Analysing an opening sequence
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.
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