James Bond Skyfall Analysis

   At the start of Skyfall, the camera angles, were slow, did not really give the whole scene, and were intentionally high to show the opening scenery of the movie in taking place in the middle east. The movies mid section had little variance of camera angles. However, there was a lot of reversal shots taking place as the commentary increased. There we also a couple more oblique shots as the action had increased. The purpose of this was add suspense to the upcoming chase scenes. The costumes stayed really the same. In the opening, middle, and closing, the main actor was wearing a suit. The only time the main actor would change was when his suit was ruined or he was getting intimate. The lighting in the beginning was terrible. The shots were mostly relying on shadows, and the while first 4 minuets were in darkness. However, the middle was bright and there was always a high sun as the viewers needed to see the action clearly. The ending was also bright, but there was long stretches of open day shots, whereas the middle part changed angles a lot and this effected the lighting, due to the chase scenes.

       The sound in the beginning was minimal, you could hear a pin drop. There was music over this minimal sound, but you could tell the sound was low on purpose. The middle however was much different, there was lots of sounds from hearing feet on gravel, to the reloading of guns, to even the characters spitting. The end was quiet, it was like the opening because of the lack of noise, but it was different because all the noise was nature, like birds chirping. The use of props was very consistent all the way through. This first scene there was a gun in the viewers screen. Near the middle, there was many more props, guns were everywhere and things like train cars were being destroyed to add to the depth of the movie. Nearing the end, there was a ceramic bulldog that had made appearances several times throughout the movie, this was in the ending and it gave a comical finish as the main character hated the bulldog.

      The biggest difference was the editing. In the beginning, there was little to no change in shots, and no added visual effects. This left for a rather boring start as it was not holding my attention. The middle was a different story. There was a lot of editing magic going on. There were some larger than life explosions that took place, and the editing was flawless. In the middle, there was perfect shot transitions and they missed a single important shot. The end was very similar to the start. There was little added effects and the shots were not as magical as the beginning. The only thing that held the movie together at the end was the actual acting, as the head actor really sold himself on the closing acts. My favorite part of the movie was definitely the fact that the movie never actually stopped, there was breaks in the action, but the actual flow of the movie was turned off.