Casino royale essay- Lucy

1. Casino royal opening Macro analysis- by lucy:
The opening sets up our expectations for the rest of the story
by giving many hints and clues, like the use of the weapons
held guns. By previewing this it allows us to know that the
story will involve crime which will carry out through the film
considering a gun is pulled out within the first 2 minutes.
Another thing that we can understand from the opening is
that they are some sort of spy’s or agents as their profession.
We understand this from the very small amount of dialogue
spoken as he says “we barely got to know each other” yet
James knew where he keeps his guns showing how he has
been secretly getting to know him without realising which is
what spies are for. The narrative tells us that as well as a lot of
crime within this film, there is also a lot of violence involved
and we know this from the flashbacks. The flashbacks involve
Bond killing someone then it saying how he needs 2 or more
kills to get 00 status leaving this as a cliff hanger to how many
kills he will complete.
The title sequence is very clever and unique in the sense of how
it ties in the theme and genre of the film through the
animation of the titles. As it is about casino it has linked how
the titles come on through the different suits on cards. The
names are in capital letters and bold with plain colour and
generally a boring font making it stand out in comparison to
their job titles which aren’t capitalised. This shows how the
names of the people who have taken part in the making of the
film are more important to their job roles.
The main character in this film is a recognisable character due
to him playing the part of James bond in previous films. They
have been chosen because it continues the story of Bond using
the person who has played it in previous films which allows
audiences to recognise him as part of the main character. The
qualities this actor has physically is his build is very slim and
tall which makes it believable that he can round around
chasing people as he generally looks very fit and healthy when
completing the action themes. He also is a very good looking

2. guy who can pull off the business look and appeals to a wider
audience as women would be interested in watching the film
as they have someone who is a main character which appeals
to their eyes. The dialogue he uses defines him because by his
very British accent he sounds like a very well brought up guy
that knows what he is talking about. He is very
straightforward in his answers, not wanting to give too much
information away which makes him seem more professional
as his spy job as he leaves in depth information out of
conversation. On a professional side, his costume of constantly
wearing suits does imply he is professional yet has more
authority than the other characters in the flash backs.
The sound in this film is very eary/suspense music when there
is action happening or the odd sound effects when they’re
talking building up to the upcoming events. This suspense if
often used in thrillers because you make a pre-judgement on
what you think will happen next taking in account what type
of music it is. The main thing about sound in thrillers is the
gradual build up in pitch leading up to something which is
used in this.
Someone camera work used was the use of high and low
angles. The low angle usually shows that a character has
more authority as they look down on it like they would look
down on people, and in contrast the high angle takes away the
authority of one as it be little’s them and this is commonly used
in thrillers because it foresees who is the main victim or main
character and tells you more about the characters. Also
another angle shot used is over the shoulder. Some thrillers
use this a lot because that means the person who’s back is
towards the camera you will never know who or what is
behind them yet unexpectedly something could happen to
them even when having a conversation with someone.
The lighting is all black and white which shows how its olden
times or the people in it chose to live their life how they use to

3. originally in the olden times ( hence the casino, gambling side
of things ). But it makes it thriller because it is the sense of the
unknown as it makes things harder to recognise or realise that
are in the frame at the time like the brightest part in the frame
tend to be their faces focusing on them mainly and leaving out
the small details in the background. And like in the flash back
it chooses to use a more gritty film over the black and white
and make it brighter to show the difference between the
flashback and reality. This makes it easier to establish what is
what yet still has the ‘unknown’ element to it. The choice of the
colours black, white and grey makes it seem very dark and
mysterious yet brutal and harsh as they’re such standard
sharp colours.
The theme I noticed in the opening was perpetrator, this is
because you see Bond abusing a man and then killing one by
drowning him and shooting him and then killing another man
by a single bullet which also makes him the villain which is
another theme as well. I personally think that law is also a
theme in this opening because we also see quite clearly Bond is
breaking the law considering he has killed 2 people already.
This is relevant to the genre because thriller consists of
suspense, and by someone breaking the law it does build up
the tension because it does make you want to ask questions
whether they will get caught or not or whether they will get
away with it.