h

1. Film beginning analysis – Casino Royale (2006)
Director – Martin Campbell
Production Company – Eon Productions
The film beginning starts with an opening shot of a building in which a car pulls
up outside. A smartly dressed middle aged man steps out of the car and there is
a low angle close up of his face. This shot is then followed by a wide angle shot
of a rising lift which changes to a shot from inside the lift of the middle aged
man and then the floor numbers rising. The next is a forward sliding shot in
which the camera follows the man along a walkway. He enters the room, closes
the door behind him and proceeds towards his desk where he removes his hat
and turns on his desk light. The camera angle changes to a close up of his face
in order to catch his reaction to the following shot of the open vault. The shot
then changes back to his face and as bond starts to talk it quickly slides to the
left to include him in the shot. The one 180 degree rule is then used while the
two have a plot based conversation. While they have this conversation it cuts to
a fight scene in where Bond kills the middle aged man’s connection. One the
connection is killed the middle aged man pulls his gun and fires, unknowing to
him that bond has the clip and so no bullet is fired. Bond quickly pulls his
weapon and shoots.
I really enjoy this film opening and there are many elements that I want to
include in my film beginning, the most obvious being that the whole scene is
shot in black and white. This creates tension and makes it slightly different.
Another thing I would like to include is his uses of establishing shot with slight
movement. Theses shots are beautifully executed and I would love to use them
myself.