Action

Skyfall

Straight away Skyfall starts with upbeat and loud music which is effective as the audience are catched immediately, speeding up their adrenaline. The scene shows low key lighting and a medium shot of tracking Daniel Craig holding a gun. Enigmas have already begun. Where is he? Why is he holding a gun? The beginning is full of mystery attracting the demographic of males. The light shines through the window however both the characters in the medium shot are still shadowed, not giving away that mysterious atmosphere. There is no wait for fast paced editing, we jump from shot to shot filled with action. We see car crashes leading to Daniel Craig on top of a train fighting another character. A long shot shows them both on top of the train, vulnerable to danger around them. Daniel the main character wears a beige suit, this can infer him to be high up and professional. The diegetic sound of a women angry toned projects “take the bloody shot”. We then see Daniel being shot though the lens of a sniper. This is effective as already codes and conventions of weapons, hero’s and villains have been followed. We then get a long shot of Daniel falling from the train on top of the bridge, this is effective as we see the drop and the audience fully believe that he would be dead from that height, causing sympathy towards him. It fades into black, this adds a dramatic touch to the scene before it ends with a high angle shot of Daniel sinking in the sea and the well-known institution is shown. The high angle shot may represent the power taken away from him connoting that he may be dead.

We get a medium shot of this mystery women who demanded Daniel dead sitting at her desk, behind her it is dark the rain is falling from the windows, this may suggest that she is a villain in this film. However, she has her lamp on suggesting that she is an important character due to the lighting shining on her. Next to her we see a large bottle of brandy and some poured in the glass next to it. This can suggest she is troubled and stressed, which the audience may sympathise towards. We get an over the shoulder shot from the woman facing Daniel Craig, again in low key lighting and Daniel being shadowed. As she replies “where the hell have you been?” it starts to create confusion, making the audience curious to know more.

A medium shot of a building being blown up is shown, causing a massive explosion again follows the codes and conventions and is shown in the majority of action films, therefore makes it successful at achieving the genre.

The non-diegetic sound becomes reasonably slow paced with regular beats, we are shown a medium shot of a two-shot conversation between a woman and Daniel. The woman wears dark clothing, implying her to be obscure which is intriguing for the audience. The body language of them both leaning into each other and the constant eye contact adds tension in this scene. Beats cut from this shot to a medium shot of a shadowed man walking towards the camera holding a gun, with fire in the background connoting this man to be dangerous. Suddenly, the upbeat music comes back in again mixed with the fast editing shots for that dramatic atmosphere. We see Daniel blowing up buildings, jumping from escalators where we have a low angle shot of him landing. This can connote that he has regained his power. Throughout these fast paced editing shots we hear gun fires, cars smashing, glass shattering and explosions. All of these factors draw the audience closer, getting their hearts pumping, trying to get them so engaged they can’t even look away for a second. It dramatically gets faster and faster, building up the anticipation and suspense until it suddenly comes to a stop. Ending with a close up of a gun shot from Daniel Craig, then jumping straight into the title on that beat. Daniel getting the last gunshot can connote that he won.

The title is effective as it is the modern and poplar black background with bold white writing standing out. The spaced out capital letters add to the boldness of the title with the transition fading out.