Media Coursework Blog:

To get the feel of Crime films and what is included within them, I watched a range of crime films (both British and American to note the differences) including:

• Snatch
• Layer Cake
• The Long Good Friday 
• Rock n' Rolla
• The Godfather
• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
• Harry Brown
• The Bank Job
• Pulp Fiction

I noted the different conventions used in each and also common themes and motifs. I recognised that Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), Snatch (2000) and Layer Cake (2004) were the three films that I thought were typical British Crime films and  took inspiration from.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels:

·         Written and Directed By Guy Richie

·         Produced by Summit Entertainment

·         Released 28^th August 1998

·         Stars Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran and Jason Statham

·         Won British Comedy Award (despite being a Crime film)

·         Won British Independent Film Aware in 1998

·         Won Audience Award at the BAFTA’s  in 1999

·         Was nominated for Best British Film and the BAFTA Film Award in 1999

Snatch:

·         Written and Directed By Guy Richie

·         Produced by Columbia Pictures Corporation

·         Released 1^st September 2000

·         Stars Jason Statham, Brad Pitt and Benicio Del Toro

·         Won Empire Award’s Best British Actor (Vinnie Jones) and Best British Director (Guy Richie) in 2001

·         Won Special Recognition for Excellence of filmmaking in 2001

Layer Cake:

·         Written by J.J Connolly

·         Directed by Matthew Vaughn

·         Produced by Sony Pictures

·         Released 1^st October 2004

·         Stars Daniel Craig, Sienna Miller and Michael Gambon

·         Nominated for the Carl Foreman Award as well as the Most Promising Newcomer (both for Matthew Vaughn)

·         Won Empire Award’s Best British Director (Matthew Vaughn)

·         Nominated for Empire Award’s Best British Director (Vaughn), Actor (Daniel Craig), Film as well as Best Newcomer (for both Sienna Miller and Matthew Vaughn)

Different Types Of Characters That Are Used

The “tough guy”

In these three films, I recognised some common themes and motifs throughout them. Firstly, there are stereotypical characters, the main one being the “tough guy”, which is played by Vinnie Jones in both Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.

In Snatch, Vinnie Jones plays “Bullet Tooth Tony” who is hired by Avi to go after Frankie Four-Fingers, playing Avi’s debt collector. He is shown to be broad and muscular and is dressed formally for the majority of the time. He is shown to smash a man’s head with a car door (something that is again repeated in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) showing that he is a very violent character. He is also shown with a gun throughout the majority of the film.

Stills of Vinnie Jones

 as Bullet Tooth Tony

in Snatch

Both of these clips show Vinnie Jones in Snatch. From the clips, you can see that he is dressed formally in black and he speaks with a stereotypical London accent. He carries a gun with him at all times and he also swears frequently. He also appears in control all of the time, getting what he wants by the end of it.

In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Vinnie Jones plays a similar character as in Snatch. In Lock, Stock, he plays Big Chris who is Harry's debt collector. He is often seen with his young son, Little Chris, and gets violent and angry if anyone swears in front of him.

Central Characters:

In both RocknRolla and Layer Cake, the story is centred around one main character.

One Two is played by Gerard Butler in RocknRolla and is the main character in the film. The film follows him mostly throughout and shows him as small time crook but also as the leader of the “Wild Bunch”.

Daniel Craig plays XXXX in Layer Cake, named so as his real name is never revealed in the film even though he is the main character.

Although there are many other characters in both RocknRolla and Layer Cake, One Two and XXXX appear to be the focus of the films. By having just the one central character, the audience gets a more in depth, personal story of that one person as opposed to the characters in Lock, Stock and Snatch. 

I think that I will have one “leader” in my coursework that the story could perhaps focus on throughout. I will also have this characters as the voiceover as it will make it seem like it is from his point of view like in RocknRolla and Layer Cake.

Conventions & Mise En Scene

In these films there are certain conventions that I will try and include into my coursework. These include:

• Having males as the main characters as they are stereotypically used in Crime films due to their connotations of violence and crime.

• Drugs- many of the above films include drugs whether it is selling, smuggling or consumption.

• Alcohol- many scenes of the above films are in a pub or an environment where the characters can drink. The main characters are often shown with a pint of alcohol when they aren't committing crimes. 

                                            

• Smoking- characters that smoke are often seen in crime films. This could be due to the connotations surrounding smoking as "cool" from previous decades and it making the characters seem more dangerous.
• Weapons- the majority of the characters rely on guns to do most of the violence in the films but some of them reply on their own two fists to do harm. Vinnie Jones uses both guns and car doors repeatedly in Snatch and Lock, Stock to cause harm to others.
• Swearing- lots of swear words are uttered by the characters throughout the movies.
• Accents- In the British crime films, the majority of characters have a London accent and more specifically cockney accents. This is used to show that they aren't wealthy and that they are just regular people. 
• Original nicknames- some of the names given to the characters in crime films are completely unique and original making them stand out. In Layer Cake, the main characters name is never actually provided and in the credits the character is called XXXX. 
• Names of the bosses- I noticed that in the majority of crime films, the names used end in a "y" or "ie" such as "Lennie", "Harry", "Archie" and "Johnny". This tends to be more popular with the "bosses" in the films such as Archie in RocknRolla.
• Semi/Formal clothing for the "tough guy"- Vinnie Jones' clothing in the films tend to be either formal or semi-formal with him wearing smart black clothing. 
• Voice over- in the opening sequence, most of the films I watched included a voice-over. I thought this was very effective.
• Dark hair- the majority of characters in the crime films have dark hair. There are no/ very little characters with blonde or red hair, they are either dark hair or grey haired. This could make the characters seem more mysterious and alluring as they are the stereotypical conventions of males with dark hair.

Opening Scene Effects

From watching these and the opening scenes specifically, I saw some effects that were used in the majority of the films.I noted which ones I thought looked the best, how they were used and the ones that I could possibly try and incorporate into my coursework.

 In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, I really liked how it started off with a crime and then introducing the main characters. What I thought made it look so effective is the use of slow motion when the voice over started and how it returned to the high paced action when the voice over had finished. I thought that the voice-over was very effective and is something that I will definitely try to include. 

  

 An effect I liked in Snatch was how each crime is linked to the next one, making it all flow into each bit smoothly. I thought this was a very effective way to introduce each character and it also gives a sense of what he characters will be like in the film. This is important as you will only see the first couple of minutes in the opening scene and need to establish what role each character will have. To stop it looking repetitive, they used different camera angles and shots through the crimes which  makes it all the crimes look separate although it is obvious that they all link together. I want to include this effect into my coursework as I think it is really good editing. However, I think this would be very difficult to try and incorporate into my coursework.

Another effect that I thought was effective was how when each characters name comes on screen, the clip if frozen and it takes a sketch life effect with the name over the top which I like as it makes the character look more "shady" and look like they could carry out the crimes that they are committing.