What Goes Around... (Title)

After careful consideration, we have unanimously decided that the title of our film, is going to be;

What Goes Around...

There are several reasons that we have chosen this title for our film. Primarily, each of the three members of the group are enormous fans of N-Sync, and recently went to see Justin Timberlake perform at Sheffield Hallam Arena.

After searching through songs that have been released by Justin Timberlake, (Cry me a river, Sexy Back and Girlfriend). We found a song in particular, named 'What Goes Around', which was released by Justin Timberlake at the beginning of 2007. As a group, we viewed the lyrics and decided that it was relevant and beneficial to our film.

Treatment (First 2 Minutes)

Title – What Goes Around...

Duration – 2 minutes (approx)

Rating - 18, only suitable to be viewed by an adult audience over the age of 18 due to strong language, violence, drug and sex references.

Audience - Adults audience over the age of 18, specifically males, young males between the age of 18 and 30, interested in urban thrillers and crime films.

Synopsis – The scene opens out in a car park and circles round each of the four characters showing their skills/role in the film and then a freeze edit is introduced onto each character showing their name/nickname, after this the four characters then get into a car and dry away, meanwhile there is 4 other characters that are in a garage, sat around a table playing poker one of them is constantly winning and this angers one of the others who pulls out a gun and points it on him, meanwhile the first four characters pull up at the end of the drive where the garage is, they walk down the drive and open the garage door, seeing there is a gun pointed at their friend, all four of them pull out a gun and there is a big stand off. Who will come out alive?

Suggested Elements:
a) Non-linear narration - used for introducing the film, the characters, ending the film and possibly explaining other moments throughout the film.

b) Shot in black and white but leaving in certain colours such as reds, makes the film slightly more original and unique, very classy and dark urban feel to it.

c) Non-diagetic soundtrack of music specifically made for the film
Diagetic sound such as gunshots.

Distributor Research

With numberous film distributors that we could potentially choose from, great care and consideration must be taken as each individual company has both positive and negative aspects.

Ideally, we would like to choose the most respectible distribution company that could provide the best service to our film whilst being realistic. There are large companies, such as...

• 20th Century Fox (Avatar, Die Hard, Ice Age)
• Warner Brothers (Harry Potter, The Hangover, Terminator)
• Universal (The Mummy, Hell Boy, Fogetting Sarah Marshall)

All of which are huge conglomorate companies, which work with the most desirable actors/actresses, enormous production budgets and distribution budgets to suit.

Taking this into consideration, it's obvious that we are likely going to require a distribution company, which specialises in films such as ours; films being produced low budget, by first time directors. Such companies exist!

Take for instance the 2008 film 'Shifty', directed by Eran Creevey. This was funded by 'Film London Microwave' (Which in turn is funded by the UK Film Council and the BBC), for £100,000.

However, a small 10 year old independant distribution company called 'Metrodome Distribution' actually gave Shifty around £100,000 to distribute the films, to show it in both on the Cinema screen and DVD! Metrodome Distribution often help out independant production companies to help distribute the company, often focusing on contemporary British films. (Here are a selected few...)



Whilst there are other small distribution companies that distributed similiar films to ours (posted numerous times on the blog), such as Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment.. etc; we feel that Metrodome Distribution would be more than suitable as it is predominantly British.

Whilst having a film, such as ours with a projected budget of <£100 (Take a look at a film distributed by Kaleidoscope Entertainment, called 'Colin' !!) is unlikley to attract attention of enormous conglomorates that could spend an unthinkable amount on distribution; realisticly.. we have to choose a company that specialises in distributing low budet films such as ours. So, if we had the change to choose a distribution company, we would choose Metrodome Distribution!

Full Film Treatment

Title - What Goes Around...

Duration - 120 minutes approx.
Full feature film to be shown in cinemas and released to DVD.

Rating - 18, only suitable to be viewed by an adult audience over the age of 18 due to strong language, violence, drug and sex references.

Audience - Adults audience over the age of 18, specifically males, young males between the age of 18 and 30, interested in urban thrillers and crime films.

Synopsis - A game, an addiction, a betrayal, a shootout and one massive payout. welcome to the underworld where crime pays and everyman is out for themselves.

Five long time friends can't help but play on the wrong side of the law, known for their robberies they'l rob anywhere thats got the money, A bank, a shop even an old peoples care home, the reward is all that matters. Now it seems the monies all in gambling, high stakes poker games and they can't stop winning. They never lose even if it means cheating, besides rules are made to be broken. Now these five friends have the system cracked they are the ultimate team with each one bringing their skills to the table.

Mickey 'Senseless' Sullivan isn't the brightest spark in the team but his charm and humour make him a hard man not to love.

Paul 'Dynamite' Dunham a real psycho if you get on the wrong side of him you might as well kiss goodbye to your knee caps, when a fight breaks out you do not want to be the man in his way.

Tony 'Composed' Coster couldn't find a calmer man never panics and always has an answer for eveything.

Joe 'Pre-pared Porello' is the man with the plan the brains of the operation, whatever you need he'l sort it out.

Then there's Chad 'Discreet' Dawson the player, the gambler and the reason this operation is about to go 'tits up'.

So as our story began the five are bringing home the money with every game they play but Chad gets unreliable and get's addicted to gambling. When he's betting all their money the others have no chance but to get rid of him. Now Chad has nothing he lives on the street, no money and out of luck.

After a few years he manages to get back on his feet a little after inheriting money from his late uncle. Of course he swears never to gamble again and of course that doesn't happen. It starts with little bets on horses but pretty soon he's back to his old tricks again and winning high stakes.

Thats not enough he wants the jackpot so he rings up the old gang for one last job, the biggest payout any of them could ever imagine, how could they refuse.
So with Chad at the table playing the game and winning the cash, the others are waiting outside guns cocked and loaded.

Greed, bloodshed, betrayal and retribution is all that waits and everyones going to get what they deserve no matter what it takes.

Suggested Elements:
a) Non-linear narration - used for introducing the film, the characters, ending the film and possibly explaining other moments throughout the film.

b) Shot in black and white but leaving in certain colours such as reds, makes the film slightly more original and unique, very classy and dark urban feel to it.

c) Non-diagetic soundtrack of music specifically made for the film
Diagetic sound such as gunshots.

Film Days - 24 days using 5 locations around the same town.

Pictures of Locations

This is following on from our other post, possible filming locations

Location 1 has actaully changed to be a derelict carpark, as we thought this would add a little bit of variance to the introduction to the film. Here are a couple of photographs to illustrate the rough, primary camera locations.




This is the initial scene, where the 4 characters will be quietly preparing for their assignment. The carpark is at a local public resavoir, but is usually very quiet most days which would be ideal for filming. As you can see in the background, there is a little mound of debris where we hope to park the car next to.



This is an alternative location, just incase the carpark above is a little busier than anticipated. It is situated very close to the preferred location, so travelling wont be much of an inconvenience.



This is the house/drive leading upto the garage. This house is owned by a friend, and has given us permission to use both the house and garage. It is on a little estate, which is fairly quiet so we should not have any background interference, and likewise not disturb anyone.




This is the car that we hope to use for the film. It is owned by a friend, and has given us full permission to use the car (One of the actors is insured to drive it). If this car becomes faulty, we have similiar/alternative cars in mind.




This is the view from the bottom of the drive (infront of the garage), looking down at where the car will park. As the men exit the vehicle, this is the path that they will walk down.. the camera dollying back. (The rubbish will be cleared, and the gates will be open)



This is the garage door where the men will approach. Before opening the garage door, they will each draw weapons. We hope to remove the large caravan before filming begins, however if this is not possible.. we are easily able to move it around




This is the garage, as it is opened. Inside will be the four card players, with one of them stood pointing a gun at Character 5 (Chad Dawson). The other 4 Characters will be stood outside of the garage, guns drawn.



This is inside of the garage where the players will be sat. All items that are not related to the film/look out of place will be removed (things such as the car washer, car pictures etcetc)

Costumes

Taking a look around similiar films, they often wear rather casual wear. We decided that, considering it is a very short film.. we didn't want to confuse our audience, and keep costumes as simple as possible. We wanted to distinguish the good guys, from the bad guys, instead of giving everyone really cool clothes.. etcetc.

We looked around different films to find what looked right. If you take for instance the matrix (Forget about the film, how the agents operates.. etc, and just take a look at the dress).



We feel this is a very neutral, whilst professional image.. one that we are trying to attain for our characters. It feels right having characters that deal with large amounts of money, guns and crime to be dressed smartly. Take for instance Oceans 11, or the film 21.





Whilst these are nice and casual, however.. we thought that the suit jacket wasn't appropriate. Just a nice shirt, and tie.

As you can see, the initial 4 characters are smartly dressed in a usual-good-guy colour (as opposed to the other characters, in black). This also applies to 1 character in the garage.



One of the other characters in the garage, will be dressed similiar.. but instead have a black shirt and white tie. This allows our audience to easily and quickly distinguish between all characters & sides.



Finally, the two remaning characters in the garage are not important and thus do not need a tie (As they are not part of the main 5 characters, they can be in black as they play no real importance other than to make up numbers for the game)

Props Used Throughout Our Film

These are the props we have used throughout our film.

(Model) Guns - Handguns, these were used at all three of our locations, in the derelict car park we see Paul Dunham handling his gun, on the drive way Porello and the team all pull out their guns ready for the showdown and in the garage Chad Dawson pulls out his gun when he loses the game of poker.

The guns are toys bought from a toy shop in Barnsley and although they are blue they look alright in black and white.

Playing Cards were used in the garage scene for the poker games, the picture shows the pair of aces Ricky Sykes wins with.

The Newspaper was used in the first scene in the derelict car park, it was used as a prop for Mickey Sullivan to read to show he was calm.

Cigarettes and Lighter were used in the garage scene, they were just placed on the table where they were playing poker just to have a few more things on the table so it didn't look bare.

Alcohol Cans were also used to fill the table a little. The cans were empty and the alcohol was drank by a responsible adult.

Poker Chips were used for the poker game in the garage scene, each of the four players had some chips which showed they were all quite wealthy however Ricky Sykes and Chad Dawson had the most obvious large piles of chips to show that they were winning.

The Car was used at the first location in the derelict car park and again at the second location when they pull up on the driveway. The car was used to make them look more organized and it was driven at all times by the insurance named driver with a full drivers license.

Car Keys were used at the first location once starting up the car, they are seen in one shot just to show they are starting the engine and driving away.

Drinking glass was used at the first location in the car park, Tony Coster is seen holding a drink, this was to make him look more composed and sophisticated.

Sunglasses were worn by Chris Reed in the garage scene whilst playing poker, this was to hide his emotions and facial expressions like many professional poker players would.

Chairs, the chairs used in the garage scene are garden chairs, we had some trouble trying to find some chairs to use but when the film is in black and white and the only shots you can see them in are the long shots you can't really tell that they are plastic chairs.

We also used a garden table as the table in the garage scene which once we put the poker mat over you couldn't tell. Sadly the photo I had for this is corrupt and will not upload.

Storyboard (Animated)

Quickly animated our story board (With a couple of subtle adjustments). It looks a little low quality, but this is due to a gif only being able to hold 256 colours :D

Opening Character Images

Taking into consideration what both Daniel and John have researched, I have prepared a quick mock-up of what I could depict our opening character sequence to be.

During the design, I have taken into account aspects from introductions to both short films and television introductions that we, as a group, like. For example, John mentioned the film ‘Snatch’, Danny mentioned the film ‘Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels’, and I have taken into account both the TV series ‘The Real Hustle’, and the opening sequence from the 2009 film ‘Bronson’ (among many others we have all discussed)

The following screenshot from ‘The Real Hustle’ shows the character obviously secluded from the background. The text then gives the characters name, and an indication to his ‘unique ability’.

The latter screenshot is taken from the trailer of ‘Bronson’. Whilst this doesn’t represent the effect we are going for, I found this colour scheme fascinating (Not only that, the remarkable history of the film which I love!).





Initially, you will come across below a stock image that was located on Google. The following images roughly resemble what we are trying to achieve, atmospherically.

The red image is certainly my favourite. As a group, we had the vision that the film would be edited to be black and white, but all shades/tones of ‘red’. Taking that into consideration, along with the Bronson screenshot, I feel this is almost perfect! The character is slightly enlarged, has several effects applied to it, whilst the font was carefully chosen, which I feel reflects the ‘Urban Thriller’ genre.

The stance of the character (It took me a while to find this, really), was carefully chosen. This is the similar approach to what we want to take, a soft of ‘action shot’. As discussed in our brief earlier, each character will be doing something productive (reading a newspaper, smoking, pointing run, drinking.. etc).

I have also included other screenshots that I had produced. Whilst I feel these give a similiar atmosphere to what we are aiming to achieve, I feel the red one is much more appropriate!

Storyboard

I took a couple of hours to create a storyboard. This is only showing the rough storyboard as the camera will see, an additional storyboard will be posted at a later date to shot titles.

I know that the drawings are close to terrible, but hopefully this will help us lots when it comes to filming! I believe Daniel is going to prepare the shotlist. I'll let the pictures to the marching..

Script (First Draft)

EXT. CARPARK – DAY

Four (4) characters are in a socially derelict car park, patiently and calmly waiting for the idyllic moment to leave.

The omniscient narrator begins to speaks (whilst the characters are introduced, this is non-diegetic sound;

Here we are… One final job...

Mickey Senseless Sullivan... What he lacked in brains, he gained in brute force

Paul dynamite Dunham, a real psycho... Get on the wrong side of him and you can kiss goodbye to your kneecaps

Tony Composed Coster - Subtly adding a little sophistication to the entire ordeal

Character 1 (Mickey ‘Senseless’ Sullivan), is smugly leant against the white Ford Escort reading a tabloid, feet crossed chewing gum. As the camera moves for a medium close up shot, he looks to the camera.

Character 2 (Paul ‘Dynamite’ Dunham) is arrogantly sneering, caressing his firearm. As the camera establishes a medium close-up, the weapon is cocked and he looks to the camera.

Character 3 (Tony ‘Composed’ Coster) is egotistically smirking, stood with a glass of liquor in hand, whilst nodding & staring. As the camera comes close, with an uncanny grin he looks into the camera.

Character 4 (Joe ‘Pre-pared’ Porello) is complacently stood a little further away from the rest. He begins to speak...

And me... I’m the ingredient that keeps it all together, my name? Joe Porello.

Once a close-up shot of Character 4 has been taken, all 4 characters with co-ordinately enter the 3-door car. (Character 1 will drive).



INT. GARAGE – DAY

4 Card Players are sat around a table. The ambiance is apprehensive, the area is identifiably dimly lit, and the table is filled with cards/money/drinks/ash trays.

Primary focus is given to ‘Character 5’ (‘Chad ‘Discreet’ Dawson’) (Who is friends of the other 4 characters).

The (same) Narrator begins to speak, whilst introducing Char Dawson)

Jack Dawson was good at what he knew… and what he knew was cards. He couldn't stick to the team, though… he only played for himself. And there we have, Chad Discreet Dawson

Character 5 is seen to smugly shuffle poker chips, and then toss several into the middle of the table.

We see Character 5 throw his cards on the table, (Have some sort of identifiable good cards that most audiences will expect... i.e. 2 Aces)

** As time a progress, Character 5 slides all of his poker chips into play across the table, to which 1 of the card players matches.

** Again, Character 5 throws his cards down on the table to reveal, unfortunatley... losing cards

** As time a progress, we see Character X stand up and sweep all the poker chips towards him, an obvious win. At which point, character 5 stands up and draws a weapon and points it directly at the card player from across the table.

However, Meanwhile…


INT. STREET/DRIVE – DAY

The car is seen to arrive at the end of the drive, leading to the house. All 4 characters get out with elegance, adjusting their jackets/ties as they exit the vehicle. They all join in formation, and begin to walk down the path leading to the garage.

Upon approaching closer to the garage door, each character pulls out a firearm of some sort.

Chad has let us down before, it's about time we repaid the favour…

Character #1 opens the garage door. Joe Porello begins to speak...

(This will actually collide with the previous scene. As the card player holds the threatening gun, the garage door opens)

Certificate regulations

When I began researching into the correct age certificate to give to our film I automatically knew we were looking at either a 15 or a 18 certificate. This is due to the nature of the film based on a criminal theme along with gambling it was decided it would contain strong language, violence and possible sex and drug references. As well as this the film is aimed at an adult audience so those two certificates are most suitable.

The guidelines for a 15 certificated film are:
Discrimination
The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory
language or behaviour.
Drugs
Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not
promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily
accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example,
aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.
Horror
Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic
or sexualised.
Imitable behaviour
Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and
self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be
copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.
Language
There may be frequent use of strong language (for example,
‘fuck’). The strongest terms (for example, ‘c*nt’) may be
acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated
use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.
Nudity
Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without
strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a
non-sexual or educational context.
Sex
Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail.
There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour,
but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable
unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is
sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.
Theme
No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is
appropriate for 15 year olds.
Violence
Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction
of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to
be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also
unlikely to be acceptable.
There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence
but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and
have a strong contextual justification.

The guidelines for a 18 certificated film are:
In line with the consistent findings of the BBFC’s public
consultations and The Human Rights Act 1998, at ‘18’ the
BBFC’s guideline concerns will not normally override
the principle that adults should be free to choose their
own entertainment. Exceptions are most likely in the
following areas:
• where the material is in breach of the criminal law,
or has been created through the commission of a
criminal offence
• where material or treatment appears to the BBFC to
risk harm to individuals or, through their behaviour,
to society – for example, any detailed portrayal of
violent or dangerous acts, or of illegal drug use,
which may cause harm to public health or morals.
This may include portrayals of sexual or sexualised
violence which might, for example, eroticise or
endorse sexual assault
• where there are more explicit images of sexual
activity which cannot be justified by context. Such
images may be appropriate in ‘R18’ works, and in
‘sex works’ (see below) would normally be confined
to that category.

The decision for our film to be an 18 certificate film comes from the fact it will contain strong violence, very strong language, weapons and violence that could be seemed as glamourising them making them imitatable, possible drug references that won't show that drugs are a bad thing. As well as a criminal theme that could promote crime.

Analysis of the first 15 minutes of Snatch

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.

Analysis of the first 15 minutes of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

For my analysis, I have chosen to review the first 15 minutes of the guy Ritchie film: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. The 18-certificate urban-thriller released in August 1998, boasts a very impressive array of awards and nominations. I have chosen to analyse this film as it’s whole genre and concept revolve around what we aspired our film to be; a thrilling wicked British urban thriller.

The opening scene shows a hand-held wide-angle establishing shot, dollying in to Jason Statham who is carefully enticing punters into gambling their money away to his obviously illegal activity. The shot cuts to a medium close up of Jason, to show he is the main character at this moment in time (Even though there is at least a dozen people on the scene). As it is the opening of the film, traditional credits often occur. In this instance, the picture dissolves into a black background with white text, “the Steve Tisch Company” (The executive director in this movie). A similar medium closeup shot is then shown, which quickly cuts to a medium shot, re-establishing the characters position amongst the crowd. Again the picture dissolves to black to show “Ska Films” again. (Throughout the first fifteen minutes, similar credits appear on numerous occasions, I will purposely miss these out as to save unnecessary and repeating explanation)

As the camera cuts back and forth, between the medium and medium closeup of Jason, he continuously attempts to sell stolen goods to the onlookers with a shallow focus (primarily to keep the attention on that one character). Just as Jason states that the goods are “Ten pounds”, the camera quickly cuts to a medium closeup shot of Nick Moran (Playing Eddie), who promptly replies that he will take one of the packages. Very similar shots occur for approximately twenty seconds; other characters on the scene are constantly coming into focus as they all move to try to get a better view of the goods on offer.



Non-diegetic music begins to play, which involves solo electric guitars typical of this genre of film. This is used to build suspense, and to let the audience know that something eventful may be about to happen, which it does. As Eddie states that the “Cossers” are here, a high angle closeup shot of the goods being thrown into a suitcase, as a point of view shot from Jason. The music becomes more intense and the “Cossers” (Police), come into frame just after both main characters vacate it. As the music continues, the editing becomes much quicker to obviously build exhilaration and excitement.

The camera cuts to a wide-angle shot, to establish the derelict scene that the two main characters quickly enter. The camera begins to quickly dolly back as they both quickly approach it, one with suitcase in hand. As they run past the right hand side of the camera, it swiftly pans to the right and stops to show the Cossers quickly pursuing in standard police uniform. The camera then shots an ultra-slow-motion, low low-angle shot, with Alan Ford narrating in the background giving more information about each character. Alan Ford’s voice is extremely distinguishable, and appears in many Guy Ritchie films as either a main character or a narrator. It shows them running down a flight of stairs and throwing the suitcase (with goods), in the air. This slowing down of the editing is to show the panic and how little time they have to think about their actions (quite ironic, as the scene is in slow motion!)



I have noticed in this scene, how de-saturated the editors have made the picture, and have darkened it ever so slightly. This is certainly typical of this genre, and gives a ominous/sinister atmosphere to the entire film

The camera then fades to black, and the words “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” is ‘inputted’ onto the screen, similar to how you’d expect a typewriter to perform. The music becomes more intense and louder, with vocals, as the narration stops.

As different scene fades in, which shows a tracking shot of Eddie entering the shop to meet two more characters (Jason Flymyng, playing Tom and Stephen Marcus, playing Nick the Greek), already in discussion. The camera dollies back slowly into a medium shot of all three characters whilst they discuss. Still as one continuous shot, the camera dollies backwards as the three characters approach it and begin to walk to the back of the shop. When at the back of the shop, the camera cuts to a very obscure unordinary shot, which shots an low extremely-low-angle shot, giving a closeup of Nick the Greek. This then cuts to a medium-long shot to show all character positions in the storeroom. Several medium-closeup shot-reverse-shots occur between Nick the Greek and Tom, whilst discussion what is included in a deal/price. This, along with several of the same medium-long shot takes the duration to around.



The scene changes to an interesting camera shot from the inside of (what appears to be), an oven where £25,000 cash is pulled out from, showing both Eddie and Tom in the background. This fades to black, and then fades to another fascinating shot of what appears to be from inside a cooking pot, showing Dexter Fletcher (Playing ‘Soap’). As he is carving a hot roast with a medium shot, tracking and panning to approach the next shot. This next shot is a long shot of Soap, and begins to dolly back towards him as three characters enter the scene. The characters all begin to speak, as the camera remains static.

As Tom asks where the money is, we hear a diegetic removal of the cooking pot lid. The camera promptly cuts to Soap, in a closeup who exclaims “Oy! Keep your fingers out of my soup!” A freeze-frame occurs whilst Alan Ford again begins to explain the situation. Upon resuming, we see Soap get a package out of the draw, and a closeup shows the large quantity of money (Again, £25,000).



This then cuts to a closeup of Eddie to show his expression and satisfaction that he has the money. A similar shot is then replayed on soap, before the camera resumes back to the wide-angle establishing shot… two characters begin to walk off screen.

The shot then cuts to an outside, (what appears to be), a wide angle shot, zooming in on “Harry’s Sex Shop’ sign on a brick building. The picture dissolves to another unordinary shot, zooming out to give a medium-closeup on P. H. Moriarty (Playing Hatchet Harry). He answers the phone and begins to speak. The camera then cuts to a closeup of Eddie, who is on the other side of the phone replying to the conversation. (This shot goes back and forth for around 15 seconds, before Harry puts down the phone). The camera extremely quickly pans to a closeup of Lenny McLean (Playing Barry the Baptist), who gives his opinion of Eddie. Here he uses strong language, and a very broad Cockney accent, typical of this film genre.

This then cuts to a low low-angle canted medium closeup of Barry, showing him ‘baptising’ some good-for-nothing character in some water. This interesting camera shot is to shot the difficulty that the character getting ‘dunked’ is in. Again, Alan Ford elaborates on Barry’s character.

The scene cuts to a medium-long shot of Barry sat in a dark room to the left hand side of the shot. This then cuts to Harry, a similar medium-long shot, however this time he is at the right hand side of the shot.

The scene then cuts to a low extreme-long shot of characters walking from left to right, establishing the scene. Non-diegetic music begins to play, similar to the music in the introduction. Whilst the shot stays the same, the music changes to more heavy tone, and alternate characters move from right to left and enter a door to show contrast between the two sides.



An indoor scene shows a long low shot of three characters counting money whilst sat down, speaking about the £100,000 they have gathered. As a character is introduced to the scene, one of the characters walks towards the camera where it cranes upwards to display a medium shot as he gets something from the fridge. The camera stays static for around 20 seconds whilst all characters talk about their neighbours. The camera continues to film, as two characters walk towards it; it begins to dolly back and quickly pans to the right before showing a medium shot from behind as they walk away from the camera towards a wall.



On the other side of the wall (or what is made to be), a medium shot of three characters shows a brief conversation, before the camera resumes back to the other (original side of the wall).

A separate scene shows the camera dollying forwards in a medium-closeup shot, following a character through some trees. This is then reversed to dollying backwards with a medium-closeup to show the character continuing to walk. This cuts to a new character in a medium shot, composed on the left hand side of the scene sniffing a test tube with non-diegetic Reggae music in the background.

A medium shot is then cut to; dollying and tracking the character approach the front door and open it. The camera pans round as it tracks to shot the characters come face to face (the character who opened the door, and the characters who entered the door) from behind bars.



Throughout the scene, we see references to things such as weapons, money strong language and unauthorized crime; features that you would expect in this type of genre. All of the characters are introduced one at a time, and can often be associated with a particular group of characters (be either how they speak, dress or their age).

The opening fifteen minutes of this film is extremely powerful. Allot of action takes place, allot of characters are introduced and the audience is left with a very entertaining powerful opening sequence.

Analysis of the first 15 minutes of The Departed

I have chosen to review the first fifteen minutes of 'The Departed' which is similar to our film. the Departed is from director Martin Scorsese a director famous for his gangster crime films such as 'Goodfellas'. Scorsese has never been scared to push the boundaries and his films are known for very strong language and violence, this is similar to our film as they are both for a mature adult audience.

I have chosen this film because it's storyline revolves around betrayal as mob boss Frank Costello (played by Jack Nicholson) has a man undercover in the police, however the police have a man undercover in the mob. At the end they all realsie what is going on and a lot of people are double crossed. This is similar to our film because the ending also contains a betrayal as Chad Dawson is killed.

The film opens with a black screen and white writing reading 'Boston, some years ago' this establishes the setting. This then cuts to what looks like news footage and from the people we see their clothes and setting give the audience the idea it is around the 1970's. Over this there is a narration (non diagetic) talking about the area and it's trouble, on screen we see rioting. The voice is a man with a gritty, low tone of voice which gives a sinister sort of feel. As the narration continues it cuts to a long shot, on a dolly following a man from the sideas he walks along. However the lighting is dark and the man is in the shadows meaning we can't see any of his features, this keeps the audience intrigued and in suspense but also makes the character darker in a way evil.

As he walks we see him smoking and the camera gradually zooms in on the side of his face, from this we still don't get to see his face just that he is wearing sunglasses and has a beard, he walks off camera and the shot cuts to an establishing wide shot of a cafe. The camera moves into the cafe which feels like your walking in, this gives a different perspective for the audience.

A medium shot showing a man behind the counter and a man with his back to us being served, however this is not the case as a close up then shows the shopkeep handing money back then a medium shot from the side where we can tell the man being served is the man from the previous scene in the shadows. He says 'don't make me come down here again.' The audience can now tell he is a powerful character. Close ups on the people around show they are nervous and scared around him. the man starts talking to a child sat at the counter, close ups on the child again show fear but as the man buys the childs shopping then gives him money we can see this man is very rich, he then offers the child a chance to make some extra money. We then see an over the shoulder shot showing the child walking away cutting to medium shots of the same child at church cut between long shots of the same child looking slightly older in a garage talking to the man from before (Frank Costello), who is again in the shadows showing darkness. He is talking about someone who tried to tell him what to do which is when the camera cuts to a medium shot of Costello, low angle looking up at him to show power, shooting a gun towards the camera which cuts to a high angle shot of a man falling to the ground with his hands tied behind his back, then a wide shot showing him shoot a women crouched next to him. It is now the audience know this film is going to be about crime, and the setiing of a beach and them having their hands tied gives the impression it is organized crime and Frank Costello is a mobster.

When the scene returns to the garage the camera is moving behind Costello using an over the shoulder shot so we can see him talking to the child. In this shot we can make out Costello is smoking a cigarette, however the next shot, a low angle shot looking up at him giving him power, he doesn't have the cigarette in his mouth. This is a continuity mistake that is very careless for such a great director and hopefully we will not make any obvious mistakes like this. he talks about being cops or criminals and the line 'When your facing a loaded gun, whats the difference?' stands out and gives the audience more of an idea it's about crime. As thecamera shows a close up of the childs face it cuts to the same shot n an adult (Matt Damon) this is a good shot because they look similar and the shot hasn't changed, the audience instantly knows it haas gone on in time and that the child has grown up. However when it zooms out we establish he has become a policeman. we see him going trough training, then we see a smiliar medium shot of another police man (Leonard Di Caprio) who is taking an exam.

It is now we hear a lot of very strong language and sex references that are frequent in every sentence and blend into conversation with their common use. The strong language is very common in crime films like this.

Editting here has got faster as it shows a graduation, it quickly cuts between close ups of different parts of the police uniform (gun, badge etc.) The fast editting establishes and speeds up the sequence which is showing a training process that will have taken months and fits it into aorund a minute.

A long shot showing a car pulling up with Costello inside cutting to a close up of Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) tells the audience taht something isn't right and that he still knows Costello. We see him in the car being given a gift and we then know he is still working for the mob.

There are two main costumes in the opening sequence, the police costumes then Frank Costello in a suit, this shows power and is similar to ours because we wear suits which makes us look more organized.

A shot I really liked was an iris which shows a black screen with a small circle where we can see a man standing at a road crossing, this zooms out showing the rest of the scene, we see a big building, but I like this shot because it is a very good way of making you focus on that man. A close up then shows the man is Sullivan which cuts to a craning shot looking down on him climbing stairs up the building, this is a good way of following him walking. Inside we have an establishing long shot of him in an office talking to two men. Over the shoulder shots and medium shots are mixed together here during the conversation, and it is eddited so we see who is talking then as they are talking it cuts to the other persons reaction. As he walks out we see a man sat waiting outside the office (Billy Costigan played by Leonardo Di Caprio) who we remember from before, he then goes into the office to talk to the two detectives. The shots are again similar to the previous office conversation. Costigan is then asked to go undercover in Costello's mob. this is cut between Sullivan sat in a briefing office being told about Costello.

throughout this certain parts have had very simple, quiet, relaxing guitars but as Costigan says he'l do it everyone has their role, and an up beat loud rock song kicks in followed by the title in white letters on a black background, standing out to the audience.

The sequence contains items we associate with mob films, alcohol, guns, money, cigars and cigarettes.

The lighting at the start is dark which is another thing we associate with crime.

Overall I like the opening sequence to this film because in the first fifteen minutes we know the role of the characters, Sullivan is undercover in the police and Costigan is undercover in the mob.

It uses characteristics we used in our films such as suits on our gangsters to make them look organized, props such as guns, cigarettes and cars.

Also there are many shots I liked that are in our film for example over the shoulder shots to establish the setting and characters and close ups to show emotion.

Overall Ideas that we've had

Since starting this coursework project around three weeks ago, each character has come up with some extremely intriguing and original ideas. Here are just some of the distinctive thoughts that are part of our two-minute introduction, and roughly who came up with them.

The scene pauses on each character to show name (Danny)
The colours & designs for this (Andy)
Each character has a unique ‘catchy’ name (John)
Each of which will have special trait/stance (Andy)
They should be in a derelict car park (Danny)
We should have an old retro car (John)
The pulling up of the car (Andy)
Certain shots from around the car (John)
Walking down the path (Danny)
Editing this in slow motion (Andy)
Have each character be symmetrical & rhythmic in the path (Danny)
Omniscient narrative (John)
Non-linear storyline (Andy)
Everyone in the garage, playing cards (John)
Edited in black and white, except red. (Danny)

Film Classification Certificate

Looking at the films I have already talked about by Guy Ritchie and the film Andrew mentioned ('Bronson') It is clear that the theme of our film is aimed at a much more mature audience. So as it is aimed at adults the decision is whther to classify it as a 15 or 18 rated film. The example films we have looked at have all been 18 rated apart from 'Rock n Rolla'. This is because the films contain very strong language, violence and drugs as well as possible sexual references. Our film is also likely to contain these so I have been researching on the bbfc website which is the British Board of Film Classification. This is the organisation that gives each film its age rating certificate. The website address is shown below:

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/general/

From this site and the guidelines they set out I have decided that as our film contains Very strong language, violence and possible drugs and sex references it may have been possible to be rated as a 15. However I feel that as the theme of the film is about crime this could mean there is a chance that it will glamorise crime and gambling. As well using themes that could be immitatable.
So after looking at the guidelines set our by the BBFC I have decided that our film will have a certificate of:


Due to Very strong Language, Violence, drug and sex references and a criminal theme.
This means our target audience is Adults over 18. Most likely young adults.
It has to be taken into consideration that even though the opening scene we will create may not depict eveything I have mentioned, the rest of the film will contain the content so the film should only be viewed by an adult audience.

Questionnaire Analysis

1. Are you male or female?
Although we tried to distribute our questionnaires out evenly between male and female, we quickly realised that a slightly larger amount of males were taking interest more in the questionnaire.

2. What age range are you?
For this, again we tried to be unbiased as possible. Although we are at college, and know a lot of people here; over half of the people that did the questionnaires were our age.

3. What film certificate do you typically watch (All that's appropriate)
It seemed that our audience watched allot of films, which are targeted at the mature teenage end. Although allot of the people that carried out the questionnaires were only 17, a vast majority liked to watch films that were 18+, but the largest proportion was the 12 & 15 certificates.

4. Have you ever seen films such as Snatch, Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels or Reservoir Dogs, Shifty, Lucky Number Sleven? (etcetcetc)
It’s odd, but allot of people at College have similar styles (of music, clothing, hair… etc), and it seems that movies are not much different. Allot of people have seen films which we got ideas from. It was surprising that well over half of the people watch allot of these films regularly

5. If no, why not?
Basically, this was qualitative data, so made it hard to analyse (This was intentional, we wanted to hear about why they didn’t watch the films). Generally, we found that people simply just hadn’t got around to it. The vast majority said that they had heard good reviews from friends & family, but haven’t watched them yet.

6. From your experience, on a scale of 1-10, how would you rate this genre of film overall?
This was surprising to us. Only ¼ of the people that carried out the questionnaire, thought that the genre of film (similar to the ones listed above), were less than a 5 (or average). This showed that ¾ of all people would potentially like our genre of film

7. Would you watch a film, based on this pitch "Long-separated friends & colleagues re-collaborate to pull-off the largest high-stake operation they've ever undertaken, for a potential jackpot of £250,000"
We spent a lot of time on coming up with this 20-word pitch. We feel that it has been reflected by our figures. Only a couple of people (More than likely the people that didn’t particularly like the genre of film), said they didn’t like it and wouldn’t watch it.

8. What other genre of films do you enjoy watching? (Tick all that apply)
This looks a little confusing at first. What we found, is that the genres with the most votes are Action, Comedy, Drama, Suspense, Thriller & War). Which is good. Our film (and films in our genre) also share similar aspects of those genres, such as Action, Comedy & suspense.

9. Where would you usually watch these types of films?
This was very surprising. We imagined that much more people would watch movies illegally on the Internet, but only a ¼ of them actually watch them on the Internet (legally or illegally, we don’t know). This may show, that if we get our film in production and finished, around a ¼ of the people that took the survey may (still) watch it on the Internet. (Of course, for a small budget film, TV & cinema is out of the question)

10. Do you have any favourite directors/actor/actresses?
This was again qualitative data and so couldn’t be put into a graph. Due to allot of people liking the films that we posted above, the results were quite predictable. There were actors such as Jason Statham, Brad Pitt, Dennis Farina, Mike Reid, Vinnie Jones, Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher (And anomalies ones... Simon Pegg, Nicholas Cage..). Also, favourite directors included Paul McGuigan, Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie… and then again, anomalies & obvious ones such as such as J. J. Abraham, Alfred Hitchcock…)

11. In your opinion, what makes a good film?
This was the final question with qualitative data. People in general said they like something with an intriguing storyline, likable characters, originality and actors that were not always superstars.

12. Does strong language/violence/drugs offend you?
This was great. It showed that around 5/6s of people didn’t mind strong language, violence or drugs… which is good as it’s likely that our film would include all of these if it was made (As it is typical of that genre of film)

Questionnaire Results!