Layer Cake film opening analysis.

Layer Cake opening scene analysis. The opening scene begins with an establishing shot it reveals to us a shot of a black car door. It then turns itself into a medium close up. There is a lot of black associated with this scene. This is to promote to the audience that there is many mysterious danger in Layer Cake. Black is associated with violence and death. This means that its foreshadowing events in which are bound to happen in the film itself.

There are then non-diegetic sounds used. It’s a voice over. The voice over starts once the car doors are shown. This then continues throughout the rest of the opening scene. Daniel Craig is the lead character in Layer Cake. This suggests to the audience that he is the voice over. I think this allows the audience to feel connected to the character considering he is letting the audience know everything from his point of view. I think that this is a clever way to start Layer Cake because it makes the audience trust Daniel Craig more; it makes them feel more connected with him so that if anything band happens to him throughout the film it’ll play on the audiences heart strings. There is then an explosion in the car which blows the doors open. Although we don’t see the rest of the car. This is shot in a certain way. They’ve used Chiaroscuro lighting. This made the explosion look more threatening. The explosion was also clever as it’s a thriller crime film it connotes corruption. There is then an explosion, it cuts to a flash back. (Cross cutting) of an armed robbery outside some buildings. The lighting for this scene was a very milky non- ambient light. The scene is set in slow motion. This then states to the audience that that it’s a flash back. The milky lighting denotates a fire considering there was an explosion. The film has a circular narrative setting which constantly keeps the film moving smoothly and makes it just as interesting. There is then a tracking shot of a street which then turns into a medium shot/close up of a women’s face. It’s effective as it shows the fear in her face of a victim of crime. This is a very significant shot as women are always portrayed as insignificant and weak in a thriller films as they are ‘dominated’ by men. There is a transition from the women’s head to a man’s head which then leads to a flash back. It’s a bright scene which includes non-ambient lighting which suggests a happier period in someone’s life. There’s then a tracking shot that follows a girl walking through a hallway. There is then another transition shot of the women walking to a man walking in a grey hallway. They are holding a baton which shows men being dominant. The non-diegetic lighting in this shot makes the tone of the mise en scene change from happy to angry.



I have learnt while writing this essay that for crime based films it's a good idea to go back into a flashback so that the audience know how they got into prison and what happened to them.