Opening Skyfall

Analysing an Opening Scene to a film

•       Sound:

•       Sound is very important within an opening to help set the tone mood and atmosphere.

•       Non-diegetic music is used to reflect the narrative events such as in times to look back and reflect on what has happened in the past or bringing the audience up to date with what has happened in the characters lives leading to this moment, but in the opening of Skyfall we are left in the dark about what is really going on and only fed breadcrumbs in order to work out a plot line.

•       Diegetic sound is used in the dialogue between the characters Bond and M, it reveals that we are witnessing a backup man sent in to salvage something that has just been lost. This shows that the genre is action as the characters are talking about agents and shootings all whilst obeying orders.

•      Camera Angles:

•      A close-up shot is used to show a character as he walks towards the camera from a long shot through a medium shot and stops just as a beam of light revels his face and we see who it is, James Bond.

•      An establishing shot isn’t used within the first two minutes as a bike chase leading in to a train and car chase will soon revile to us a large proportion of the city that they are in. As a result of this we have to guess for the opening and judging by the furniture and people and dead bodies we see we assume that we are in England as everything seems to be posh and old, as if in a manor house.

•      A two shot is used of the characters James Bond and Agent Ronson to show their relationship as Bond tries to help him by pressurising the wound and M orders bond to leave him and retrieve a stolen hard disk from a laptop discarded in the room.

•      Characters:

•      The main characters are introduced in the opening scene when the silhouette of James walks down a dark corridor towards the camera, the audience recognises that they are the main characters through the use of the dialogue and camera shots that they are involved in.

•      Enigma codes:

•      Enigma codes are used to tease the audience and engage them in the narrative so they carry on watching the film. Certain enigmas are included in the opening such as puzzles about what is so important about the particular hard drive that has gone missing as it seams to be very important, questions are left unanswered about why people are so prepared to just let others die for part of a computer.

•      The audience want to know what will happen to the character and so will stay to watch the film to the end, loosing the worries that have been risen by modern life and so because of this are  then also likely to tell their friends about it eventually bringing a lot more people in to see the film.

•      Symbolic codes are shown in the mise-en-scene:

•      In the opening the audience would identify symbols such as blood dripping from the corner of Ronsons mouth these could make the audience know that he will die from this as that is the Hollywood symbol that this person has gone. Because of this we deliberately don't get attached to this character and instead relate to the way that Bond feels for this character.

•      Props/ costumes:

•      The audience can see that the character is wearing a loos suit with a gun holster to the left of his stomach this shows that he is serious and prepared to kill this is typical of the genre because in action films people seam to always be killing or being killed

•      Props are featured such as guns and pieces of technology this is typical of the genre as it shows what kind of people with passably power over their fellow characters.

•      Cliches:

  Noticeable cliches are used in the opening scene such as the blood form the side of the mouth this engages the audience as they recognise these features and can predict what is going to happen in the narrative.