Group 4B Film Blog

Research and Planning: James Bond Ending Scene

From our group planning discussion we were clear that we wanted a tense scene where enigma would be created encouraging the audience to continue watching the film and to immerse the audience in the film. This would mean that we would have to include a tense or action packed scene in our opening trailer in order to make this an event that the audience would be interested in seeing and also in order to introduce the genre of the film to the audience straight away. In order to do this, we decided that it would be a good idea to look at the leading action spy thriller film franchise, James Bond. From our group planning session, we had decided on a set of shots an a short narrative that would be our base for improvement. We decided that in this scene we would have a target crawling away from our protagonist and we identified a scene from the James Bond movie "Casino Royale" that fits what we are going to do perfectly. From 0:45 onwards, is what we are planning to use as inspiration for this part of our opening sequence.

We find this part particulararly effective as this scene encompases many conventional features of action such as the low angle shot of the figure (in the scene at 45 seconds) showing that he is powerful as he dominates the frame, however this is quickly juxtaposed when the next shot is shown and he is shown as a much smaller character in comparison to his surroundings. After he is shot the camera immediately goes to a high angle shot showing that in the space of a couple of seconds he has lost his power immediately. At 55 seconds we cut to a shakycam with the shot man struggling to escape, this is an effective shot as it shows his struggle to save his life and that he no longer has any power in the scene. At 1:00 the scene cuts to a shot of stairs and the character has lost so much power, that the stairs seem to act like a barrier stopping the mans progress, this is very effective in showing his transition from powerful character to a weak and vulnerable character in the story line, it's also interesting to see that the camera remains in a fixed position while the character crawls into the frame, this shows that he has lost so much power that the camera isn't interested in him anylonger. Then at around 1:05, a dark clothed and shadowy figure walks up to the character, this creates enigma as to who this character is and interests the audience, we also immediately know that he is more powerful than the character lying on the floor and this is confirmed as the camera pans and swoops up showing us the identity of the mysterious figure. This element is very conventional in terms of the enigma that thrillers often have and create in order to thrill the audience. Another conventional thriller shot that this sequence uses can be found right at the beginning. There is a very slow pan as the car enters through the gates and we get a sneak peak of where it's going, then there is a slow fade to the next shot where we see an establishing shot of the location. This slow pace is quite conventional of thriller films.