The Bank Job
Establishing Characters;
Within the first two minutes, the main character 'Terry' is established. He is wearing a brown leather jacket, stands centre frame in front of a car lot with a sign labeled 'Terry Leather motors'. This clearly establishes the name of the character 'Terry leather' and the word 'leather' links with the clothing he is wearing. His accent is that of an East Londoner, and east London is associated with crime, his stubble and very short hair gives the appearance of a typical criminal, but not a mindless criminal, the care for appearance and good fashion could imply he is a criminal of interlect. Furthermore, later in the scene, a man dressed in blue overalls named Eddie, is using a machine to turn back the mileage on the cars, judging by the actions and dialogue of Terry Leather this is done with his authority and is part of his business, to add to this Eddie's dialogue states 'another Terry Leather low mileage'. This would suggest he is crooked, and perhaps a criminal. Terry asks 'Got your glad-rags sorted out for your wedding tomorrow' which suggests that Eddie is going to be getting married. Terry leaves Eddie, and a straight cut to another room sees Terry enter and exchange dialogue with a female sitting behind a desk; 'so, you getting married tomorrow Ingrid' this shows the audience that the two are getting married together. This gives connotations of friendship and trust between the three characters in the garage. When the two males dressed in black arrive in their black car, Terry mumbles 'Oh god' which suggests that these two visitors are not expected, not wanted and prepares the audience for the actions about to take place.
Establishing Setting;
A sunny beach, clear water and three people jumping and splashing in the sea sets the scene. 'The Caribbean 1970' appears at the bottom as part of editing. The exotic location instantly appeals to the audience, and the sexual nature of the play in the sea especially appeals to the male target audience. The people in shot, playing in the sea are of mixed race ethnicity and each have an afro, this conforms to the location stated through the editing. All of thi9s is accompanied with fun, upbeat non-diegetic music. After the title sequence a new location is presented to the audience. A garage down an empty street, grey sky and no activity in sight. The cars in the garage are all British made cars, the 'Austin Healey' car which is focused on with a close up, gives the feel that the film is set in England. To confirm this, text appears at the bottom of shot, 'East London 1971'. The accents and appearance of Terry are typical to that of an East Londoner. The non-diegetic music stops now and later turns to a low suspicious tone. The change in music between the two locations enhances the expectations of the locations.
Establishing Narrative;
The very start of the film begins with a sound bridge of 'T.Rex - Get it on' and a disorientating shot into water, the sun is shining and as an upward track surfaces the camera, the audience can see three people playing in the sea; one female has no clothing on her and another is having her bakini bottoms taken off by a male. As the scene develops, there is an over the shoulder shot of a man taking pictures of three persons performing sexual acts. This immediately sets an enigma in the audiences mind. There is then a fade to black edit, with the title sequence, and then a fade in to a garage in London. The fade in, fade out edit shows the audience that there has been a change in location. The dialogue between Terry and Eddie indicates there is going to be a wedding. Soon after the dialogue at the garage, a loud non-diegetic screech can be heard, followed by a long shot of a black car pulling up outside. Two males dressed in black suits wielding crowbars exit the vehicle. The non-diegetic music changes to a more dramatic lower tone to add suspense to the scene. This scene could suggest that 'Terry' is in some sort of trouble and could conotate that Terry owes money, as that is what usually happens to people who owe money to powerful men in crime genre films.
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