Analysis of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" Opening Sequence

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The above clip is the opening sequence of the number one rated British gangster film called "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels".

Firslty, each shot is done as a simple and invisible cut to the next shot, this is useful to make a movie flow and go in a chronilogical order. Instead of using fades to introduce a new clip or a different title, simple cuts enable the clips to switch back and forth from a title to a movie clip.

The cinematography used is varied as sometimes it has point of view shots and sometimes it uses steady shots. The point of view shots allow us to feel like we are a part of the movie where we can see and hear what everyone else in the scene can hear through the diagetic sounds of talking, walking and the jewelry on the table. The give a sense of realism and can emphasize what we can feel and think because everyone else may be feeling the same, it also intregues us, therefore, it makes us want to peer over the other people's shoulders to see what is happening. This is shown at the beginning of the scene where the camera is tracking towards the crowd to see what is happening like a human, and to emphasize the realism it has people walking in front of the camera like people do with us in real life. When the steady shots are used these would have been either handheld or had a tripod used. These closeups help us to see the expressions on the face of the dealer, and also it allows us to know what he looks like. The midshots through the point of view shots helps the audience see what kind of clothing they wear or what thier characteristics are like how they stand or move. We can see that this dealer is a confident man.

The titles are white, old type-writer style of writing, on a black background. This allows us to see what the words say and who produced, stars and the name of the movie. As the movie title is revealed to us we see that it is "typed" into the screen as if someone is writing the story and telling us about it. This is a good way of opening a title scene because it doesn't just show the title, it plays with it and waits for us to see what the title is rather than straight away know what it is. The connatations of each title could mean that this person has a dark history and has renewed it, or it could be just so we can see what it says.

The clothes used show a stereotypical dealer trying to dress well but also is trying to keep warm as the day may be quite cold as he is wearing a black coat, dark coloured scarf. He may wear it to let the people in the crowd assume he is like them and none threatening, however, people with a "buzz cut" hairstyle often can look threatening as this is the style of hair cut that people who were once or still in jail have. He seems like a nice, confident, helpful person who is just trying to work, however, once the police are seen by him he eventually reveals his true personality of a dealer/gangster. The man runs from the police not wanting to be caught so this shows he has done something very wrong.

One specific editting was used on the scene where they are running through the alley way, the slow motion clip emphasizes the surreal feeling and fear that is running through them. This part is very memorable because it shows a surreal feeling.

The lighting is of a natural setting so it also gives the sense of realism.