Skyfall (2012) - opening - analysis

Skyfall (2012)

Skyfall’s opening credit is the productions company ‘Albert R. Broccoli’s EON Productions LTD’. This comes up in a white text due to the company not having a logo. Straight after this credit the first actors name to be shown in the credits is ‘Daniel Craig’. This shows the audience that Daniel Craig will be the main character in the film. As James Bond is falling into a hole in the sand the name of the film ‘Skyfall’ is in white text over the footage. This suggests that James Bond is linked to ‘Skyfall’ as they appear on the screen together. Whilst James Bong is being dragged down the hole in the sand the lyrics in the non-diegetic background music say ‘hold your breath and count to ten’, this connotes that he is still alive because he is being told to hold his breath as he goes through the sand.

 

At the very start of the film opening there is a low camera angle of a man when he is in the water. This is an enigma code because the audience do not know whether he is alive or not. Shortly after a woman’s hand drags him down further into the water. This suggests that during this film a woman will cause him problems because in this opening a woman dragging him connotes she is there to harm him.

 

 

 

Shortly after this, there is an image of James bond with numbers on him, making him look like a target board for shooters. There is also blood coming out of a certain part of the target board which is not through where his heart is. This also suggests to the audience that Bond is still alive but wounded.

 

There are many images of girls looking sexual. This foreshadows that there will be sexual relationships/ contact between people in this film. Not long after this, the audience see daggers and guns landing in a grave yard acting as grave stones. This tells the audience that there will be many deaths during the film due to violence. Each grave stone that is a knife is in place of someone killed by and knife and the gun is in place of a gravestone for people killed with guns. This makes the audience curious of who will die in the film.

The camera gradually goes into a close up of James Bonds eye. This close up is of how James Bond used to look at the beginning of his career however, at the end of this film opening there is another close up of James Bonds eye and this time it is old, wrinkly skin around his eyes. This connotes the stress of his job and how long he has been doing it that it has begun to age him.

 

James Bond then starts shooting his own shadows in the ground. This connotes his fear of himself and what he has become because of his job. This initially confuses the viewer as it shows James Bond to be vulnerable and scared which the audience has never seen him be before. This creates a sad atmosphere because the audience see a man who is often great at his Job becoming fearful of himself which may cause him not to solve the problems he usually solves.

Red smoke then appears and goes into the shape of a skull. This informs the viewer again that there will be many deaths throughout the film. A woman then appears with a gun which also shows that a woman is there to cause disruption in the film (which is reinforced after a girl dragging him down at the beginning).

As the lyrics to the non-diegetic piece of music are sung ‘at Skyfall’ there are numerous amount of flames floating around. This foreshadows that a fire may occur at Skyfall. Straight after this there are many Chinese dragons in the opening. This connotes that during the rest of the film there will be a connection with China. However, there are then stags which are often associated with Scotland which also leaves the viewer wondering whether the film will be set in Scotland at all.

The genre to this film is action. This is shown by the numerous amount of daggers and guns shown throughout the opening of this film. There is also a crime theme that is shown through the amount of gravestones created by knives and guns and by the skulls in the film. I think the audience for this film would be over the age of 12 due to the amount of deaths that will be in the film suggested in the opening. I think that this film will be targeted at both genders as many people like action films.

The last credit to be shown is the directors name ‘Sam Mendes’, this informs the audience that the film will be good due to ‘Sam Mendes’ directing other James Bond films.

 

In this film opening I like the way it uses guns as grave stones to foreshadow there will be many deaths due to the guns. I think it is a clever way of hinting to the audience what will happen. From this, I will think about using items in my opening that will connotes something that will happen in the rest of the film.