In order to analyse the opening sequence of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) I will look at the different elements of the film and try and establish how they are used to set up character, narrative and genre.
The music in the opening credits/sequence is called 100 mile high city, by Ocean Colour Scene. The music helps to establish the sort of tone that the film is based around as it is a sort of Brit-Pop song. Brit-Pop helps to set a British feeling very relevant to the film. The piece of music is at the start, relatively slow paced and as the opening sequence goes on, the music increases to a faster pace and creates a sort of climax at the end of the opening credits.
In the opening sequence, I feel that the mise en scene plays the most important part in creating the tone of eerie feeling and the drama genre. In the opening, the lighting is very dark, this creates the tone of uneasiness around the set. The gritty, cockney feel that we feel in the film seems to create a male feeling, this creates a sense of power which then could determine the main male theme about the film as it progresses.
In the opening of the film there is a lot of humour created. This has an effect on the audience where it would make them laugh and invites them into the film straight away. This humour is created by the wheeler dealer attributes that the characters have . This would be exciting for some viewers because it sets the exciting, humourous sort of tone straight away.
In the opening scene the camera seems to be hand-held and it seems to compliment the setting because again of the inner city London feel that the opening creates. The cuts are relatively infrequent and this helps to establish the real life feeling. Towards the end of the opening sequence when the two characters are running from the police, there is a time when slow motion has been used, this could have been used to let the audience reflect on the first couple of minutes of the film and let them make their own judgements and predictions of what they think that will happen in the rest of the film.
The main colours used in the opening sequence are mainly dark colours, everyone seems to be wearing dark coloured clothes which could represent the unity in the London people, the customers seem to understand that what they are buying is probably stolen but they seem to trust Bacon, the seller.
Overall I think that the opening of Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels has a great effect of setting the tone for the rest of the film mainly because of the cockney feel that is presented in the sequence by the unity of the people and the humour created by the main characters and their personalities, and the way they come across using the ryming slang to create the London Feeling.
Here’s a quick provisional assessment of your research and planning as it stands now. It isn’t your final mark, just an idea of how you’re doing. You need to go through the research and planning checklist on my blog and make sure all the tasks are done. Guidance is in the booklet you’ve had – you can also find it in student dept files – research and planning booklet.
ReplyDeleteRoughly speaking16+ is an A, 14+ B, 12+ C, 10+ D, 8+ E. Less than 8 is a fail.
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• There is proficient research into the first two minutes of similar films.
• There is minimal research into a potential target audience.
• There is basic organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.
• There is minimal work on shotlists, scripting or storyboarding.
• Time management and planning seem at this stage to be poor.
• There is basic use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.
9/20