As the writing is small and difficult to read in the screenshots above, I have written my mock exam out below.
Name of film: Layer Cake
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Year Made: 2004
Genre: Gangster Thriller
County of Origin: UK
Production Company: Man Films
Certification: 15
Awards: 3 won and 8 nominated
The target audience of Layer Cake is Males from 18-29. However the demographic group that found the film most appealing was Males under 18, who voted it 7.8 out of 10. While the 'target audience' gave the film 7.6 out of 10. The demographic that found it least appealing was Females over 45, who gave it 6.9 out of 10. This maybe due to the fact there is only a few female characters in the film. The female characters that are in the film are seen as sex symbols, for example Sienna Miller's character who having only just met the man, she calls him for, while joking that she is naked on the phone. This grabs the attention of a young male, while a older female would find this insulting and be repulsed by the film, for example in a review made by a user on IMDb "This is one of those films that blokes will walk out of very pleased but their partners may not feel the same." Similar films the target audience would find appealing to is 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and 'Snatch'. Both of these films conform to the same conventions with drugs, alcohol and women being used as sex symbols. For example from a review made by a IMDb user, "For the first 20 minutes I couldn't decide whether it was going to be a Lock, Stock or Honest."
In the opening shot, the director straight away has used the mise-en-scene to install fear, tension and violence into the film. It starts with the back doors to a van to a van, this is a generic convention savagely utilised in 'Essex Boys'; and a voice over of the main character talking the audience through what is happening, this is also utilised in 'Essex Boys'. Loud music is introduced when the back doors explode, leaving the mise-en-scene just full of grey smoke, unable to see anything. This adds tension and fear into the audience of what is behind the smoke and what is going to come out of the van. When the camera zooms out of the smoke, the audience can hear voices shouting, before seeing masked men run towards the van, while another guard with a machine gun is shouting at police to "Stay back". This alerts the audience and puts a sense of fear into them. As the camera moves round a car parked nearby, making it look like you, the audience, are running away from the danger and hiding behind the car. There is a extreme close up of a person's eyes. These show distress and fear, which immediately installs the same feeling into the audience. As the camera moves along the person's eyes the music starts to change before the camera moves to a different shot playing calm music with calm and safe colours in the mise-en-scene. This gives the sense that the audience have escaped and the mood of the film is now safe. The shot is of people sitting in a flat smoking drugs, this connotates the safety people feel when they take drugs.
There are cultural signifiers of London used in 'Layer Cake'. A review from Empire Magazine agrees with this, "captures London's essence but doesn't Americanize it. This is the first time in a while that we've seen London as it is - an affluent European capital." The shots of urban London scenery do this. While famous cultural signifiers for London are used as well, examples of these are the black taxi and the English cafe serving cups of tea and full English breakfasts. While they tell the audience about the location of the film, they also tell the audience about the characters. Being in a English cafe shows that the main characters are firmly stuck in the stereotypical view of being a middle-class citizen. While at the end of the film after the job has been completed they are eating cake and drinking tea in a big mansion, suggesting that they have 'made it' and moved up in the world to become upper class.
The narrative structure of Layer Cake uses flashbacks and flashforwards often in the film. At the beginning of the film flashbacks are used to set the situation of the storyline, with a series of 4 flashforwards explaining drug trade and how it developed dyring time. While flashbacks are also used when a character is telling a story of what happened, for example Gene (Colin Meany) telling the main character (Daniel Craig, his character isn't given a name) what happened to the Duke (Jamie Foreman) and where he disappeared to. During the mid point of the film a number of flashforwards and flashbacks are used. This is at the stage of the film where the main character realises his life is indanger, and the flashforwards and flashbacks are used in quick succession to show his stress and worry.
The location of the film is mainly London, England throught the film. The way the location is filmed advertises it as the 'Real London' to the audience, although it wouldn't make the audience rush there for a trip. The London that is shown is not the main attractions of 'Big Ben' or 'The London Eye', it shows London as a European working city. This shows that London isn't just "a concrete shrine" but a working middle class city, with the dull shades of grey in the mise-en-scene of the cloudy sky and the tall buildings.
There are many parts of 'Layer Cake' that involve stereotypical views of particular social groups. Many of the gangsters that are in the film have a cockney London accent, suggesting to the audience that 'all' cockneys are violent people. This goes along with the idea of 'Green Street, where the most violent characters are cockney, while the American is weak and vulnerable indicating that the director is having a dig at the USA. There is also a representation of the English class system, with the idea of 'Middle class vs. Upper class'. The middle class are having to work for the upper, like slaves expected to do what they are told, and the middle class try to break this by outsmarting them. There is a very strong misrepresentation, which is used in many films not just thrillers, of the evil gang from the eastern side of the world, for example countries like Russia, China, and the Middle East. In Layer Cake, all of the gangsters that are from aboard are seen as evil and the enemy, thus there is xenophobia in the film. The ideology is not a major factor in Layer Cake though, as there is no exact good or evil side, both could be seen as good or evil. The characters themselves decide to work with people at the risk of their own lives. The film is misogynist and xenophobia with the negative representation of women and foreigners.
Layer Cake reflects historical and social context to build up the storyline. The film uses explores the violent underworld of drugs and the violence of football hooligans. These subjects are still in the minds of peopele making the sense of danger higher. There is the social context of Easteners being evil because of terroism and communism. These groups are seen to evil to people in real life, so when someone from a countrywhere terrorism and communism exists they are stereotyped as evil even if they are against these ideas.
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Year Made: 2004
Genre: Gangster Thriller
County of Origin: UK
Production Company: Man Films
Certification: 15
Awards: 3 won and 8 nominated
The target audience of Layer Cake is Males from 18-29. However the demographic group that found the film most appealing was Males under 18, who voted it 7.8 out of 10. While the 'target audience' gave the film 7.6 out of 10. The demographic that found it least appealing was Females over 45, who gave it 6.9 out of 10. This maybe due to the fact there is only a few female characters in the film. The female characters that are in the film are seen as sex symbols, for example Sienna Miller's character who having only just met the man, she calls him for, while joking that she is naked on the phone. This grabs the attention of a young male, while a older female would find this insulting and be repulsed by the film, for example in a review made by a user on IMDb "This is one of those films that blokes will walk out of very pleased but their partners may not feel the same." Similar films the target audience would find appealing to is 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' and 'Snatch'. Both of these films conform to the same conventions with drugs, alcohol and women being used as sex symbols. For example from a review made by a IMDb user, "For the first 20 minutes I couldn't decide whether it was going to be a Lock, Stock or Honest."
In the opening shot, the director straight away has used the mise-en-scene to install fear, tension and violence into the film. It starts with the back doors to a van to a van, this is a generic convention savagely utilised in 'Essex Boys'; and a voice over of the main character talking the audience through what is happening, this is also utilised in 'Essex Boys'. Loud music is introduced when the back doors explode, leaving the mise-en-scene just full of grey smoke, unable to see anything. This adds tension and fear into the audience of what is behind the smoke and what is going to come out of the van. When the camera zooms out of the smoke, the audience can hear voices shouting, before seeing masked men run towards the van, while another guard with a machine gun is shouting at police to "Stay back". This alerts the audience and puts a sense of fear into them. As the camera moves round a car parked nearby, making it look like you, the audience, are running away from the danger and hiding behind the car. There is a extreme close up of a person's eyes. These show distress and fear, which immediately installs the same feeling into the audience. As the camera moves along the person's eyes the music starts to change before the camera moves to a different shot playing calm music with calm and safe colours in the mise-en-scene. This gives the sense that the audience have escaped and the mood of the film is now safe. The shot is of people sitting in a flat smoking drugs, this connotates the safety people feel when they take drugs.
There are cultural signifiers of London used in 'Layer Cake'. A review from Empire Magazine agrees with this, "captures London's essence but doesn't Americanize it. This is the first time in a while that we've seen London as it is - an affluent European capital." The shots of urban London scenery do this. While famous cultural signifiers for London are used as well, examples of these are the black taxi and the English cafe serving cups of tea and full English breakfasts. While they tell the audience about the location of the film, they also tell the audience about the characters. Being in a English cafe shows that the main characters are firmly stuck in the stereotypical view of being a middle-class citizen. While at the end of the film after the job has been completed they are eating cake and drinking tea in a big mansion, suggesting that they have 'made it' and moved up in the world to become upper class.
The narrative structure of Layer Cake uses flashbacks and flashforwards often in the film. At the beginning of the film flashbacks are used to set the situation of the storyline, with a series of 4 flashforwards explaining drug trade and how it developed dyring time. While flashbacks are also used when a character is telling a story of what happened, for example Gene (Colin Meany) telling the main character (Daniel Craig, his character isn't given a name) what happened to the Duke (Jamie Foreman) and where he disappeared to. During the mid point of the film a number of flashforwards and flashbacks are used. This is at the stage of the film where the main character realises his life is indanger, and the flashforwards and flashbacks are used in quick succession to show his stress and worry.
The location of the film is mainly London, England throught the film. The way the location is filmed advertises it as the 'Real London' to the audience, although it wouldn't make the audience rush there for a trip. The London that is shown is not the main attractions of 'Big Ben' or 'The London Eye', it shows London as a European working city. This shows that London isn't just "a concrete shrine" but a working middle class city, with the dull shades of grey in the mise-en-scene of the cloudy sky and the tall buildings.
There are many parts of 'Layer Cake' that involve stereotypical views of particular social groups. Many of the gangsters that are in the film have a cockney London accent, suggesting to the audience that 'all' cockneys are violent people. This goes along with the idea of 'Green Street, where the most violent characters are cockney, while the American is weak and vulnerable indicating that the director is having a dig at the USA. There is also a representation of the English class system, with the idea of 'Middle class vs. Upper class'. The middle class are having to work for the upper, like slaves expected to do what they are told, and the middle class try to break this by outsmarting them. There is a very strong misrepresentation, which is used in many films not just thrillers, of the evil gang from the eastern side of the world, for example countries like Russia, China, and the Middle East. In Layer Cake, all of the gangsters that are from aboard are seen as evil and the enemy, thus there is xenophobia in the film. The ideology is not a major factor in Layer Cake though, as there is no exact good or evil side, both could be seen as good or evil. The characters themselves decide to work with people at the risk of their own lives. The film is misogynist and xenophobia with the negative representation of women and foreigners.
Layer Cake reflects historical and social context to build up the storyline. The film uses explores the violent underworld of drugs and the violence of football hooligans. These subjects are still in the minds of peopele making the sense of danger higher. There is the social context of Easteners being evil because of terroism and communism. These groups are seen to evil to people in real life, so when someone from a countrywhere terrorism and communism exists they are stereotyped as evil even if they are against these ideas.
Jamie where is your original mark sheet, this is important. Your mark was level 3 13-14/20 and strong on representation plus it was well researched. Have you revised the original?
ReplyDeleteJamie please scan your original exam paper plus assessment sheet onto your blog.
ReplyDeleteWell done for evaluating audience responses to "Layer Cake" and identifying the demographic of the target audience. Also thanks for scanning your original essay onto your blog.
ReplyDelete