SNATCH

THE OPENING TO SNATCH

INDUSTRYSnatch was made in 2000 and is a British comedy-crime

film written and directed by Guy Ritchie. The film was

produced by Matthew Vaughn and edited by Jon Harris.

The budget for this film was $10,000,000 however made

$83,557,872 at the box office, being one of the most

successful films that Britain has made. SKA films is a small

but British film company which was used as a studio to

produce Snatch. Snatch was distributed by Columbia

Pictures and Screen Gems (USA). Columbia Pictures

Industries is an American film production and distribution

studio which is part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture

Group owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. It is one of

the leading film studios in the world and a member of 'the

big six'. Again, Screen Gems is also an American film

production company and subsidiary company of Sony

Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture

Group. After visiting Paris Film festival, I discovered that

one main way of making a film sell was to have a well

named star incorporated into the film and therefore

instantly set themselves up for success when they hired

Brad Pitt. Not only this, but due to British films being hard

to distribute globally, teaming up with American distribution

companies would allow worldwide distribution more

accessible and more of an opportunity to crack American

audiences, which Snatch did.

TECHNICAL – MISE EN SCENEWhen watching the beginning of Snatch it became

apparent to me that all of the men are wearing suits

and top hats, this is therefore conventional to a noir

film. The men seem to be taking the form of a group

which could therefore be associated as a gang,

again this is a conventional thing to see in a noir as

their narratives are built on crime in cities, however

I have noticed that older noir films seem to have

fewer characters mainly focusing on one male

protagonist who is normally a detective and a

femme fatal who the protagonist falls in love with

and therefore helps the femme fatal fight against

the people she is having trouble with. Neo noir’s

have escalated this and introduced gangs, this

could potentially be due to the increase of gang

violence in modern society, and therefore brings a

hint of social realism. Although Snatch seems to be

a film that incorporates gang violence and people

working in teams, it has still incorporated long

detective coats into the film, therefore making this

film conventional to a noir film as this is part of the

costume a main protagonist would wear.

TECHNICAL – MISE EN SCENEIn the opening sequence of Snatch there were five settings.

Setting1: A detectives room – this very conventional to a noir film

as the protagonist is normally some sort of detective. However in

this case the room is used as a starting point to the story to allow

the main character to start explaining how he got there, again

conventional to a noir, specifically to a confessional noir.

Setting 2: A building full of narrow hallways – A group of men enter

this building after having security check them first. The white walls

and black doors along with the narrow hallways make the setting

feel very prisonlike. This setting allows for unusual camera shots

that exaggerate how closely the men are standing together

creating a claustrophobic effect and making the audience watching

feel uncomfortable and suspicious to where these men actually

are.

Setting 3: A lift inside the building – Again this allows the group of

men to stand closely together and allows for unusual

claustrophobic shots, that will again make the audience feel

uncomfortable and suspicious on where they are actually going

and therefore building up tension.

Setting 4: An Office – Props such as desks, computer chairs,

computers, filing cabinet, files and planted pots have been used to

make this look like a normal working office and therefore the

audience are falsely lured into relaxation after building up tension

of where the group of men were headed , until the shootings and

diamond stealing happens!

Setting 5: A round table - There are a load of men sat around this

table playing poker, the small size of the table and the room make

the room seem claustrophobic and the low key lighting gives the

room a grimy appearance, very conventional to noir films.

TECHNICAL – MISE EN SCENEProps:

The use of guns in Snatch is a conventional prop to

have in a noir or neo noir film, this is because

conflict is a conventional narrative theme to have

and the popular choice of weapon that has been

throughout noirs and moving into neo noirs has

been guns.

Diamonds seem to be the cause of the conflict in

Snatch as the group of men shoot at the men in the

office in order to steal the diamonds. Again this is

conventional to a noir or neo noir as their would

normally be a prop and who owns that particular

prop that causes the conflict, if not a prop then it is

also conventional for the femme fatal to be the

cause of conflict.

Lighting:

Lighting is such an important aspect of noir and

neo noir films. Low key lighting adds to the dark

and dreary atmosphere that a noir or neo noir aims

to create. Low key lighting is present in Snatch,

although as a neo-noir Snatch is filmed in colour,

the low key lighting almost makes the film look

black and white in some areas.

TECHNICAL – FISKEA particular setting used in Snatch, along with

the camera shots and editing transitions used

allows the audience to become stitched into

the film. As the group of men walk through the

narrow hallways in the building point of view

shots are used and it becomes apparent that

the audience are viewing these high angle

shots from a CTTV monitoring room. This

becomes apparent when pan camera moment

is used during the point of view shots to move

from one CCTV screen to another. By stitching

the audience into the film in an effective way

that Snatch has it allows the audience to feel

more of a part of the film therefore increasing

their suspense and confusion as they don’t

know where they are viewing these characters

from and therefore persuading the audience to

keep watching as their attention has been

captured.

CAMERA AND EDITINGIn Snatch there is a lot of use of close-ups and

mid-shots to create the sense of

claustrophobia for the audience as in reality

we were not used to viewing things so close

up creating an uncomfortable atmosphere.

High angles and low angles are used also,

again this creates an uncomfortable

atmosphere as as an audience we were used

to viewing things at eye level.

As well as unusual camera shots and angles

being used, unusual but effective use of

editing is also used in Snatch. In the opening

sequence I frequently saw editing taking the

form of rotating into the next show, again

allowing the audience to feel uncomfortable as

we are not used to viewing things upside

down, but at the same time allowing smooth

transitions into different camera shots and

scenes.

TARGET AUDIENCE

Guy Ritchie had a specific target

audience for this film which was men

aged around 25 – 30. However this

particular film would be successful

with a different age demographic of

young boys around 12. This is due to

the film lacking sex and explicit scenes

or even suggested in the film. This

therefore shows an alternative target

audience to think about when

producing my own opening sequence,

as compared to the other films I have

analysed I could imagine them being

aimed at an older target audience.

http://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/reviews/snatch/