The second film I am going to analyse is ‘Snatch’

Snatch uses many features in its opening scene to give an introduction to each character. The first frame of the opening sequence is the internationally recognised logo of ‘Columbia pictures’ by ‘Sony pictures’. This instantly signifies that it is made by a big budget studio and therefore be aimed at a mass audience. This means that it will follow the predictable codes and conventions of the adventure/action movie genre.


Then the credits appear. As soon as the credits appear the audience instantly know that it is a serious film, all the credits are in black and white, which are serious colours. Then the actor starts to talk over the credits introducing himself. The voice sounds intimidating, this is very important at the start of the movie as the codes and conventions tell the audience that it is going to be a gangster film and it will be serious.
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Then the camera moves above the person’s head and into the character speaking. Using a high angle camera movement shows they are being looked down on and maybe in an interview listening to a significant figure. The use of negative colours minimises the colour on the screen. This is continued from the credits, to show that there will be no jokes when it comes down to business.

The camera then zooms in on his face, as he is telling the story about himself and the person sitting next to him. The lighting plays a major part in this scene as it is just focusing on these two characters as if they are in trouble. The lighting used makes the audience feel all the attention is focused onto them.
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They are also set in a dull room, maybe underground, which creates suspense within the audience. With his voice over the top of the camera movement it really does tell the story well.

It then fades in and the shot goes black, as if a book was closing. He talks about a previous encounter and this is what the rest is going to show. It then goes onto a T.V screen which is still black and white. It is CCTV footage which shows that the characters are up to something suspicious. Whilst the characters are being scanned by security guards the credits start to appear.
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Introducing all of the characters is a major part of an opening scene. With Italian music in the background you really do feel it is a mafia type of film.

Once the credits are finished the four actors arrive at their destination undercover, when the manager of the office has a go at them there is major pause, then all the actors rip the jacket off the guy and the music speeds up, the music is drum and bass and really excites/speeds up the film. All of the guns are taken off of the guys shirt and they start to harass the office workers. When the guy rips off his coat and the guns are there, the camera zooms in as the song gets louder, this really goes well together. After the guns are ripped off his chest it zooms into the office manager’s face, this is a really good way to show surprise on someone’s face. When they start running around with the gun’s, a change in shot (of character) happens, this is done by a twist of the camera, this is used to show confusion of the situation.
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When they are finished with that they threaten the workers and they get their diamond. When they are in the van they open the case to see the diamond and the word ‘Snatch’ appears on the diamond and spins round. This is when the music starts which really makes the film see like a gangster film and the people know how to hustle.
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Then the characters start to get introduced. It starts with ‘cousin Avi’ looking at the diamond in an over the shoulder shot- which really shows a conversational style, and it pauses on his face to introduce him.
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Each character is introduced like this. But a very good part about this opening scene is that every introduction of the characters is linked together. E.g. when ‘cousin Avi’ shuts the safe door, ‘Sol’ opens his one to take money out, with this show the camera pans form left to right. All of these links show that they are working together and that they are a unit.
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Each character might throw something or shut something to link it in with the next shot, it is a very quick and understandable way to do it.
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When all of the characters have been introduced the camera then spins back into the diamond and goes back to the shot of all of them in the van. As if the introduction never happened.
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For the rest of part 1, it show ‘Turkish’ convincing ‘Tommy’ to buy a caravan and it shows ‘Tommy’ buying a gun. But it shows it buy cutting the scene with it saying earlier.