Analysis of Reservoir Dogs - By Josh Nutt

I chose to review the first 15 minutes of 'Reservoir Dogs' because it is along similar lines to our film. Reservoir Dogs was the first film of Quentin Tarantino, yet was criticised for it's violence throughout the film. The notorious 'torture' scene, caused many people to walk out of the cinema, as they found it too sickening. Our film, is not similar to Reservoir Dogs in the amount of violence and blood it has in it, yet does contain violence and blood which is expected in a mafia film. One way in which it is similar is that 'Reservoir Dogs', is that it has a non linear narrative, in which it is depicted through flashbacks, similar to which our film would be, if we were to make the entire film.

As for the story, there are other ways in which 'Omerta' is similar to 'Reservoir Dogs'. In Reservoir Dogs, we see that Mr Orange is an undercover cop, similar to Luciana Messina helping out Marco Ramone to take down the mafia.

In the opening of the film, we see conversation taking place in a black scene, to which it cuts to a shot of men at a breakfast table, talking. A panning shot around the table and over the shoulders of some characters, establishes who is at the table and what they are doing. We see in the first minute, that it has familiar traits of a mafia film, suits and cigars being the main ones. The camera continues to circular pan around the table as Mr Brown is telling the rest of the people at the table, his theory on Madonna's song 'Like a Virgin'. A close up of Mr Brown while he is telling his story, gives the impression that he's not very smart.

As Mr Brown finishes telling his story, we see a medium shot establishing 3 characters and a conversation pursues. The cutting is quite slow, and has no fast paced about it, and seems to be just men sat at a breakfast table having a conversation. Apart from the suits and the cigars, there is no real evidence to show that this is a mafia film. Over the shoulder shots are continued to be used as conversation continues. From what the audience has seen so far, the film could lead in to anything.

In the first opening minute, we see a lot of swear words used. This is common for an 18 rated film but also for a mafia film. The swearing is used so much, that after a while it seems to blend into the conversation. Another common camera shot included up to this point, is that whenever we see a Medium Shot of characters, 3 characters are always in the shot.

One line that seemed to strike me when watching the opening 15 minutes is when Mr Blonde asks if he should shoot Mr White. Mr White replies "If you shoot me in your dream, you better wake up and apologise". This struck me as an important line as it could be foreshadowing in what is going to happen in the rest of the film.

The conversation goes back to normal banter after the original joke of being shot in the dream. We see that these set of men, are enjoying a conversation with each other and seem to be in good company. As the conversation comes to an end, we see "Joe" stand up and he is focused on a medium shot. As he stands above everybody else, he seems to have authority over the men sat at the table, and the camera is a low angle shot, slightly looking up at Joe. Again, 3 men who are at the table, are in the shot. Joe tells everybody that they all owe a "buck" for the tip, before leaving, he asks someone to shoot Mr White, only jokingly. We see a close up or Mr Blonde pretending to shoot him, which looks somewhat menacing.

As everyone throws in a dollar, close ups are used on some characters and we see that Mr Pink does not put in a dollar. Conversation follows of Mr Pink telling the fellow men at the table, that he does not believe in tipping. A lot of close ups are used as characters talk, and we see that Mr Pink seems to be the stray one of the group, and likes to stand up to society and play by his own rules. Again, with the close up of characters, they are over the shoulder shots. The characters at the table again share a joke about the waitress 'sucking his dick'.

The rest of the characters at the table, seem distressed that Mr Pink is refusing to tip the waitress, over the shoulder shots are continued being used. From this scene we can see some friction between the group, but it's over nothing really. We see one of the characters asking for his dollar back, yet he is not allowed. As Joe returns, again stood up to show his authority, to ask for the tips, he asks who has not payed. Mr Pink eventually gives Joe a dollar after Joe says he paid for the entire breakfast.

As the scene comes to end, we see that a voice over is used as we go into the next scene, as the scene fades to black, bouncy music begins to play. As we cut into the next scene, we see the characters from the previous scene, walking in slow motion, a long shot is used to establish this. We then see close ups are used to establish characters and which actors are playing them. In the close ups, we see the characters looking sinister, smoking cigarettes ad engaging in conversation, even though none of this can be heard. As we see all the characters in the centre of the screen walking towards a road, the title 'Reservoir Dogs' moves up the screen and stays at the top, above the back of the characters. This shot has connotations that they are the centre of attention.

A black screen follows this scene and names scroll upwards similar to the title. Important roles within the making of the film are then displayed at the centre of the screen, as the music continues to play. Talking from the next scene talks over the title and the music, we see when we cut into the next scene, one of the men who was at the breakfast table, Mr Orange, is in the backseat of the car with Mr White driving. Mr Orange is bleeding from the abdomen. This comes as quite a shock to the audience, as the previous scenes were general banter, so it goes from one extreme to another. As the car is driving, we see close ups on both character and particular distress is shown from Mr Orange. For the entire film, this is quite ironic as Mr White is keen to find out who is the rat in the operation, and it's in fact Mr Orange, the man who he saves and the man who worked with and trusted.

All in all, Reservoir Dogs uses a lot of characteristics that we plan to use in our film. For example, the costumes of the film are similar to what we would want to feature in ours, and any sort of mafia film. Also, we see that in Reservoir Dogs, they use aliases to cover there identity, much like Luciana does with her name 'Miele'.

There are some other characteristics that we may think about using when we are filming. The one that i paticularly liked was the over the shoulder shots used in the breakfast scene. I feel that this could be used well in our poker scene, and could help establish the characters and the setting. We will also use the obvious things such as close ups on characters and nice slow paced editing.

Our film is similar to Reservoir Dogs in quite a few ways. Apart from the obvious reference of the mafia, the costumes are very similar within the 2 films. The Reservoir Dogs are all dressed smartly in suits, which is similar to our film. If we were to carry on making our film, then it would be similar to reservoir dogs as it would contain weapons and mild swearing. Another way in which our films are different is the nicknames we use, we see that in Reservoir Dogs it is revolved entirely around nicknames. In our film, they use the nickname 'Miele' to protect Luciana Messina.

Omerta Treatment (Full Film) - By Connor Asquith and Josh Nutt

Film Title: Omerta

Duration: Approximately 90 minutes, we feel that this an adequate time to be able to fit in all the revenge of 4 people (Alessandro Messina, Joe Messina, Luciano Moretti, Leonardo Moretti (As well as finding out about the fate's of William King and Walt Dixon)). This would be also ideal for if our film was to ever feature on TV, as it is 3 half an hour slots. We also feel that 90 minutes is enough time for the audience not to get bored, anything more than this could cause the audience to get bored of the film, and feel as it is dragging.

Audience: 15-30, targeted more at male compared to female yet could attract female attention, more targeted to middle aged males who have seen similar films like the Godfather or Reservoir Dogs

Synopsis: Our idea for the full film

Marco Ramone is raised in an orphanage after his mother was killed in a car accident at the age of 11. He knew nothing of his father, so decides to retrace his routes. After discovering a photo at the side of his mother and father's grave, he deduces that the woman in the photo is his mother, and Marilyn says that the man in the photo looks remarkably like him, Marco assumes that the man in the photo is his father. On the back of the photo is an inscription saying, Deepest Sympathies, Miele. Marco decides that this is the place to start. He visits his grandad, the father of his mother (Francesca Ramone) and he tells him that his father was involved in the mafia and had a fierce rivalry with a rival mafia, the Messina's. Marco decides that his next stop is to find out about the Messina mafia. His grandfather gives him the number of a man who was involved with the mafia, in the story we never learn his name. Marco meets him in a pub and he gives him details to Luciana Messina, the only member of the Messina mafia that he still knows of who is living. He tells him that she only lives a few blocks away from where he is living, after dropping her mafia links.

Marco goes to her apartment, and discovers that she was the one who left the photo at the gravestone, and she is nicknamed 'Miele', as it is what her father called her. She is honest with Marco and tells him that she played a part in the murder of his father. She tells him that she served him the fatal drink, that killed him at the poker match, and she breaks down in tears. Yet Marco takes sympathy in an old crying woman and decides to spare her life, if she helps him track down the one's who are still in the Messina mafia. She tells him of the people that were involved in the murder, being;

Alessandro Messina, the Don, who ordered the hit over unpaid money.

Joe Messina, the plan maker for the death of his father.

Luciano and Leonardo Moretti who were responsible for disposing of his father's body.

William King who was responsible for supplying the poison that killed his father.

Walt Dixon, who she is unsure about, yet understands that he had a part to play.

Marco decides to work from the bottom. The least significant within the death, all the way up to the Don, Alessandro. He sets out to find Walt Dixon, and discovers that he is no longer at his old address. The current owners tell Marco that he moved to Texas along with his young family. The current owners give him a picture that he left behind, showing the family, and ask him to take it, and if they find him, give it to him. After traveling to Texas, he discovers Walt Dixon in the street after recognizing him from his photo. Walt Dixon, being terrified tells him everything that happened on the night of his father's death and explains that he was just there playing poker, and had no idea that his Father was to die. He tells him that he fled from Chicago over fear of the mafia catching up with him. He was scared that his family might be used against him, so moved to Texas with his family. Walt tells Marco that he heard William King died of cancer 4 years ago. Yet, Marco feels that Walt may be lying to cover up for an old friend and to also to spare William's life. He spares Walt's life, after getting all the information that he needs, he travels back to Chicago to try and track down William King.

Walt Dixon provided Marco with the last known address that he knew of William King, before he moved to Texas. Deciding to visit the address, he discovers a middle aged woman, who seems to be alone. After asking if he can come in to ask some questions, he sees a picture of a man on the side, on a cabinet. He asks about the man, and the woman tells him that, it was her husband, William King, who died 4 years ago of cancer. After asking a few questions, he discovers that she knew nothing of his mafia links, and that he had kept it hidden from his wife.

Marco decides to revisit Luciana about the possibility of finding the two henchmen that were responsible for the disposing of the body. Luciano and Leonardo Moretti, Luciana is reluctant to give Marco information about her two cousins, yet Marco discovers that she turned away from the mafia links after Alessandro ordered a hit on her then fiancé, who she was set to marry. She tells him that the cousins are still involved in the mafia, as henchmen protecting her two brothers, Alessandro and Joe. She tells him that both Luciano and Leonardo were responsible for the disposing of his father's body. After a fairly disappointing journey so far, discovering that Walt was played no part in his father's death, and that William King had died 4 years earlier, Marco is keen to take revenge for the death of his father.

Luciana tells Marco her cousins always used to dispose of bodies in the Chicago river. They would put the body in a bag, and weight it down with bricks and throw it in the water (this was probably the way that Leo Ramone was killed). Since no exact address is known for the cousins, Marco decides to wait by the river for the cousins to appear, doing another job. It doesn't take long for the cousins to turn up, disposing of a body in the river, laughing as they do the job. Marco approaches both, to which both cousins become anxious and begin to run. As they run, Marco shoots Leonardo in the leg, leaving him sprawled on he floor. Luciano, out of love of his brother, stops running and hits the deck to avoid another shot from Marco. As Leonardo is bleeding from the leg, Luciano screams 'who are you?' to which Marco replies 'Revenge'. As Luciano and Leonardo share a tender moment, sharing there past together, Luciano tries to keep Leonardo warm as he slips away from life. At this moment, Marco walks away, Luciano thinks that Marco has spared him. As he is sprawled across his dead brother's body at the side of the river bank, he turns to tears and asks God for forgiveness. We see Marco emerge in a blur in the background, as Luciano turns around, Marco shoots him in the chest, and Luciano dies on top of his brother. We see a bit of irony, as the twins were born within a minute of each other, and they die within a minute of each other. Marco, loads the both bodies into separate bags and fills the bags with the rocks, and throws them both into the river. As he climbs back up the muddy riverbank, he sets his sight on Joe Messina.

The next scene, we see Alessandro Messina, anxiously pacing around a room. As we hear the door open, we see Joe Messina enter. Alessandro is anxious that Luciano and Leonardo have not returned. It is not like the cousins to be gone for a day, so Alessandro presumes that the worse has happened. Joe tells him that somebody saw a young man kill both of the twins and put the bodies into the body bag. Depicted in a flashback, we see a man who Alessandro and Joe know threw the mafia links was hiding under the bridge, and watched the entire thing. He followed Marco as he climbed back up the river bank and back to Luciana's apartment. He finds Joe Messina straight away to tell him of the news, that Luciana has broke the code of Omerta. Alessandro is furious. He sends Joe to go talk to Luciana, to see what is going on.

As Joe arrives, he passes Marco Ramone, on the stairs leading up to the apartment, yet both don't recognize each other. As Marco walks away, trying to track down Joe for revenge, he realizes that he has left his cigarette lighter at Luciana's apartment. Marco decides to go back to get it. He enters without knocking, after hearing conversation taking place. As he slides through the door, he takes his gun out and listens to the conversation. Luciana is crying to the man about how she was scared and the man she is helping was the son of Leo Ramone, who they killed many years ago. Eventually, Luciana says 'I'm so sorry, brother, i feel like I have betrayed the family'. To which Joe replies, 'You have', at this point, Marco strikes, he quickly moves around the corner. He sees that Joe is reaching for a knife within his shoe and quickly acts, and shoots Joe in the back of the head with pinpoint accuracy. Luciana breaks down in tears, after seeing her brother shot infront of her, but thanks Marco for saving her life. This time, cigarette lighter in hand, he sets out for Alessandro Messina.

As he's walking away, Luciana calls him back. Marco, clearly frustrated, goes back to which Luciana sits him down to tell him the full story of how he died. She tells him that his father, Leo, and Alessandro Messina used to be best friends right up until the marriage of his mother and father. She tells him that Alessandro payed for the wedding, which in return, Leo asked Alessandro to be his best man, which he gratefully accepted. Yet, things turned sour after Leo ran into debt and was unable to pay Alessandro the money he had borrowed for his wedding. Furious, Alessandro with the help of herself and Joe, decided to take revenge and kill him. The plan was to invite him to a poker game, and when the drinks were handed out, the poisoned one would be handed to Leo. She tells him that with great irony that Alessandro and Joe had joked that if Leo had got a royal flush in the game, that they would spare his life. On the night of the poker game, the plan went smoothly and his father fell into the trap of the poisoned drink. Leo though did have a royal flush in the game that he was killed. Marco decides that he has heard enough and goes out to get Alessandro.

Marco finds Alessandro at his mansion. As he sneaks through a window at the side of the mansion, as he just gets inside, he walks down a narrow hallway. A man, dressed in a suit, slips out from the toilet, and sees Marco walking down the hallway, rather carelessly. The man approaches him from behind, and starts to suffocate Marco, sending him unconscious. The scene goes dark. As it's still black, we hear Marco panicking, and eventually a bag is removed from his head and we see Alessandro Messina, with a smug look on his face, surrounded by 3 other men, dressed in suits.

An intense conversation takes place, in which we see that Alessandro Messina figures out that the man he has tied up, is the son of his former best friend, Leo Ramone. Marco begins to attempt to start untying the rope around his wrists .Not being a very pleasant man, Marco spits in the face of Alessandro. Not best pleased, Alessandro tells his men to take a cigarette break, as Alessandro starts beating him up around the head, we see that he produces a gun from his back pocket. As he puts the gun in to Marco's mouth, he tells him 'Like father, like son, both vermin". Just as the trigger is about to be pulled, we hear a blast and Alessandro's face is in utter shock, he looks down at his leg and falls to his knees after seeing he has being shot. Walt Dixon, stands behind him, shotgun in hand. Marco, quickly untangles his left hand and grabs Alessandro's gun, puts it in Alessandro's mouth and says the line 'You're the vermin... this is for... my father", and shoots him upwards in the mouth.

Walt, unties Marco and drags him out the window in the same room that Alessandro has been murdered. Walt drags Marco to a car, and places him in the backseat. As they drive away, Marco sits up and begins to talk to Walt, and asks him, what brought him to Chicago. Walt tells him that two assosciates had held his family hostage, and asked for information about him. Telling him everything, the assosciates left and shot his wife in the kneecap. Walt goes to a side cabinet, and as they're walking out of the door, he shoots both of them in the back. He tells him that he quickly untangled his family and took them to a safe place. He then, went to Chicago, to kill Alessandro Messina. He visited Luciana, who told him everything, about what had happened. He quickly came to the mansion, took out the 3 associates who were stood outside smoking and rushed around the mansion, desperately trying to find Alessandro. As he finishes his story, he throws back a large briefcase and tells Marco "A little compensation from our dead friend". Enscribed on the top of the briefcase, is the initials "A.M", as Marco opens the briefcase, we see a vast amount of tightly compact 100 dollar bills. The scene fades to black, as Marco smiles.

As we fade in, we see a wedding scene and Marco talking to his bride, Marilyn. She asks how he could afford to pay for such an extravagant wedding, and he tells her he payed the same way his father did. As, we pan around the room, we see previous characters such as Luciana Messina, Walt Dixon and Marco's grandfather. The film ends, with Marco and Marilyn, kissing...

Props by Kirsten Barman

Here are the props we are expecting to use when we film;

1st Scene (Don's Office)

Chair And Desk - For the Don to sit behind, hopefully something large and wooden

Whiskey glasses

Whiskey bottle

Ashtray

Cigar/Tin of Cigars

2nd Scene (Poker Room)

Cards & Poker Chips

Ashtray

Martini Glasses

Whiskey Glasses

Cigars

Drinks Tray

Small Lipstick case or similar - To carry the poison

Sugar Capsule

3rd Scene (Graveyard)
Single Red Rose
Photograph

Film Certification - By Josh Nutt

Our film is going to be certificate 15. This is because:
Statistically certificate 15 films have the largest audience, an 18 would cause the audience to think it was too violent.
Our film does not involve or promote the use of drugs, although it does have a drug in to kill Leo Ramone, it doesn't promote the use of it.
Our film includes no scenes of nudity
Our film is planned to have no swear words in, may have the odd few, but none in the opening 2 minutes
Our film does not involve any sexual scenes
There are strong images of pain and violence in our film, espescially when the Mafia is taken down, yet is not extreme.
Our film does not include any footage of dangerous behaviour, such as suicide or self harming.
Our film does not include any pictures referring to horror.

Film Distributors - By Josh Nutt

Film distributors are important to any film. They act as soon as the film is finished, or nearing finishing, and then they make sure that, through advertising, that the film is going to sell. They arrange advanced screanings to the film, and produce many other marketing techniques such as posters and trailers.

With our film, we would be looking for one of the main distributors, to distribute our film. These main distributors are...

Warner Bros. is a major film distributor, and would be able to amount global success for our film, yet usually Warner Bros. is assosciated with more children type movies, to may not be suitable for our mafia based film. Examples of films they have distributed;

• The Shining
• Batman
• Ace Ventura
• Harry Potter
• I am Legend

Paramount, owned by Sony, would be able to amount global success with our film, and they are more likely to take interest into our sort of film, they would be ideal for distributing our film as they could generate a lot of interest. Examples of films they have distributed;

• King Kong
• Saving Private Ryan
• Mission: Impossible
• Kung Fu Panda
• Transformers

20th century fox is again, another big film distributor that would be able to generate a lot of profit for our film, and again, they would be ideal. Examples of films they have distributed;

• Die Hard
• Mrs Doubtfire
• Independence Day
• Stars Wars IV,V,VI
• Avatar

Universal, would be our preferred film distributors as they are global and are able to generate a huge amount of interest in our film, as they are global. Examples of films they have distributed;

• Jurassic Park
• American Pie
• Gladiator
• Bruce Almighty
• Mamma Mia!

Columbia, again is another main distributor within the film industry, and would be another ideal company to distribute our film. Examples of films they have distributed;

• Stuart Little
• Spider-Man
• The Da Vinci Code
• Quantum of Solace
• 2012

Goodfellas - Intro - By Josh Nutt, Andrew Robinson, Connor Asquith and Kirsten Barman

Costumes - By Kirsten Barman

This is the general idea for most of the male costumes in the film. They are wearing suits or shirts or waistcoats. Mainly in the colours of black and white, but some may be grey. This was common during the 1920's and extremely common to the mafia gangsters, and is one of the ways we instantly recognise mafia gangsters in films. The style was loosley based around Sonny Corleone from The Godfather.







This is the Costume i have designed for Marylin Johnson. Her character comes into the story in the 1940'sand eventually marries Marco Ramone. She is still quite young so i think she would be quite stylish and fashionable. In the 1940's wealthy women wore knee length dresses with V-necklines and long, hourglass style coats. Many of these styles came from designers such as Christian Dior and Coco Chanel.





Luciana Messina's costume is a little harder to design. There aren't many pictures or sources on the internet from which i can see what clothing was like in the 1920's. Her dress is based around a "flapper" design, young women in this era were often called Flappers because of their hectic lifestyle, they would drink and smoke, party untill late and even drive cars, which in previous years was unheard of. Even though in the scene we have she will be serving drinks, i still think she should still have an air of glamour and sophistication about her. The red dress will also enforce the "Female Fatale" idea.

Questionnaire - By Connor Asquith and Josh Nutt

What is your Gender?
Male
Female

How old are you?
15-20
21-25
26-30
31-40
41+

Have you ever seen a mafia film?
Yes
No

If no, would you consider watching one in the near future?
Yes
No

How long do you prefer a film to last?
Less than 60 minutes
60-90 minutes
90-120 minutes
More than 120 minutes

Do you like mafia films, with a lot of blood in them?
Yes
No

Do you prefer, old fashioned mafia films?
Yes
No

Why?
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What age rating, would you be more inclined to watch?
U
PG
12A
15
18

Thankyou for participating in our questionnaire.