I have chosen to review the first fifteen minutes of ‘Snatch’ which is similar to the film we want to produce. Snatch is from director Guy Ritchie who also directed another similar film called ‘Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ which shows he has experience in these types of films. I chose to analyse Snatch because it is a crime film and has an interesting storyline about a stolen diamond
The film starts out with a fade from black to the back of a mans head which then cranes up to reveal two of the main characters, this scene has no diagetic sounds which could signify that it is an end of a conversation between the man and the two main characters or the man could be talking since we cant see the front of his face and we cant hear what hes saying. What we can hear in this scene is non-diagetic sound from Turkish which briefly explains himself and his background to his name and how he knew Tommy and Tommy who is sat next to him. It cuts to Turkish when he is talking about himself or about him and Tommy and cuts to Tommy when he is talking about him. Both being medium close up shots. The costumes are what you expect of the time period of the film, Old Italian suits and gangster style hats.
It fades to black and then fades back in showing a series of television screens which are showing feeds of security cameras in this building which show the team sneaking in to this building ready to steal from it when it’s the right time. Although from the actual cameras it is just a straight shot of the television and dollys or cranes to other televisions, the actually security camera shots are low angled shots looking down on the team and helps set the scene of the building they are in. We hear music that is used to mock the security as they are just letting the team through even thought they are in disguise. Over the top of the music we can hear diagetic sound coming from the security cameras of the main characters talking with the security guards and each other in a foreign accent/language. The security guards costumes are classic of most security guards with black trousers, white/blue shirt with a dark tie with security equipment on the belt.
When they reach and enter the main room of the bank the speed of the edits increase as the action begins as they spring the start of the robbery on the bankers. With a zoom of when he reveals the guns he is hiding under his shirt shows that the heist is about to start and also could have been from the point of the banker that walks up to them, which also followed by a zoom on that banker showing his expressions when he realises it’s a robbery. The music starts to increase the feel of a fast pace sequence also in this action sequence there are many rotates a few slight jump cuts to help it feel fast paced and different camera positions which helps create the feel of chaos as they robbery starts to come together. The editing starts to slow down again after the have taken the diamonds and as Brad Pitt starts to ask the banker about the ‘Stone’ while beating up another person who works there to try and get information out of the, this small sequence uses shot reverse-shot between Pitt and the banker showing what Pitt is doing to the other man and the expressions on the bankers face.
It then cuts to the inside of a van after the robbery as it dollys back showing the team taking off their disguises Showing a few jump cuts to speed it u nd focusing on one guy who holds up a large diamond, the camera zooms in on the diamond and start rotating, then it cuts over to the start of the title sequence which keeps the diamond in the centre of the screen over the cut. The title sequence introduces all the main characters in Snatch plus it reintroduces Turkish and Tommy, each characters has a short clip showing a small introduction into their background and then freezes zooms in slightly and shows an edited colour background with their name or nickname added in, plus over most shots there is some sort of action being carried over the edit eg a bad being thrown. After this title sequence it cut back to the van same way it cut into the title sequence with the diamond being in the middle of the shot as it is being placed into a secret compartment inside a briefcase.
Then we are shown the first actual conversation in Snatch between the bald man and the man with long hair, here is used a shot reverse shot as each of them talk. Then it cuts over to London where we are back with Turkish and Tommy with a new main character called ‘Gorgeous George’ at what looks like a training session for boxing. There are a few conversations about different things between Turkish and Tommy using many tracking shots as they move around and shot reverse-shot between the characters that are talking. When they are talking about the gun that Tommy has it cuts to an conversation between Tommy and another new main character ‘Boris The Blade’, there is a series of shot reverse-shot but early in the scene it freezes with a non-diagetic narration from Turkish telling that background to Boris and does the same with Tommy telling us a little bit more about his role which is selling slot machines.
It then goes a to a boxing match where it first shows the two boxers fighting as the camera goes past to them it centres on a main character called ‘Brick Top’, who I think runs the place as he talks to the two men stood behind him both are medium shots when it shows who is talking and to show expressions, this it not shot reverse-shot since Brick Top and the two men are not facing each other, it just cuts to who ever is talking. Then as Brick Top gets down from the side of the ring and walks on towards the camera dollys back as he is walking towards the camera with the two men following him, it freezes like it did with Boris and Tommy earlier as Turkish tells us about the background to Brick Top.
After the boxing scene it cuts to what looks like a farmer market, where u sell livestock, the camera tracks Brick Top as he walks through the market feeding the pigs, we can hear both diagetic sound with the pigs and with Brick talking to Turkish and George and also non-diagetic with the music and what Turkish is thinking and telling us about the current situation about what Brick is saying.
It cuts to an unknown character who is on the phone to Boris, in this scene he is betraying his partner ‘Freddy Four Fingers’’ who has the diamond we saw earlier and is on his way to Boris, the lighting is very low but directional on one side of his face, which shows he has a darker side to him.
It cuts to New York where we meet ‘Cousin Avi’ who looks to be one of richer characters in this film with a wide angled shot showing he has a large office and he is the phone to Franky in London, there are a few interesting shots here as it switches back from New York to London which also shows who is talking at the time and focusing on them, whenever it cuts back to London Franky is wearing a different costume each time all of which are relevant to the time period of this film. After the phone call it shows Avi talking to two other characters which shot reverse-shot to both of them and Avi who and he is also telling them about Franky and the diamond.
It then cut to a pub in London where you can hear a small amount of diagetic sound from people talking inside the pub but you can mainly hear non-diagetic sound from Turkish telling us about the background to a new character called ‘Doug The Head’, as Doug leaves the pub the camera dollys back as he is walking towards it as he receives a phone call from Avi and it is cutting back a forth between Avi and Doug as they take turns to talk, still with the camera tracking Doug as he walks through London.When he enters the shop the camera follows him through the shop until he stop to talks to two women who appear to be his daughters working behind the display cabinets, then he walks off and the camera follows him to his office.
