What/ Who is being represented?
A bank robbery is being represented and an idea of not being able to trust anyone the clip lasts around 4 minutes and in that short space of time the robbers decrease from 5 to 1 due to killing each other out of greed.
How is it being represented?
When the men are killing each other they always do it from behind the man in a blind spot, this shows that the men do feel guilt and know what they are doing is wrong. When the final man to be killed in the scene is run over, it is the first time a man has not been killed by a bullet.
The film is represented in a true fashion we can see that each man is overrun by greed we know this as they are each willing to end another mans life for a bigger pay check. this is most probably a true representation of men in this type of work, they have no morals and this is shown in their ruthless nature.
What is Foregrounded and Back grounded?
The masks are prominent throughout the scene each masks shielding the mens identities this installs an element of fear towards the characters we can not see who they are of their expressions. Their is an elaborate building and setting throughout appearing to be a major city. there is also a vast amount of people throughout the scene cowering in the background which shows just how many people the robbery is affecting.
who's representation is it? Who's interest does it reflect? how do you know?
the director is attempting to represent the scene in the view of the thief's. We know this due to the majority of the shots are either close ups of the thief's or views from the perspective of the thief's for example there is a lot of shots during the opening scene taken from over the thief's shoulders. We are shown the interests of thief's and their intentions in stealing from the building. We know this as these men are the main focus of the scene if the director wanted us to observe the scene from the position of a civilian he would have used different filming techniques to highlight this to us.
How do people make sense of representation? According to what codes?
Barthe's theory: Barthe suggests that films are made in fairy tales either due to their happy ending nature or their eccentric style. It is hard to see happy ending panning out from the scene. Nevertheless, the eccentric nature is used in this scene the breaking in to what appears to be a high end bank is incredibly easy and at no pint are the men confronted by any security.
Mulvy's theory: The male gaze is not really appreciate in this scene. One could argue that the female gaze is more enrolled in the scene. The man defending the building is looked at from high angle showing dominance. Being the only man standing up against the criminals shows bravery from the man which could be considered as the female gaze.
Semiotics in the scene and who they are targeted at?
The opening scene is based around excessive violence and criminality. It is clear that this film is an action film and that there is probably far more violence to come in the later moments of the film. The fact that the men introduce themselves to the building by blazing machine guns highlights to the audience the desire and nature of the characters. the target audience for this film would be action film lovers between 8-70.
The overall felling given off by the clip is that the environment is very dangerous and in need of some innocence and bravery. However the only man willing to defend people is this scene appears to be the owner of the bank. Therefore we are unsure if he is doing out of comparison or protection of his wealth. The clip is fairly short so we have not been introduced to many characters but a violent dangerous and fast pace tone has been set for the film.
