Scene Summaries- Casino Royale
The film begins with an establishing shot of a large building at a low angle, this shows the large scale of the building and highlights its importance. A title is also shown to help further establish where the opening scenes are set and this is in ‘Prague, Czech Republic’. All of the opening minutes are shot in black and white and doing this helps create a sinister and mysterious feel. A car then pulls up and a man steps out and is show, again through a low angle. This suggests the man shown has a lot of power and will be a dominant figure throughput the rest of the film, as it too is a film for the ‘James Bond’ series, the early close up suggests that he is going to be a ‘bond villain’. In then cuts to another incredibly low camera angles that shows of well the scale of the building the man is entering; the lift of the building scales the building upwards and it cuts it cuts this time to a high camera angle and another close up of the suspected ‘bond villain’, again highlighting the fact that he is going to be and important character. The lighting achieved from using this camera creates an interesting effect as it only enables half of his face to be lit up creating a further sinister feel, the audience also get the impression that he is hiding something as having half of his face hidden suggest things being kept in the dark.
It cuts to a long shot of the man walking through the building that he had entered. The long shot enables us to see all of him and a fair amount of his surroundings; from this you can see that the building looks very modern and high tech suggesting that the man is in a very modern kind of business. The man then walk in to a room that is established as his office and he stops suddenly and a close up of an open safe is show to highlight it as significant. A close up of the man’s face is shown and from this the audience can see a clear worried and shocked expression on his face, inform them that this was not how he last left the safe. It then cuts to a mid-shot that is composed in very specific way for the audience.
The shot becomes a two shot as it is the first time that the well-known character ‘James Bond’ is shown. He is shown in deep focus over the shoulder over the suggested villain. This draws our attention to James Bonds importance and only his face is illuminated to create the effect of him hiding in the shadows and keeping a low profile at this point. He is also the first person to use dialogue in the film which draws the attention to him as being the most important character and it cuts forward to a close up of him to further this point. As the unknown man sits down at his desk he opens a drawer and an extreme close up of a gun is show with the lighting tacitly placed to draw your attention to it; this shot infers that James Bond is soon to be in danger at the hands of the suspected villain.
It then cuts to another tacitly composed mid shot/two shot. Both men are placed at complete opposite edges of the frame to show a clear distance between them and no friendly interaction whilst the two shot suggests them being forced together, which is proven as James Bond has clearly broken an entry in to this man office from his dialogue.
The film then back tracks to a flash back of James Bond fighting with someone who was an ally of the unknown man, again told to the audience by their sparse, cold dialogue. This flash back is shown clearly as the black and white contrast changes significantly to show a change in time. The present day is shown in ‘dark’ black and white with dark and shadowy lighting, but the flash back is show in ‘white’ black and white and everything is clearly seen. The fight scene is very face pace and a range of shots are used to demonstrate this. The slow talk and mostly silence of the conversation between Bond and the unknown man is positioned in juxtaposition with the violent turbulent fighting between Bond and the ally. The contrast too helps to highlight the urgency and the fast pace of the fight. The first shot is an over the shoulder close up shot of James Bond hitting the man and it then cuts to an aerial shot which show the fighters breaking through toilet walls, informing the audience that the fight is taking place in some kind of men’s toilets. A mid shot shows the full length if the men fighting and the ally pick up a bin to hit James bond with which is graphically matched with the next scene of the suspected bond villain, picking up the gun seen in the drawer and pointing it at James Bond. This is a graphic match as both actions threaten to harm Bond and in doing so creates a smooth but sudden link between the two unrelated scenes, positioning the audience to react and feel worried for the character.
However this worry quickly disappears as the shot changes to a close up and James Bond informs that he knew where the man kept his gun and as the trigger is pulled nothing happens. When this happened the focus changes to deep focus and the man’s face is clearly visible whilst his gun is blurred. This emphasises how his gun in powerless as Bond has taken the bullets, shown briefly in a close up.
Sound – Casino Royale
The beginning of the movie opens to silence, and the only sound heard are the diaegtic noises of natural sound e.g. cars pulling up or footsteps. Even these sounds are very limited and this helps add to the almost ‘creepy’ and sinister atmosphere and helps to build tension. When dialogue is introduced it is spoken very softly but coldly and the audience have to strain to listen to what they are saying. This captures your attention as you have to focus hard on what is going on and infers that the conversation is not the kind of conversation that you would hear on an everyday basis adding to the building tension.
In juxtaposition with this, when the flash back shows the fight there is a lot more sound present due to the ‘scuffles’ and punches thrown by each man. The destruction of the toilet walls also creates loud noises and this is in complete contrast with the earlier eerie silence. This shows the difference in the paces between the two interactions that happen with Bond and the other two characters.
Screenshots - Casino Royale
1. Low angle establishing shot- is used to set the location of the opening scene and a written title shows the exact location of ‘Prague, Czech Republic’
2. Low angle close up- This establishes the character as important and the way he is dressed shows him to be within an upper class and the hat emphasises that he is in a different country.
3. Low angle/Canted Angle- Show the sheer scale of the building and its shows off its modern features, setting the scene of a modern technology inspired movie.
4. High Angle/Close Up – Again shows the importance of this character and enables the lighting to only show one half of his face creating a sinister feel.
5. Long Shot- Help to show the full dress of the character which is smartly dressed and show an inside perspective of the setting of the building. The building is once again confirmed as high tech and modern.
6. Mid Shot/Two Shot- Shows for the first time James Bond and he appears in deep focus drawing the audience’s attention towards him.
7. Close Up- The shot holds incredible importance as it shows a gun, emphasised by the light shining directly on it, and adds drama to the story as it creates tension as it is not picked up straight away but is clearly shown.
8. Mid Shot/Two Shot- Shows the forcing together of the two characters and both are placed at complete opposite edges of the frame showing the distance and dislike held between the two men.
9. This is where the colouring of the picture changes to ‘white’ black and white and shows a clear contrast from the previous scenes so clearly shows how the time has changed from the present day to a flash back.
10. Aerial shot- gives a different perspective of the fighting and highlights the fast pace activity as it shows toilet walls being destroyed.
No comments:
Post a Comment