The establishing shot of a silhouette of James in the centre of a sun with a black background sets an instant mood of mystery because we cannot actually see the face of James. The shot also contains some visual editing because there is also heat waves which shows us, as well as the sun, that it is set in a very hot place. The camera then zooms into james' face which is half in shadows which suggest that there are two sides to him. We are then zoomed out to a mid shot of James drawing a gun which introduces us to the action genre and he then fires a shot which with visual editing turns into a dust which introduces us to the desert setting. At this point the lighting is very dark which adds to the mysterious mood.
The 007 music also sets the mood because the trumpets and common melody, automatically make people relate to James Bond, The International Man of Mystery. We then see a tracking shot of james' bullet which travels through the desert and we are shown hazes of dust in a barren desert. The use of colours such as blue and black create a mood of suspense, darkness and also suspicion with James all alone in a dark desert firing bullets. We are made to wonder what to expect and are instantly made to think.
The scene then turns to daylight where we are still shown birds eye view shots and strange camera angles and transitions, still of James with a drawn gun on his own roaming the desert. The colours now are all orange and bright which shows us the heat of the desert and also makes us feel uncomfortable with a setting that we are not used to. We feel like we should know what is happening but we don't, so we watch on. Immediately the director is capturing our attention, building to the climax of a small but tense opening. A close up of james' face shows him spotting something. We wonder what it could be.
The scene turns to night again with blue and dark colours. We are shown a huge, larger than life female figure. The genre now turns to romance, which is a big part of Bond films. He solves the crimes with the help of a girl then dumps the girl. Bond takes a liking to the girl who appears to have minimal clothing on and is trying to attract him. The girl seems to sneak up on Bond and then we are shown bond falling. We wonder why he is falling and the mysterious mood is continued to be built.
We are then shown a montage with mysterious camera angles and shots of about 30 of the girls and then it cuts to about the same number of bonds falling. Again, this is very mysterious and the viewer is still made to think very hard. James is still falling and then he, and his gun falls through a giant eye. This suggests to us that whoever made him fall is watching all the actions he is doing alone in the desert. Perhaps this person has relations with the girl? It is a mystery. We are then shown Bond land in sand and stand up and fires a shot which explodes, resembling an atomic bomb mushroom cloud. Looking at this explosion at the whole of the film, the film has a lot to do with the use of nuclear power and weapons and through this explosion the viewer is introduced to the idea of nuclear materials. The shot then fades out and the opening has finished.
The music "Another Way To Die" adds to the mystery and also the strong Alicia Keys Vocals and fast paced tempo shows us the action genre and the use of piano resembles the slight touch of romance used.
This opening, compared to other Bond openings has a great emphasis on setting. I think the director has tried to emphasise the setting because this is a very different setting to most other Bond films which are generally set in cities. In other Bond openings, such as Casino Royale, there is an emphasis on introducing the viewer to plot but here we are exposed to the setting and a slight part of introducing the character
Fantastic! A very thorough and thoughtful look at how the opening scene sets the mood. Don't worry about repeating yourself a bit in your next posts since you have some good ideas here. Keep it up!
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