the opening credits to create enigma and to also create tension. This is a convention of british gangster movies too to show us that the place they are in is a nice area and that they are about to do something that is rather upbeat in tempo, like crime for instance. Then the sound changes to a quick but soft back track, This is to create tension and enigma also. From the dialogue we learn that his daughter is angry that he is planning on doing this because she says, 'Don't Break my Heart'. This shows that her father in the crime business makes her upset and she does not approve of his 'job'. From her fathers dialogue we learn that he loves hsi daugfhter and also that he does not listen to the law but he is a very nice person which we can grow to like because he has bought his daughter an expensive gift. The director used very quick editing during the opening credits. This is used well because it creates a lot of tension and enigma and also makes the audience ask a lot of questions.

Narrative
In this openign sequence there is no narrative at all but you can learn some things from the dialogue and the way the dialogue is structured. They talk a lot about crime but in a subtle way. This is introducing us to the main characters and how they react to crime. Also the dialogue creates a sense of enigma about the main character because you do not learn much, just that he is a family man and that he is a criminal, but you dont learn about his personality. His daughter takes crime to be a bad thing, whereas he takes crime as a good thing and because he has been in the game for a while he knows what to do. The audience is priveledged in a sense because they are not actually spoken to directly, but they arelistening in on a private call between the daughter and father. You learn through the camera techniques and screen time that the two characters are important becaus ethey have alot of screen time and also that you can see them clearly and hear them clearly. Though you don't know much about their personality this may be learnt later in the film. Both are shown in a good light in the sense that nothing bad is said or done about them or to them. Two big stars, Charlize Theron and David Sutherland, and shown first, this is because they are very big characters and famous actors. They pinpoint star characters at the begining so we can learn a bit about them first. Some themes that are said in the dialogue are about crime and also about their love for eachother and the dialogue shows how close the two are by when she says 'Why don't you come over for breakfast'. This makes it seem like this may be a normal thing. Tension is created and maintained by the music in the background. This music speeds up when something important happens and slows down when it is calmer and more relaxed.

Representation and Ideology
The social groups represented in this opening sequence are gondola riders and drivers, Tourists, gangsters, and also the gangsters daughter. These social groups are not really shown in a good or bad light but besides the gangster and his daughter, they are just shown as back ups and props to the film. Some values shown in this film is that crime is bad. This is shown when the daughters reactions are very bad towards her father saying he is in venice and may eb there because of organised crime. A diamond necklace is shown which he has boughten for his daughter. The dennotations of this may be that it is just a diamond necklace. But the connotations could be him saying sorry in advance for being into crime again, or this could also mean that he bought it for her because he may die and wants to give her a goodbye present.

Media Audience
The most likely target audience for this film would be from people around 12, because this is rated 12A, to around 60. Peopleover 60 may not appreciate this because they may find the violence and rude language offensive. Thsi is not for under 12's for the same reason that it may be offensive, and may teach them things that they dont need to knoe like crime and violence. The preffered reading of this text would be that even though crime looks like a good lifestyle, it is still wrong. But in the neggotiated reading it may be that crime is wrong, but the lifestyle does look evry attractive if he can afford an expensive looking diamond necklace.The oppositional reading would be that in some cases crime is good but bad in others, and in the abberant reading it would be that the criminal lifestyle pays off and is worth it because they can afford nice things and travel to very beautiful places like Venice. I would read this text by the oppositional reading because I know that crime is a bad thing but I do think that they have a good lifestyle and a lot of british teenagers would watch this film and agree that the lifestyle they are watching is a lifestyle that a lot of us wish we could have when we are older.

Institutional Context
A Lot of stars were used in this film such as Mark Wahlberg who got very famous through Planet of the apes. Charlize Theron was used too who is a start because of Sweet November. Jason Statham was used who got big through a lot of Ritchies films. And others were used like Seth Green and Edward Norton. This mixed bunch would be a very big selling point for this film because a lot of fans of all of these actors and actresses will want to see their new film so this will atracts not only a british audience, but an American audience and a big global audience. This was released by Paramount which is a very big Industrial film company. When released on DVD it was released by Paramount Home Entertainment which means it will be mass produced. Also because of this it will ber released on Blu-Ray which it has and has now become Paramounts Highest Grossing film. The film poster contains all of the key characters and Stars which is good because this is a key selling point to promote the movie and the stars involved. The trailer is very upbeat and also higley edited, showing all the main characters and stars to help sell the fim and characters in it. It was also released at the Tribeca film festival which is a very big film festival which can help to show the film as important

Preminilary Task

We uploaded the video on to YouTube during lunch but the uploaded video did not match the one we edited as there were errors with displaying the credits.

Evaluation - Preliminary task - Conversation

Storyboard (Pre-Production)

When preparing our story board for the perminalary task we faced a few problems which we had to change. When drawing our Story board we did not know about the 180 degree rule so during the conversation the camera would've been on the left hand side of each persons sholder which would have broke the 180degree rule but during the actual footage; we filmed behind one persons left sholder and the other persons right shoulder which did not break the 180degree rule.

While drawing the story board we did not know what room we were going to film in. Because, our camera shots included filming the door opening, the door opened the opposite way it was suppose to on our story board.

Filming

During Filming we decided we wanted to film somebodys feet walking through the door to their chair. But our hands were to unsteady to do this so we decided to use a cardboard box and slide it over to make a smoother and cleaner shot.

When filming we only had one camera which meant we had to do everything a few times to get the shots we needed which means we needed a script. We did not have a script and had to make one while filming otherwise we would be saying something different at every camera angle.

We were lucky enough to do our conversation in the conference room as it was quiet and away from the school, but on that Friday there were students taking parents around the school for the open day and that made a lot of background noise while we were talking. So we had to stop for a while until people stopped looking through the window and the noise died down, then we could continue filming but after the five minute gap we started losing focus and kept forgetting our lines.

The conference room was also too small for our needs. We were going to do a long shot with the two of us sitting round a table facing each other but we could not do this due to the size of the room. If we moved ourselves or the camera it would've been too obvious so we decided not to include this.

Editing

One of the main problems we had while editing is that we did not actually have enough footage so we had to go back and film again but various other problems arised such as the lighting (sun position) was not the same and that the conference room was locked; because of the tight time schedule we had, we did not have any time to get someone to open the room for us so had to do it another day.

There was also a problem with sound. When we cut from one scene to the next the background sound was completely different. We could not turn the back ground noise down due to the speaking so it was obvious that there was a change in camera angle, where as in movies the camera change is usually very subtle.

The mics on the Cameras were not so good. When speaking, the camera would look at me but that meant the camera would be opposite me which did not catch the most sound. We had to get audio from a seperate recording where my voice was louder.

When we finished editing the movie we decided to add a soundtrack as well as credits displaying our names. Our introductions had a plain black screen with our names across the screen. We also have a upbeat theme tune running in the background. This is very similar to the beginning of Lock Stock and two smokin' Barrels as we are looking to do a British Gangster movie.

Technical analysis for The Business

Shot No.: 1
Duration (secs): 7
Shot Type : Long shot, angled up
Mise-en-scene : Outside, dusty road, old buildings, sunny weather.

Shot No.: 2
Duration (secs) : 1
Shot Type : Close up, steady cam
Mise-en-scene : Clothes, running, close up on Frankie

Shot No.: 3
Duration (secs) : 2
Shot Type :
Mise-en-scene : Clothes, running, close up, pan of 'the playboy'

Shot No.: 4
Duration (secs) : 1
Shot Type : Extreme long shot, from side
Mise-en-scene : Spanish buildings, dusty road, running.

Shot No.: 5
Duration (secs) : 2
Shot Type : medium long shot, steady cam, following.
Mise-en-scene : more buildings, mountain.

Shot No.: 6
Duration (secs) : 4
Shot Type : Medium long shot, pan out wit running.
Mise-en-scene : Outside, Focused on main characters.

Shot No.: 7
Duration (secs) : 3
Shot Type : XXlong shot
Mise-en-scene : mountain, Spanish setting.

Shot No.: 8
Duration (secs) : 2
Shot Type : xlong shot
Mise-en-scene : children with balloon, more buildings

Shot No.: 9
Duration (secs) : 2
Shot Type : Mid Shot, Pan out, Swaying
Mise-en-scene : Outside, Focused on main characters actions, showing goods.

Shot No.: 10
Duration (secs) : 1
Shot Type : same shot as 8
Mise-en-scene : Outside, main characters signalling to children.

Shot No.: 11
Duration (secs) : 1
Shot Type : mid long shot,
Mise-en-scene : full shot of children, looking at catchers

Shot No.: 12
Duration (secs) : 3
Shot Type : Mid Long shot, steady cam.
Mise-en-scene : guns visible, walking and looking for something

Shot No.: 13
Duration (secs) : 1
Shot Type : mid long shot
Mise-en-scene : door to building, looking around.

Shot No.: 14
Duration (secs) : 1
Shot Type : Mid close up
Mise-en-scene : Focused on main characters face

Shot No.: 15
Duration (secs) : 1
Shot Type : Close up,
Mise-en-scene : Focused on other character

Shot No.: 16
Duration (secs) : 1
Shot Type : same as 13
Mise-en-scene : running towards door

Shot No.: 17
Duration (secs) : 1
Shot Type : same as 14
Mise-en-scene : characters run at camera

Shot No.: 18
Duration (secs) : 1
Shot Type : mid long shot,
Mise-en-scene : inside, door opens, character burst in

Shot No.: 19
Duration (secs) : 1
Shot Type : Close up,
Mise-en-scene : Focused on Spanish person in room on sofa, panics, picks up gun

Shot No.: 20
Duration (secs) : 1
Shot Type : mid long shot,
Mise-en-scene : follows catchers into lounge where the Spanish people are

Shot No.: 21
Duration (secs) : 15
Shot Type : montague of close ups, mid shots, shaky
Mise-en-scene : fast editing to create confusion, on peoples faces, and hands with guns

Shot No.: 22
Duration (secs) : 15
Shot Type : Medium shot
Mise-en-scene : still frame of Frankie holding two guns looking v worried

Technical analysis - The Bank Job

Technical analysis for Lock, Stock and Two Smokin' Barrells

Shot No.: 1
Duration (secs) : 6
Shot Type : Mid shot, Pan in, Swaying
Mise-en-scene : Outside on a street, A lot of people.

Shot No.: 2
Duration (secs) : 5
Shot Type : Close up, Swaying
Mise-en-scene : Outside, focused on his face.

Shot No.: 3
Duration (secs) : 3
Shot Type :
Mise-en-scene : Outside, focused on his face.

Shot No.: 2
Duration (secs) : 5
Shot Type : Close up, Swaying
Mise-en-scene : Outside, focused on his face.

Shot No.: 4
Duration (secs) : 6
Shot Type : Pan out, swaying
Mise-en-scene : Outside, Lots of people, Focused on main character

Shot No.: 5
Duration (secs) : 6
Shot Type : Close up, Swaying
Mise-en-scene :Outside, Focused on face and shoulders.

Shot No.: 6
Duration (secs) : 9
Shot Type : Mid shot, Swaying Movement
Mise-en-scene : Outside, Focused on main character, showing crowd.

Shot No.: 7
Duration (secs) : 5
Shot Type : Close up on man in crowd face.
Mise-en-scene : Outside, focused on accomplice and showing crowds reactions.

Shot No.: 8
Duration (secs) : 5
Shot Type : Close up, Swaying
Mise-en-scene : Outside, Focused on main characters face, Showing goods.

Shot No.: 9
Duration (secs) : 4
Shot Type : Mid Shot, Pan Right, Swaying
Mise-en-scene : Outside, Focused on main characters actions, Showing goods.

Shot No.: 10
Duration (secs) : 3
Shot Type : Close up, Swaying
Mise-en-scene : Outside, Focused on accomplice looking nervously around for police.

Shot No.: 11
Duration (secs) : 7
Shot Type : Close up, Swaying
Mise-en-scene : Outside, Close up on main characters face.

Shot No.: 12
Duration (secs) : 5
Shot Type : Pan out, Midshot, Swaying motion.
Mise-en-scene : Outside showing actions of main character and goods.

Shot No.: 13
Duration (secs) : 4
Shot Type : Close up, Swaying
Mise-en-scene : Outside, Showing accomplice and also reaction of crowd and good being sold.

Shot No.: 14
Duration (secs) : 4
Shot Type : Close up, Swaying
Mise-en-scene : Outside, Focused on main characters face

Shot No.: 15
Duration (secs) : 4
Shot Type : Close up, Swaying
Mise-en-scene : Outside, Focused on main character, showing crowd and some goods being packaged.

Snatch (Opening Sequence)

Analysing an opening sequence
Snatch (Richie, 2000)

Snatch is a film about a group of people trying to steal a diamond. It has English actors, English directors and the film is filmed in England. It has a theme of crime and violence throughout the film. This makes the film a British Gangster movie. When watching British gangster movies the audience will expect to see men committing violent crimes in the cities on England. It will involve guns, blood and a lot of violence. This is exactly what we get in this movie. We are presented with 2 middle class men. They look quite smart by the clothes they wear. Turkish (Jason Statham) narrates through the first scene of the opening sequence. The narration usually condenses the story line considerable. We immediately know that he is British because of his cockney accent and he states “funny name for an Englishman” in his second sentence. The generic expectations of a gangster are therefore fulfilled in the first scene. But in the second scene we see a group of Jews walking through a building. We are led to believe that these people are Jewish because of their costumes and hair as well as having a foreign accent; therefore they are not English people. The soundtrack enhances this by playing Jewish type music so it anchors the thought into our heads and makes sure we know that they are Jewish as we do not expect it in a British gangster movie. This starts to challenge our generic expectations because there are not many foreign people in British gangster movies. As we find out, these people are not Jewish but are English men that dressed Jewish. As they start to rob the place, they shout “Get the **** Down!!!” this ensures us that they are British, and by the way they shout, they are lower class criminals. We also know that they are lower class criminals because of the van they are in. So far, we have only seen these characters hiding behind the beards, but in the Van they take them off and it shows a group of middle aged men who obviously do not look Jewish but a rather ‘British’ face. The van also looks very cheap and tacky so we know that they are not rich. The crime itself was different to usual robberies. Usually a group will just charge into a building with guns and loud voices but this group gets in by acting as though they are someone else. That shows that they are not the typical robbers. They have thought this out. Near the beginning when one of them was being checked and he beeps he says “What do you want me to do? Drop my pants?” The person knows that the security guard will not check under his pants. This is quite an intelligent move from the robbers. This plays with the characteristics of the genre but overall the text conforms with the genre greatly.
Film Language
The mise en scene in the opening sequence tells us very little about the film but it is very direct. We do not see much in the first scene as the room is dark and you cannot see much of the surrounding; only the characters but the narration tells us the most important thing. I think that because the narration is important, the first scene is very boring when you watch it without sound so that would automatically make you listen to the narration. The narration doesn’t give you much about the movie either. Turkish talks about his name and his partner’s names and only mentions diamonds near the end which is what the film is about. I think they have said these things to show how simple minded these characters are. The clothes they wear are quite plain and the colour/lighting was dull which shows us that it is boring.
When Turkish says “Not many people are named after a plane crash” he seems proud of it as though he doesn’t have much else to be proud of. When he talks about his partner Tommy (Stephen Graham) he says “he tells people he was named after a gun, but I know he was really named after a famous 19th century ballet dancer”. This shows that Tommy has a reputation to keep. The thought of being named after a gun will represent someone who is dangerous, fast and a murderer so it will be good for his reputation. But being named after a famous ballet dancer will give him a weak image and would be embarrassing for a gangster. The overall view that we get from the mise-en-scene is that these two men are simple and have a reputation to keep on the streets which in some aspects is similar to gangsters. They will do things to keep their reputation high and gain respect. The way that this opening differs from other openings is that there is not much activity in this scene that tells us the story; it tells us more of the characters. From the second scene of the opening sequence we learn a lot more. It is a group of 4 Jews walking through a highly secured building. We know it is highly secured because there is CCTV’s every step they take which the camera follows. This is how we see the action and until they get into the room. When they get into the room they end up robbing the place which is totally unexpected. The whole scene leading up to the robbery is in black and white. This enhances the CCTV theme as well as telling us that they are entering a highly secured building and there is obviously something very expensive or important which is why security is so high. When the robbery is taking place the camera techniques change and the music changed to a high tempo track. This makes everything faster and the camera does a high speed zoom to their faces. As it comes to the end of the zoom the camera twists. They show the high speed and messes up our position in the film like the people in the room at the same time. They would be disorientated because of they are panicking and everything is moving so fast, the camera technique reflects their views onto us by twisting the camera while zooming. We do not see anything for more than a few seconds so the robbery is also a surprise to us. The sound anchors the fast moving pace.
Through the whole of the first scene Turkish and Tommy do not talk at all. They are just sitting on the chairs facing a guy. From the looks on their faces, you can tell that they are very bored. Their eyes wonder around not looking at the person in front of them. Turkish scratches his ear which shows boredom and it looks as though he is trying to find something to do. They don’t ever make eye contact. Tommy looks around at nothing and we can even hear a fly which means that the room must be really quiet. All this shows that the two are really bored and have nothing much to say. They don’t really want to be there but they can’t really get out of the situation. In the second scene, we do not see much visual techniques. The 4 men are walking along the hall way but we don’t get to see their faces until they get into the lift. At that point they are all silent and have ‘empty’ faces. From these faces we see that they are not excited nor are they unhappy which surprises us that they end up robbing the place as they did not look like they had that intention in the lift.
The narrative is spoken by Turkish who is one of the main characters. He starts of by introducing the characters themselves and talking a little about each of them and then speaking about the plot – diamonds. On the first time watching the movie we still wouldn’t know what Turkish is talking about as it is very vague. The audience will feel as though they are in a privileged position because we know what Tommy’s name is from. If Tommy says he was named after a gun he obviously doesn’t want people knowing that he was named after a famous ballet dancer but because we know it we feel as though we have an advantage thus giving us a privileged position because we know something that others in the film doesn’t. Turkish also talks about himself. He talks about how he got his name. We get to know him personally as he tells us he is named after a gun. Our relationship with the narrator extends when he said “Doesn’t mean we hold hands and go for windy walks”. It feels as though the narrator is talking to us and that we were questioning him about his partner. There is not much tension in the narration but Turkish hints tension as he speaks. He starts of saying “What do I know about diamonds” and then does on to say that he was a happy boxing promoter until a week a go… So as he speaks he is not happy. The thought of an angry gangster usually leads to violence. He finishes of by saying “What do I know about diamonds” again. He stresses this point twice which means it is important. The repetitiveness and silences creates slight tension, but the tension is lost when the music starts on the next scene as it is quite ‘happy music’.
The groups represented in this sequence are typical gangsters. Although Turkish says he is a boxing promoter he also says “keep him out of as much trouble as he inflicts on me” which shows that they must cause trouble quite often. Another group is the group of Jewish men. From the van they end up in they are seen as lower class criminals. Also, the way they shout when they are robbing the place, gives them a more lower class look.
I think the director plays the characteristics of the genre because there are 4 gangsters dressed up as Jews talking about the Catholic church. It doesn’t seem like the typical shouty gangster until we reach the robbery scene.
The target audience of any British Gangster movie is usually aged from 20-40. The audience are usually male as the movie is seen from a man’s point of view. There are no women in the opening sequence and the men are all aged between 20 and 40. This is because there are not usually ladies doing robberies or ending up in difficult situations. The preferred reading of the text is the attractive life of a gangster. All they did was have guns and shout really loudly and they got themselves a fat diamond but we know that this is against the law and is morally wrong. The negotiated reading takes exception to the robbery as it isn’t really that bad. They didn’t kill anyone and they just made a mess of the place. The oppositional reading however says it that does not happen. No criminals who rob a place will get away with it that easily. Even if they did they will normally get caught within a few hours or days.
From seeing the scene I wouldn’t mind being a robber. They get to hold guns and mess up a place which for me looks fun and you also get a massive diamond which is worth millions. I completely overlooked the law because there are no signs of police there. The closest to the law was a security guard but he got knocked out and he also looked quite ‘pathetic’ as he was young and inexperienced. He looked scared. This made me think of the law as small and that I could get round it without getting caught really easily. You don’t need to do much work and you won’t need any qualifications. You get a lot of money so it sounds like a brilliant idea.
At the time the film was made Jason Statham was famous from lock stock. Guy Richie also directed the film so people may watch it because he is working with Statham again. If people enjoy Lock Stock and two smoking barrels they will come to watch Snatch for the similar cast or story line as they are both British Gangsters. Not only are British fans pleased but the Americans may watch the film because Brad Pitt was in it. Brad Pitt has been in many famous films such as Fight club and se7en. Both of which are excellent films. The budget for this film is $10million which is very low considering many films are usually about $40million. Jason Statham with Guy Richie made ‘Lock Stock’ very successful so they would not have a difficult job getting production companies. They had Columbia Pictures Corporation and SKA films, both are massive in Hollywood. SKA also produced ‘Lock Stock and two Smoking barrels’. Having such big production companies that means that this is industrial film but it doesn’t have a very small budget. There’s a scene in the opening where it says it is directed by Guy Richie and it has a picture of a gun. This may remind people of Lock Stock.
There are several ways which the directors promoted the film. They took advantage of Brad Pitt and the success of Lock Stock. In the trailer it says “from the makers of Lock Stock and two Smokin’ Barrels”. So people who enjoyed that film will want to watch this one as well. And the posters have Brad Pitt at the front of all the other characters to attract Pitts fans.

Alex's Analysis of an Opening Sequence

Analysing an opening sequence
The Business, Nick Love 2005

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqZdy6HkcPg&feature=related

The Business belongs in the ‘British gangster’ genre, the audiences generic expectations of the text are compiled by some basic factors. Drugs, violence, organised crime, and a glamorous extravagant lifestyle are what many would expect a British gangster film to consist of, and of course the more obvious, like being set in Britain and with British actors. Although this movie is actually set in Spain, the people involved are british gangsters that have moved away from Britain due to there criminal ways. The text in question, ‘The Business’, does conform to the characteristics of its genre. Themes of drugs and violence are conveyed through out the opening scene, and it is shot like a documentary into an insight of there lifestyle, and a mugging that starts the film with the two main characters and guns, also shows violent behaviour. The way the move starts, is clever as it is actually the end, where they are desperate, and no longer live the high life. Witch doesn’t indicate a glamorous lifestyle, but his dialogue tells us how he used to have it all.
The mise-en-scene is very important in the opening scene as it depicts the era, and location of the film. The first shot is of dirty painted brick walls, of Spanish looking buildings with a clear blue sky and dusty roads, this immediately give a mood to the movie as it sets the location very simply. The mountain and more Spanish style buildings add and back up the location as the opening progresses. One of the other important item of the mise-en-scene is that the clothes the two characters are wearing are classic 80’s addidas trackies, this sets the era and period of history that it is set in, very basically but clearly, the sound track, (Planet Earth by Duran Duran) also helps to depict the time period. They then turn up at a small terrace house and smash the door down, to find a dark dingy flat like room, with about 3 or 4 Spanish people sitting around doing drugs, this depicts the lifestyle of the 80s and what people were up to in Spain at this time, and what kind of background the characters are used to. The swearing and gun waving show aggression, violence, and the ‘hardman’ mannerisms of a British gangster
The camera begins with a still, low, long shot, but then cuts to many shaky mid shots and close shots, and more still long shots, the long shots are to shoe the scenery, where as the shaky close-ups are to add to the effect and tension of the characters running. The music is also very upbeat and exciting and adds to the running, and is also from the 80’s as that is when the movie is set. It is also cleverly used in the film, as the timing is set so when the line ‘look now, look all around’ is sung, they stop and look around before they break the door down. Also in the house, he gets angry and kicks the stereo; witch stops the music in the film as though he broke the stereo.
From the dialogue we learn that he had a lifestyle to do with drugs, but now he is no where near as successful as he used to be. He also tells us how his dad was in prison meaning his childhood and up bringing, where perhaps heavily criminal influenced. His perception on life that ‘crime, woman and drugs’ is all that there is to do, shows that the film will probably be based upon those features, witch are the characteristics of a British Gangster film. Between the scenes and shots in the opening sequence, the editing is simple cuts between shots randy at appropriate times.
The narrative explains how his ‘old man’ was in prison and wrote him aleet telling him to stay away from crime woman and drugs, as to not end up like his dad. He then says that there’s not much else to do, and the scene plays. Then later at the end of the opening he explains how he and the playboy used to have it all but now they have lost everything and that he’s glad he had been someone for a day, rather than a nobody for ever. This dialogue is basicly telling the story of the film briefly, as the begging is actually the end of the film.
The target audience is that of a young age between 15 and 30s to 40s, as the certificate is a 15, this is because of the drug content, violence and the appealing lifestyle of the gangster culture. The preferred reading of the film is that of an anti hero who has a lifestyle choice to do with drugs and making money, and who perceives himself not as a gangster but as a employee to the ‘playboy’. The oppositional reading is that his lifestyle is wrong as drugs are a let down to the community and the move only promotes the, the aberrant reading would be that he is evil and intends bad by what he does. As I am a British teenager, carton evaluation of the text is that the lifestyle does look appealing, from what little have seen in the first few minutes, and the amounts of money are very high, but this does not urge me to go about trying to become a big time drug dealer, as I know that is ridiculous. Danny dyer, being the main character, had already been known as a respectable actor in the UK, Dyer's first major film appearance was the role of Moff in the clubbing film Human Traffic (1999). And he was also in he popular Football Factory (2004) witch was also directed by nick love, so as the two had worked together, successfully, the producers would have accepted the idea for The Business much more easily. The Business is distributed by Pathé, Pathé produces, acquires, finances and distributes films. It should be noted that outside of France , Pathé does not distribute its own product on DVD. Rather, other distributors release Pathé's product (such as 20th Centyry Fox in the UK).

Justin's Analysis of an opening sequence

Analyzing an opening sequence

Revolver (Ritchie, 2005) would be classified as a British gangster film due to the main actors being British born and also the director is British. It also contains some conventions of a gangster film like narrative, a flashforward, organized crime and people of a gangster type. In this opening sequence you do not see drugs or violence of any sort, but it does contain the main character being released from prison which could give the audience a thought about what he did and why he was in prison. Also there is a scene where he gets rejected from the tabkles in a casino which could give the audience an idea of him being in crime and he may ahve robbed this casino of money before. Revolver in many ways does show conventions of a gangster genre but on first impressions you may think of it as not being the average british gangster film due to the lack of drugs and violence.

The mise on scene conveys meaning in this sequence by the actors wearing suits. These suits show us as the audience that these gangsters are rich and not your average gangsters. Also when they enter the casino it is a very well layed out casino with very nice and expensive things. This also shows us that these gangsters are very serious and are dealing with very serious and expensive people. The telephones used are very old fashioned telephones which would not be on average use and also the amount of people that call because of the entrance of the 'gangsters' shows us that these are very important people and also should be on close watch. At the begining in the prison sequence when he is walking with two security guards there is a close up on his feet which shows us that he is isolated in the prison and also that he is under heavy watch. There are two close ups, 1 of the door opening and the other of the door closing. This is used to show us that he is being released from some sort of prison. There is a tracking shot whilst he is walking out of the prison to show us that he is fully being released and also how heavily guarded the prison he is leaving from is which gives us an insight on what he may have done showing us that it is bad and also the rain is used to cover and blur his face so we do not see the main character yet. Then when we do see him the rain is not so much in his face and then the star is easy to see. Rain always has the generic conventions of being bad so the use of the sound of rain is here to anchor our thought to think of something bad and to add darkness to the opening scene. A slower and relaxing song is used to start but then as the tension in the film gets bigger the sound in the song starts to get faster and also louder to help keep the tension going. The director has decided to use a crane shot when he is showing us the casino because this shows us how nice and how extravagant the casino is and also how big it is compared to the small characters. Then a handycam is used to follow him into the casino to make the camera barely noticable and to diguise it. When in the casino a lot of mid shots have been used, these are to not only show the surroundings and to show us how beautiful and rich the area is, but to also show us the reactions on the people faces. There is a lot of Cut editing to emphasise the reactions on peoples faces and to also show us who is speaking and what is going on at that point in time. The lighting in the first sequence is very dark, this is used to show us that the situation is very bad and also serious. Then when in the casino the lighting changes to very bright and alive.

In this sequence there was only a little bit of narrative. The first narration is used when he is being released from prison. Whilst walking out you hear him talking about how long he has been in the 'game' and also you hear about conning in a way. This can show the audience that he may have been tricked in a way and he may want some revenge. The narrator is talking directly to the audience about his experience int he game and also about how you need to learn how to not be the victim. The next piece of narration is at the end of the opening scene which is not directly to the audience, it is showing us his thoughts and feelings at the time. There is not much narrative but of what we hear we can see that he is a very cautious man because when he is in the casino and is about to go upstaires he says about taking the staires instead of the lift because there could be danger. He is shown also as a very smart character too because at the begining he talks about being conned and knowing when you are being conned or being the conn-er. The major themes showed in the narration talk about conning, being tricked and also learning about the game. Tension is maintained in this opening sequence because the music in the background is getting louder and fatser every time something new happens and also when he is walking through the prison different quotes come up from famous people who were considered bad which shows us that this character may be an anti heroe.

The social groups shown in this sequence are gangsters. They are shown as being very rich andwearing what looks to be expensive suits. Policeman are shown as forceful and also powerful. Casino owners and workers are shown in this sequence and also people who visit the casino are shown. Some values and beliefs shown in this sequence are that crime industry can be very good for one because the gangsters are always wearing suits and are also shown in a fancy car going to a fancy casino. But also it shows that crime is not always good because you see him exiting a prison and also when he is in the casino he gets treated rather badly by the workers. The semiotics as a framework show us that crime can and also cannot always pay off because he was thrown in prison in the bgining for doing something wrong, but also he seems very rich if he can afford the suits, fancy car and also be able to go into a fancy casino.

This film was rated 15 in Uk cinemas which means that the target audience would be anyone over the age of 15. The reason why it is not suitable for people under the age of 15 is due to the violence later in the film and also this type of lifestyle is not suitable for children to be viewing and getting ideas from. The preffered reading from this opening sequence would be that crime is bad and also can get you thrown into prisons and also in bad situations. The negotiated reading will be that crime is bad, but they people in the film are dressed so nicely and have such a nice lifestyle that crime can be ok in some circumstances. The oppostional reading is that crime is good and that it can make ones life better but in retrospect it is bad and the abberant reading would be that crime is good and helpful to people. The film seems to not be like an ordinary gangster film that i ahve watched due to the conventions not being displayed in visuals but i would read the text by the negotiated reading because they have shown these gangsters in a way to make them not look like they are gangsters but more like business men.

Jason Statham was used in this film. He was a star by the time this film was made. He had been in a lot of famous movies like Transporter 1 and 2, Lock, stock and 2 smoking barrels, Snatch and Italian job. Also Andre Benjamin, AKA Andre 3000, from the band outkast was used in this film. He is a very big star in the music industry. The use of these stars was important because it can help to sell tickets and also people who really like these stars will definatley come and see this film. Ray Liotta was used too. He is used in many gangster films aswell. This film was distributed by Warner Bros. which is a very powerful industrial film company. This film was not marketed very well. It was released over in the UK but not really in the USA. The poster is a picture of all the actorewith a quote at the top saying how brilliant the film is. A soundtrack and dvd copy of the film was released. The opening shows us that the film was quite expenive to make and also shows that it is very professionally made.

Editor

Hello I am Alex, the Editor.

A film editor is a person who assembles the footage into a final film. Film editors often are responsible for pulling together all of the elements of story, dialogue, music, sound effects, visual effects, rhythm and pace of a film. In the making of a film, the editors usually play a dynamic and creative role. The software I will be using is Adobe Premier Elements, and i will have to compile all the shots using effects and editing techniques

Producer

Hello

I am Jason, the Producer.

As the producer of a film I am responsible for setting the appropiate conditions to create the movie. For example: I will be responsible for the location of the film, the costumes that the character wears, getting the appropiate props, hiring actors/actresses and generally making sure that everything is running smoothly. I will have to make sure that everyone knows what they are doing and if we are filming out of school, I will be responsible for setting the location as well as telling everyone what time to meet. I will need to be organised and be able to contact anyone incase anything goes wrong.

Director

Hello,
I am Justin Bishop, Director.
In the making of a film the Director is the one who visualizes the script and works out the camera angles, techniques and positioning of the actors and scenery. The director will work on some artistic aspects of the film too, like making the mood board, story board and others. The director will decide the vison of the film, he will look at the aspects and what tone it should have, take part in hiring crew members and also co-ordinate actors moves and the camera angles to go with it. Sometimes the director will help with the sound mix and music soundtrack.