This scene from Skyfall uses high-contrast black and white cinematography to draw focus to Daniel Craig's eyes and the gun he holds. A close-up shot places the viewer at eye-level with Craig in near darkness, illuminated by a single streak of light across his face. The out of focus background and gun in shadow create a sense of isolation and intensity, while Craig's direct gaze and diagonal composition increase the dramatic tension.

1. Mise en Scene
Mise en Scene: Skyfall

2. The Dominant: The viewer is first drawn to his eyes. This scene lacks any color, but
the light hitting his eye area catches our attention. His eyes are also the only thing in this
scene that are in focus. Since there are no other characters present, he has all our focus.

3. Lighting Key: This shot uses high contrast lighting. There is a small streak of light that illuminates his
face, while the rest of the shot is black, or grey.

4. Camera Angle: This scene uses an eye-level shot. Although this type of camera angle is not very
dramatic in itself, the intensity in his eyes with the other elements of the shot are able to create the
dramatic feeling.

5. Shot and Camera Proxemics: This is a close up shot. It is very concentrated on the character
from the neck up, but we can still see a little bit of the setting.

6. Color Value: The dominant colors presented here are black, white and shades of grey. This color
scheme contains a lot of contrast; light vs dark. This could be seen as symbolism for the conflict of good
and evil.

7. Lens/filter/stock: This scene uses a fast film stock. The image is registered with only a small portion
of his face being illuminated, and the image is also somewhat grainy. The scene uses a telephoto lens,
because the background is entirely out of focus.

8. Subsidiary Contrasts: The main subsidiary contrast in this shot is the gun he is holding. It is nearly
unrecognizable in the shadow, and entirely out of focus. However, it appears close to the camera, and
takes up a decent amount of space in the shot. It messes up the counterbalance of the shot, which
captures the viewer’s attention, and subconsciously puts them on edge.

9. Density: The texture in this scene is stark. The background is blurred, and appears empty. The focus
really only takes up the light illuminating his face, followed by the blurry outline of the gun he is holding up.

10. Composition: This shot has a slight diagonal composition. The shot starts from
Craig’s eye then to his pistol. This could also be a horizontal composition, but that
would against it because it would try to convey placidity or peacefulness.

11. Form: The form of this shot is highly composed. Only the necessary information of
gun and Craig is conveyed. While the out of focus background makes Craig even
more emphasised.

12. Framing: Craig is framed in the center with almost no room to move.
Craig’s head is only contained in the Edges, while his body is framed from it.
It’s tight, just like the situation he is in.

13. Depth of Field: The plane that Craig is placed in is the one most prominently in
focus. The outline of the gun is not as sharp as Craigs face. Also to not is that the
background distance from Craig is very far and it causes it to be not as sharp.

14. Character Placement: Craig is occupying most of the center, yet not fully. Also to
note is that the Fibonacci ratio is being utilized in placement from Craig’s eye to
the outline of the pistol he is holding.

15. Staging Placement: Daniel Craig is few millimeters away from looking directly at
us. This is an example of a 3 quarter turn because Craig is looking at least 15
degrees away from us and no more than 45 because we can not see the side of
his jawline.

16. Character Proxemics: There is no other Character in the scene; It’s only Daniel Craig. However it is implied there is
a character off screen somewhere in front of Craig. Extrapolating from that we can imply that there could be an intimate
distance if the other character is big enough to cast a shadow on Craig, but can also conversely imply that the other
character is at least a personal distance away from Craig because of the implication in the next scene or ongoing scene
we see Craig confront a character. If we see him and the unseen in the same shot we can imply they are at a personal or
social distance because it would make sense in to cut into it from the this scene.

17. Work Cited
‘Skyfall” Behind The Scenes. From moviefone.com