Film Opening Analysis 1

Skyfall...
                 I wanted to analyse some film openings to see how they use conventions of their genre. The genre of my main task is Thriller so I will focus on analysing films that are part of this genre and how they use conventions and editing to, hopefully giving me ideas on how I should edit my final piece.

The first film that I wanted to analyse was Skyfall. I wanted to do Skyfall first because It isn't a 'hardcore' Thriller movie, mostly focusing on action. I felt that this would be a good idea because of how it would provide something I could compare the other film openings I look at to.

Skyfall opens with a mystery. We see 007 searching for some intel. We discover he was too late and has to chase the thief, resulting in a thrilling car, motorbike and train chase sequence ending in Bond taking a bullet to the chest, falling several hundred feet into a lake and is then presumed dead. Not the best start for Jimmy Bond. We expect that a protagonist like 007 to be invincible, but when we see him die, or so we believe, we are thrown off and are confused, not knowing will happen next. While this is not technically a convention of the Thriller Genre but is an effective way of throwing the audience off keeping them engaged. I will keep this idea in mind and look for an opportunity to employ it effectively.

We then get the signature long, abstract opening credits of every Bond film. This time it is filled with skulls and graves to signify death. It also conveys an idea that the world is ending, with the sky falling, literally, like meteorites. Destroying a large building with two elk (I'm not David Attenborough, may be reindeer, I'm not sure) in front of it. The interesting thing about this opening is how it begins with a death, rather than having it at the end like most other films. This will fit very well with the final idea we had so we will use it in the final piece.

It doesn't use too many conventions of the Thriller Genre specifically, however it does build tension at the beginning using mystery as well as seemingly killing off the main protagonist. These are very interesting ideas that I will keep in mind during filming.