How does the opening of 'Layer Cake' work?

The very first few seconds of 'Layer Cake's opening intrigues the audience of the two enigma codes; what is in the mis-en-scene? and who is talking? - As the camera zooms out. action codes are made as the audience discovers the mis-en-scene of a car set in the 1960's - the editing of the black and white shots and the fashion style of the extras make the 60's timezone clear. If the audience are kept intrigued of who is speaking, the opening will work as it keeps them interested.
The graphic match of the 60's girls hair through to the 70's hippie's hair not only makes the scene flow elegantly, but keeps the audience motivated and entertain as it keeps them interested by the cleverness of this transition, also it illustrates time moving on.
The sepia edit and the fashion of the hippies make it clear to the audience to understand that this shot is set in the 1970's. Without making it too obvious, the theme and genre of the film has been established in the first 35 seconds of the film (drugs and violence)- the 60's people are shooting with guns and the hippies are smoking drugs.
The enigma code of 'who is talking?' is revealed as soon as Daniel Craig say "people like me" and enters the shot; making it clear to the audience of who he is and that he is the heroin so the audience should be on his side. Although a drug dealer, to get the majority of the audience on his side, he stresses the fact that he is a "business man" and a fair one too. He also stresses that he respects the law - "it is only the very stupid people who think the law is stupid".
By making the audience become on his side, despite his controversial job; they will more likely sympathize and agree with him, looking up to him as more of a hero and the 'goody' that makes the story work.
Throughout the sequence, cross cuttings are made between Daniel Craig's characters life and friends in England, to a group of drug dealers in Amsterdam. The enigma code held here is 'who are the Amsterdam people?' and 'what relevance do they have?' - This enigma code is held throughout the opening sequence which will grip the audience into watching the rest of the film. Clues are given about the type of characters they are - as soon as Daniel Craig mentions "wannabe gangsters" and "stupid people", the scene cross cuts to the Amsterdam characters. The obvious stupidity given to these characters and the mi-en-scene of them kicking a car and not being able to find the greenhouse, gives them a negative image from the audience - presumed to be the agent of change in the film.
Daniel Craig is given the opposite image; the mis-en-scene shows very high tech weighing scales, showing that he is high tech and professional. It also shows him giving out large sums of money to his workers making it clear that he is respected by his piers, fair and also in charge, this makes him even more liked by the audience. The more audience that like Daniel Craig's character, the more the whole film will work.
The music introduces the genre of the film too; it is modern sounding, relaxing chilled form of dance music; showing the film is set in modern times, the relaxed mood reflects Daniel Craig's relaxed character and dance music is associated with drugs. As these factors are made more clear to the audience and suits the theme of the film, the rest of the film will flow better and will be easier for the audience to understand.
Another enigma code used to hook the audience is 'why does the boss want to see Daniel Craig's character?' - he suggests "a spot of lunch" - the tone of voice is suggestive and implies there is a hidden serious meaning behind it, this enigma code is left to feed into the rest of the film, hooking the audience even more.
As Daniel Craig's character becomes more liked, the Amsterdam characters become more disliked, clues of the plot are fed through shots and music, action codes are missed out for the enigma codes and entertaining, clever shots are made, the audience would be hooked for the rest of the film and kept intrigued by seeing the introduction - which is the main purpose of the introduction; and that's how the opening of 'Layer Cake' works.

How does ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ work effectively as an example of a film opening?

The purpose of any film opening is to introduce the characters and the plot, and keep the audience interested in order for them to watch the rest of the film. ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ contains many enigma codes that questions the audience, keeping them interested as they would want to know what happens next. Some action codes are used to answer the enigma codes which enable the audience to understand what is going on. The heroin of the plot is also introduced and we learn aspects of the personality also revealed by action codes.
The very first enigma code that strikes the audience is ‘why is the girl running?’ the tone of the music and the fact that the camera is following her tricks the audience into thinking that she is being chased, whereas the action code is revealed when a climbing net goes into the mis-en-scene which she then climbs up reveals that she is just training. By this, another enigma code is questioned; what is she training for? This is instantly answered when a man talks to her with an FBI cap on, making it clear she wants to work for the FBI. The audience also want to know who this girl is, this is answered when a girl walks past her and says “Caprice!”.
When Caprice gets into the building she asks to see Mr Crawford. An action code is given when the door sign says ‘Behavioural Science’ which tells us Mr Crawford’s job and what Caprice is working towards.
The disequilibrium is introduced with the enigma code ‘Why does Mr Crawford want to see Caprice?’ this is answered when he gives Caprice her mission to talk to Hannibal Lector. “Hannibal the cannibal” Lector is made out to be a suspicious character the way he is described, the enigma code here is ‘Who is Hannibal Lector?’ and ‘Why is he dangerous?’ this enigma code is left in order to create a plot and keep the audience interested throughout the whole film.
For the introduction to work, the audience must support the hero/in. Caprice Starling is introduced as the heroin. In order for the audience to see her as an inspirational character the film makers must get her on their side. We learn a lot about Caprice in the introduction; the fact that she’s training alone suggests she’s desperate to get the job and she’s a hard working determined character, the determination is illustrated with the amount of sweat on her sweater. We know she is not training alone because she has no friends because when the girl walks past, she high five’s Caprice and says “Caprice!” which also introduces her name, and shows she’s a likable person. When Caprice meets Mr Crawford, he reads out her high grades to her which tells the audience she is smart. The audience also get the impression she is brave, the mis-en-scene of her going into the lift is her in a grey sweater surrounded my tall men in red, Caprice doesn’t appear bothered by these men and it also shows she’s an outsider.
The audience also discover Caprice is quite low in status in the FBI as she addresses everyone by “sir” and whilst she is wearing a tracksuit, the higher status men are wearing suits. Her braveness is also mentioned when Mr Crawford asks if she “spooks easily” and she replies “no, not yet” – this also suggests she may experience something that may scare her later in the film.
The inspirational music when she appears on the mis-en-scene enhances her likability from the audience. The audience do not see her as suck up to Mr Crawford as she stands up to him – this gives her her own personality rather than one created by doing everything she’s told and more.
The opening of ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ works because the audience are on Caprice’s side and aspire to her, and although most enigma codes are solved with action codes that help the audience know what’s happening, some are left enigma codes so the audience carry on watching the rest of the film as they would naturally be curious of what happens next.
The use of action and enigma codes in this film has helped me use it in the creating of my own film. The action codes are that we know who the female characters are (names) and we know where they are and what they are doing. Also the flashforward is an enigma code as we don't know how the man plays a part in the film
The enigma codes are who is the man with the hammer? Did the girl stab/kill him? What was he doing there? All these enigma codes would help my audience be interested in the rest of the film.

Zombieland pp

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MEDIA FILM

In the editing of our film, we added in some transition to make the film more effective and illustrate what is going on, making it more clear to the audience.
During the classroom scene, two fade-in’s were used between the clips of the pupils looking normal, to looking bored, to falling asleep. The fade-in’s showed the audience that time had passed.
A circular overlaps of the classroom scene to the conversation scene was used to show that both sketches were completely different, as they were in the same location and otherwise it would confuse the audience.
A fade-out into black was used during the falling to sleep scene, the black represented the night and the eyes closing, and a fade-in was used when the person woke up to represent eyes opening and the daylight.
Jump cuts were used in the walking towards the camera scene. This created more of a shocking/ creepier atmosphere in the shot as they are unexpected to the audience.
The transition that didn’t work was the dissolve in the middle of the conversation, this transition was irrelevant and made the conversation not flow as well, and made it appear to the audience that time had passed.

media :)

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