Skyfall is the 23rd installment
in a long running franchise of increasingly popular James Bond action films.
The film was produced by Eon Productions (Michael G. Wilson & Barbara
Broccoli) and distributed by Sony and MGM. The film was released on the 23rd
of October, and on its week of release, the film grossed at £37.2 million in
the UK alone surpassing any other film release, and making it the most popular
James Bond film in the franchise. By the end of the year, the films total gross
made it the 7th highest grossing film of all time. The target
audience of the film would likely be anyone aged 13+ due to the themes of
violence, and more particularly, James Bond fans. The franchise began in 1962,
so over the years, a fan base has accumulated and James Bond has grown to
become an iconic character in action films.
The initial 30 seconds of the 1:37 opening
sequence consists of the logos of the producers/ distributors of the film. The
other one minute shows the character we can all assume to be James bond walking
around a unknown location, wielding a gun, walking past unknown characters dead
on the floor. This gives the audience no clue as to what the storyline of the
rest of the film may be, however it does give the audience hints as to what cods
and conventions to expect throughout the duration of the film with the fact
that the main character is walking around a low key lighting room wielding a
gun.
By opening the film with the unchanged
iconic logos, this shows the audience that the film is highly acclaimed as
people can associate those logos with other films that they’ve seen begin with
the same logo. It also gives a more professional connotation to the rest of the
film as if it’s by a highly acclaimed production company; the film must be up to
the standards of the company.
At the 0:32-second mark, we get our first
glimpse into the film, which begins with the iconic James Bond opening. This
includes a view seemingly through a sniper scope, tracking the character, which
the audience can presume to be James Bond, up to the point where the character
turns to face the lens, wield a gun, and shoot. This results in a red filter to
flow from the top of the screen which the audience can connotate to being
blood. The opening is an adapted version of the original, with the only
noticeable difference being the character playing James Bond is different. In
this case we’re presented with actor Daniel Craig, who the audience can assume
is playing James Bond. By hardly adapting the original, this fits the codes and
conventions of James Bond movies, which will instantly let the audience
recognise the film as the next in the franchise.
The sound at this point in the opening is a
mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic. The theme song that James Bond fans will
recognise is played at the beginning as it in with every film in the franchise,
and the diegetic element in this would be the point in which the character
faces the camera from a long shot, points a gun, and we hear a gun shot. This
brings an end to the non-diegetic sound track, and the scent transitions into
the film. The lighting in this part if contrasted, the area is all white the
character is walking in, so the background is high key lighting, but the
character himself is somewhat shadowed, meaning he is in low-key lighting.
The remainder of the opening to the film is
all in very dim low-key lighting, with not much of a variety of shots. The
first shot is from a long shot to a close up as the character walks towards the
camera, and as the close up is on, the characters face is emphasized in the
light. This is establishing the character to the audience so they know who will
be playing the lead role of James Bond in the movie. Following this shot, we’re
presented with a tracking shot of the character walking around a seemingly dead
building. The preferred reading of this scene would be that there has been some
kind of shootout by the representation of guns lied on the floor amongst dead
bodies. This is also one of the notable codes and conventions of action films,
which would help the viewer, get the correct preferred reading. The sound in
the opening continues to become non-diegetic as the character walks around the
dead building, while the location is being established through the use of
tracing shots following the main character around the building.
I have also completed a time sequence analysis of the opening credits to skyfall which can be seen below:
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