Opening sequence textual analysis: Casino Royale

To whoever is reading this, hi from 2016
Casino Royale:

The first scene of the opening is a grey-scale wide of an office building from a long low 45° angle with a car pulling up outside of it. This gives a sense of height to the building which suggests that this building has sinister connotations of mystery and darkness. There is no music playing during this shot which, with the colourless theme, creates a sense of tension. The mise en scene suggests that it is cold because there is snow on the floor and hot steam that is clearly visible. The street light in the middle of the shot and the centre of the building draws attention to the centre of the screen which makes the building look more menacing because the rest of the shot is low key lighting suggesting that there are secrets at play which further expands upon the sense of darkness and mystery.

The next shot is a low angle shot of the person walking out the car. This person is an antagonist which is emphasised by the angle because it makes him look tall, giving the impression that he is intimidating and sinister.  The antagonists face is only lit on the sides. The side facing the building is lit more suggesting that the building is the main focus for the antagonist because the other side of his face is being dimly lit by the street lamp. This leaves the key features of his face a mystery which is done because the antagonist is hiding secrets that we will learn further on in the opening.

A little later on in the opening, there is a low angle shot of an elevator shaft with the antagonist moving up In one of the lifts. The low angle of the shot helps to emphasise the height of the building. It also implies that the antagonist is an important figure in the business being run in the building which also makes the antagonist seem more powerful. The lifts are the brightest things in the shot that aren't a source of light. This suggests that the building is still active a night which leads to more mysterious connotations about the building.

After this it cuts to the antagonist in the moving elevator. The shot is from a high angle looking down at him whilst he counts the floors as they go by. This could suggest many things. Firstly it could imply that the antagonist is tense because he knows what waits for him at the top which helps show that there is something more intimidating than him to come because in a few seconds he goes from unknown what he is looking at until it cuts to show the floor counter being portrayed with a low angle shot to a high angle shot. This scene is edited well because it is from the antagonists view. The only sound that can be heard is the elevator moving which creates even more tension.

  After this the antagonist leaves the elevator and enters a room, the first shot starts with him opening a door and then walk to the far end of the room. The camera pans from a low angle to keep him in shot. During the middle of this shot something blocks the view which implies to the audience that somebody is there, paired with the diegetic sounds of him entering the room increases the tension further. The mise en scene shows a clean office which paired with the antagonist outfit suggests that this person is organised, making him seem more threatening.  There is also a tray of cigarette butts, these have negative effects on a person’s health which gives the antagonist negative connotations because he smokes.

The next shot is a slightly high neutral view of the antagonist when he realises something has been taken from his office. The angle is used to show the sudden panic this antagonist is feeling, making him seem vulnerable. The background music stops at this point as well making the scene completely silent for a second which mounts up the tension for the reveal of the protagonist shortly after. The reveal of the protagonist is a pan to the left of the other antagonist moving from a close up of the antagonist to an over the shoulder shot revealing the protagonist. This camera movement and change of scene without a cut suggests that these characters already have some form of a relationship. It also sets up that the 180® rule will start being followed from the antagonists left.

The next scene is of the conversation the characters have after the reveal of the protagonist. It starts with a low angle shot of the protagonist suggesting that he is trying to be intimidating but cuts to a worm’s eye view of the antagonists which; as well as implying that is sinister; also implies that he has a way to counteract the position that the protagonist has put him in. This is proven true when a quick cut to show that in his draw is a pistol. Another cut to a low angle shot which follows the antagonist as he sits down suggests that he feels he has the upper hand with the reveal of the pistol he has. The protagonist is covered by low key lighting which suggests that his secrets aren't known to the antagonists whereas the antagonist is in high key lighting suggesting that the protagonist knows what he is hiding and about the “upper hand” the antagonist has.

The conversation leads to a story of the protagonist killing one of the antagonist’s henchman. Which is the shown on screen in flashback form. This is a match on action shot. The whole scene of the protagonist in the bathroom fighting the henchman is cut incredibly fast to build the feeling of anger and tension. It is also filmed in high key lighting which could imply that the characters are blindly fighting which is why the fight is incredibly violent. The music in this scene is fast paced which increases the tense atmosphere and makes the audience feel more exited for what is to come.

There is then a quick cut to the present to show the antagonist pulling out his gun and aiming at the protagonist. The camera remains at a low angle to both the protagonist and antagonist which further implies that the both of them think they have the upper hand over the other. The whole time during this the director follows the 180°rule. The music has sowed down to a tense hum which helps create tension and along with the emphasised diegetic sounds increases the thrill of the villain pulling the trigger only to realise that he has lost the upper hand because the ammunition for the gun is missing.

There is now several cuts between the fight scene and the office scene where the protagonist is seen having the upper hand in both. The fast pace editing helps create excitement and build up to the final moments of the antagonist’s life before the protagonist kills him.  When the antagonist is shot there is a cut to a high angle shot of the antagonist flying back in their chair. This shot shows more mise-en-scene such as a picture of the villain’s family which alongside the high angle shot makes the audience feel sympathy for him in his final moments.