Task 2 GoodFellas Film 1

The opening sequence of Goodfellas establishes key generic of codes and conventions because it shows the gangsters, areas and music which are common codes and conventions. They show key codes & conventions because many crime dramas introduce their main characters during the opening and use soundtrack that was usually played during that particular time which is important as the audience will guess the correct year. The setting establishes key codes & conventions because many crime dramas are set in poor inner cities which will make the film realistic because they are using locations that their audience will expect to see in such a crime related film.

The sequence meets my expectations of a typical opening sequence of crime dramas because it uses the main character as the narrator and shows the location and year the film is based in. This meets my expectations of a typical crime drama because most crime dramas use their characters to narrate and so tell the audience about their life and how they got involved in crime. This will make the audience understand the character much better because he is the one narrating the story and so will listen to him very carefully. The year and location also is a typical use for a opening of a crime drama because the director wants the audience to know where the film is based so that it can look realistic especially if it's in a poor location and a year that had lots of povety so we can know what else was going on around that time and picture it along with the film.

During the opening sequence clues are given about the narrative, for example Henry meeting and starting to work with the gangsters is a clue as it can suggest that he may sooner join them and his voice over are clues that he later would of joined them because he started working with them and they even threathed the post man not to post letters to Henrys house, and during his voice over he mentions he has always wanted to be a gangster and he even misses school which shows that he is determined to be part of them. These clues make the audience want to watch on to see if they happen, and if not, what happens.

The charcters follow the typical features of crime dramas because of their costumes and props. Their costumes and props represent them as gangsters because they are wearing suits, shiny shoes and hats which crime drama gangsters tend to follow particually in those days to tell the audience who they are. This represents them as gangsters because in those days men who didn't have jobs but yet wear expenisve costumes were gangsters. The props they carry are cigars which could suggest that they don't care about their health and represents them as gangsters because gangsters tend to smoke with cigars especially during the year it was set. It could also represent thier wealth in which they get by doing criminal activities like drug dealing and theft.

The film opens with non- digetic(theme)'Rags to riches' a song which was famously played during the time of the film in 1955. The song reflects with the genre because it's called rags to riches which could suggest that the characters are poor and are going into a life of riches with all their money they are making through crime which many crime dramas do to show that the gangsters want to make money.

The title of the film used is to show that the gangsters are good guys, fellas a word used to describe men in slang. This reflects the genre because the men are seen as good to themselves aswell as Henry and may refer to themselves as fellas which could show they're street guys because they use slang.