ANALYSIS OF THE OPENING SEQUENCE OF SKYFALL

Film poster for the film Skyfall.

During the opening scene the audience immediately sees a dark room with low lighting. The darkness suggests that something bad has happened and so the audience are introduced to the disequilibrium of the story, a murder. The camera tracks Bond as he enters the dark room concealing his face from the audience. The slow pace of this opening scene as Bond walks past the body shows that he is the hero, not the villain who murdered someone. Furthermore due to a over the shoulder shot of Bond, the audience are able to see Bond trying to help his college and there is a medium close up of Bond whilst he is trying to save his college, during which his face is the only warm colour in the shot, which can further emphasis him as a hero. The audience can now notice the blood pouring from the victim due to his demise. The blood and death in the first few minutes of the film indicates the genre of this film as being action

The first shot of Bond the audience sees.

There is a eye-line match of Bond and a missing hard-drive which attracts the attention of the audience whilst a diegetic sound of 'M' voice asks Bond to look for the hard-drive.  The slow pace and non-diegetic dramatic music builds up tension and animosity around the missing hard-drive which indicates how important this will be in the story to the audience. 

The audience then witness cross cutting to the office from the dark room with low lighting. Cross cutting is used here to show two scenes that are happening at the same time in different locations and it links the scenes together. In this scene cross cutting shows the audience that the office are advising Bond though an ear piece, introducing the donor and father figure character in the story. The donor appears to be 'Q' as he is providing Bond with information, and the father figure is 'M' as she us guiding Bond through the journey.

The camera tracks Bond as he leaves the dark room and then pounds across as a car comes, driven by the helper in the story, Naomi. The non-diegetic music changes to middle Eastern jazzy sound as the audience are introduced to the glamorous location. There is a binary opposition to the dark modern office in London to the bright and vibrant Istanbul where Bond is. 

A shift of non-diegetic sound introduces the car chase sequence. There are quick cuts in the car which creates a fast pace to build up tension during the chase. There are 45 cuts in 14 seconds during the chase which creates quicker action. There is a diegetic sound of the car crashing which indicates the action scene of the chase sequence thus underlining the genre as being action. During the car chase the camera is hand held at a medium close up of Bond in order to see his facial expressions. There is a binary opposition from the calm scene in London to the chaotic chase in Istanbul seen through cross cutting. The wide shots of the car and Bond allows the audience to see the chaos and heroic status of Bond as he tries to shoot the villain. The non-diegetic music gets faster and louder as Bond is on a mission to get the missing hard-drive back. However the fast pace non-diegetic sound is only in the car and not in the office and so there is a binary opposition from the calm office to the chaotic chase.

Wide shot of the car chase going down Istanbul side streets.

The actors in the market create more chaos and drama as the audience fear that the they will get in the middle of the shooting between Bond and the villain, leaving the audience on the edge of their seats during the shooting this action sequence. During the action shooting sequence there is a diegetic sound of screaming in order to illustrate the fear of the people to the audience. Furthermore the diegetic sound of the the gun firing highlights the genre of the film as being action and thriller because guns are typically found in these kind of films. 

When Bond chases the villain on a bike, there is a medium close up of Naomi, showing how serious she is to complete the mission. Furthermore, her smashing the glass of the car presents her heroicness to the audience. (picture of Naomi to the left during the chase).

There is a fast pace shot of a bike flying at the audience to heighten the action in the film and to suggest that this is a dangerous situation where life's are at risk. The eye-line match of Bond chasing the villain makes the audience feel as though they are chasing the villain too. There is a medium close up on Bond when he is chasing the villain in order to address his determination to save britain when he says "yes m'am", addressing the father figure, 'M'. The slow zoom on M emphasises her importance to the audience. The donor character, 'Q' gives updates that Bond is on top of the Grand Bazaar, which is seen by the audience through the editing tool cross cutting, during which a wide camera shot of Bond is used in order to show the glamourous location of the Grant Bazaar to the audience. This shot is taken by using a crane looking upon Bond chasing the villain giving a sense of rush. 

Wide shot of Bond chasing the villain on bikes.