Analysing Layer Cake.

Looking at the opening monologue and first scene of layer cake, iconic images and refferences have already been used. The film starts as a sort of time walk, of how drug deals and drug dealers started out and how the attitudes and power of gangsters has changed throughout the years. It shows the tradioional drug "stick up" with a classic 'sawn off shot gun' shoot out scene where the men are wearing balaclavas and are jumping out the back of a van. These are the tradiotional things that people associate with a drug deal gone wrong and is a very stereotypical scene for a gangster/crime film. It also takes us through the 'Hippy' generation of drug users and how the attitudes went from power and money, to peace and harmony (however, this was only short lived). This part of the time walk also uses stereotypical costume and make up, the hippies in the scene have long hair and wear lose fitting baggy clothing and the characters are shown as relaxed and spaced out. The use of these 2 iconic era's gives us a complete contrast of the drug underworld and how it has progressed through time. The use of iconic 'happy/hippy' drug users, highloghts the 'good'effects of drugs and how the drug business at that time was a 'happier' place. The contrasting gang 'shoot 'em ups' of modern day then highlight the bad side of drugs and the drug trade and show. These 2 contrasting times show how drugs have gone from small time recreational use, to big business. Drugs have now become a way of gaining power, security and money but in a glamourous and tax free way.
The film then progresses to show Daniel Craig walking into a shop and on the shelves are drugs with brand names, as Daniel Craigs monologue reaches its end, the drugs on the shelves change into normal products. These iconic items have been used to promote the film, they have been used in film trailers, posters, leaflets and on film websites etc.
The shop scene then cuts to Daniel Craig at home with the drugs showing how he doubles the amount by adding to them and the whole time, the voice over is telling us what is happening and why it is happening. It shows the gangsters sitting roung a table dealing with their money. The characters are dressed in typical gangster fashion, they are all wearing suits and some are smoking cigars. These are all iconic props and costumes that are asociated with gangsters.
The use of the iconic images from the film for advertising, is also something we could look at. For our promotion materials, we need to find and iconic object from our film and include it in our posters, website, logo etc to give the audience a little teaser/taster of the film whenever they see an advert or poster etc.

James Banister