Research Into An Opening Action Sequence

Looking Into the opening action sequence of Spectre

Spector is an action film directed by Sam Mendes and produced by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. Spectre is a 2015 spy film, which is twenty fourth in the James Bond series, The studios which worked together to produce the film was Eon Productions for Metro-Goldwyn Mayor and Columbia pictures. James Bond is star'd by Daniel Craig. 

It is made clear in just this short opening scene that it is in fact an action film, and the scene contains an intense, extreme tone. There is also use of the key conventions of an action film. It is established that the character (James Bond) whom the clip starts on is in fact the hero. This is seen from when he first is shown on the move walking along the edge of the top of the building. The camera follows his movement through a tracking shot as well as a birds eye view tracking shot, this on its own helps to establish the fact he is a major character or maybe even the main character due to the first minute of the scene just focusing on his confident, purposeful walk. It is also confirmed that he is most likely the hero due to when theres the zoom in slowly on the window where you see three men passing round hats and something that seems awfully suspicious, they are speaking another language which makes it seem more suspicious due to the rest of the scene being in English. Highlighting that they may be talking about something they don't want anyone knowing about. The convention of a huge power divide between the hero and villain, however here it is not how you'd expect. Due to James bond being on his own yet managing to kill at-least 2 of them, this helps engage the viewer due to it subverting their expectations.

There is only one character properly introduced that being 'James Bond'. I believe this is done extremely well due to their being no proper use of diegetic dialogue but only non diegetic soundtracks. A lot is told to us through the use of this non diegetic dialogue by Bond, by using an intense, powerful sound track. When James Bond enters we get the idea that he is confident, willing and in control. In contrast when Bond loses the man he was chasing the upbeat carnival music commences portraying he is in a less stable condition. He is also shown to be the main character through the use of mise-en-scene, he has been placed in a black suit and bow tie. When approaching the carnival this enabled him to stand out more due to no one having worn the same shade nor being dressed so smartly. He is almost always captured in away that he's in the centre of the screen. 

Moreover, i believe this film is aimed at a slightly older audience  (15)  due to not being suitable for children because of the action and language. We know this from the opening scene due to death already being highlighted as a theme and violence being a huge aspect of the film. This scene does not appear to be the most simplest thing to understand, due to characters speaking different languages, more advanced vocabulary and being shown a-lot more visually than through dialogue. Therefore, younger teenagers and children will most definitely get confused and may imitate the violent behaviour portrayed to them.

The narrative given to us from this beginning scene is that James Bond is on a mission to kill some people as well as retrieve their information, and it connotes that they're doing something suspicious. It is made clear that Bond feels he cannot let the guy get away.  We expect that the rest of the film will explain why Bond was after these guys and what they were exactly doing as-well as following his crazy out of this world missions. 

I do believe that this opening scene is successful as it helps immediately engage the audience due to the suspenseful atmosphere and gives a slight hint to what the film is about, as well as giving us a good insight to the character Bond. Furthermore, the non diegetic soundtrack (where the scene first commences) has a minor key spunding to it with a string bass beat. The sounds being in the minor key foreshadows the immense deaths that are yet to come as the film progresses, due to the association between minor key and sadness.