An opening sequence could also be used to create the start of the narrative stages. The end of the opening may lead to the agent of change or equilibrium of the movie and therefore create a bigger hook for the audience.
Layer Cake Opening Sequence: Analysis
The opening to Layer Cake starts with a reverse zoom from the back doors of a robbery van and as the zoom progresses, the doors blow open. A voice over then comes in and starts with "When I was born, the world was a much simpler place; it was all just cops and robbers". We have no clue what the source of the is but from the final part of the first line, we get a clue what the genre of the film is. "Cops and robbers" tells us that the main focus of the film is crime and robbery.
After the reverse zoom from the van we see a couple of masked men swearing and shouting at people to get down and this also backs up the genre of them film. A shot of a woman hiding behind a car is then shown, and a graphic match then sweeps across her hair to the hair of a hippie in the 1960's. The hippie that is revealed by the transition is smoking some drugs which could hint towards more of the genre and maybe even the plot. The camera follows and woman's legs across the same room as the hippie that then uses another graphic match and fades to black, followed by a fade in to a prison guard walking round a prison hall. The guard walks past the men from the robbery and the hippie that was smoking drugs at a prison table discussing crime and working together. The voice over then says "We're in the wrong fucking game!" but the line goes with the movement of the robbers mouth, this could suggest that the voice over is done by the robber?
Another graphic match is used to switch from the prison to a pharmacy full of 'FCUK' branded drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy. This could be some form of product placement but either way it works well with other props used in mise-en-scene. A slow pan follows along one of the shelves in the pharmacy and the Daniel Craig is revealed as the voice over as the protagonist. We know it's him doing the voice over as when the line "they won't leave it to people like me" is narrated, Daniel Craig walks from behind the shelf. There is an automatic link made by the audience between the voice over and Daniel Craig. The drugs then change into usual drugs you'd see at a pharmacy and there is a very unique edit used here. As Daniel walks, the drugs change behind him like a shadow following him and this is all followed by a simple pan around the room.
We still do not know Daniel Craig's character's name which isn't really noticed. People that watch this film don't really pick up on the fact we never know the main characters name. But next we see him walking down the street, drugs in hand and a crane then follows up to a window of a dark room where Daniel walks in to where we see drugs being made by who we assume is Daniel's accomplice. Daniel instantly walks in and gets to work which shows that he may have a very controlled routine and he knows what he is doing. So far, he seems like a very organised and smart man as he is simply following what seems to be a routine. He says "I'm not a gangster, I'm a businessman.". This puts the audience on his side as it shows he is a trustworthy man.
A pan then follows around the table from one side to another to show the two men making and packing a pile of drugs. But when the pan reaches the other side of the table, there are police sirens heard. This makes the men stop what they’re doing and they both simultaneously look outside the window. This gives us the impression that the men and very safe with what they do and to know danger when they hear it. A reverse zoom then goes out of the window that we entered through and pans down on a crane to the police cars driving down the road outside the window. The pan hits the roof of the car and follows it through to a graphic match of a police car in Amsterdam. Therefore, the graphic match here was also the transition to another setting where a steadicam follows a group of grown men walking a street whilst the man that we assume to be in charge is on a phone call organising what sounds like a drug meet. We assume he is in charge as he is linking arms with a woman, is dressed in a fair bit of jewellery and is the one organising the meet.
A lamppost in front of the screen is then used to wipe across back into the drug room that the main character was previously in. In the room, the men are weighing out a batch of cocaine and neatly laying each package across the table. From the pan across the drugs on the table, there is then a fast cut back to the lead man in Amsterdam sniffing some cocaine and then a pan to another one of the men having sex in the same room. This all comes together to show/prove that they are some sort of important gang in the film and are ‘gangsters’.
Another quick cut shows Daniel opening the door to let someone dressed very smartly into the drug room along with a big and strong man. There is then a pan of big loads of money being handed to all of the men sitting at the same table. This emphasises the entire ‘businessman’ quote as they are doing it all neatly and the men are very happy and having a laugh whilst getting handed the money.
A couple of over the shoulder shots then show two of the men talking about when ‘Gene and Jimmy’ are going to turn up. From what we hear in the conversation, Jimmy and Gene are a pair that work together to collect and distribute the drugs made. Jimmy then collects a big bag of money and speaks to Daniel about meeting for lunch with a big dealer/distributer. We see a couple of over the shoulders whilst this conversation is happening of the other men fiddling with random items and not looking very impressed with why he wants to meet. This shows that Jimmy is a big deal and maybe they don’t safe about the meeting.
A steadicam then follows Daniel coming out of an estate agent that is apparently his secret job to make himself look like a normal everyday man. The camera follows him into a cab where he drives to meet with a Mr R Singh where some kind of deal happens and money is transferred to a bank account. A steadicam also follows Daniel out of the building and follows him down the street swinging a briefcase looking like a proper businessman.
Overall, the first impressions we get of the main character is that he is mysterious, smart and organised. He seems to have this routine that he does every day and he is sown to be a very respected man that nobody really hates as he does his own thing and he has this big plan to make his first million in his current business and then use it to get away somewhere to live the dream life.
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: Opening Analysis (PowerPoint):
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