Casino Royale Textual Analysis
Casino Royale is a remake of the first bond film made from the novel written by Ian Flemming. This is the first film with Daniel craig as Bond and he takes the character right back to the time before he reached his status as a double 0 agent. He has to prove to M that he is a worthy candidate for the job. This comes into question in the film and his status is taken away. He quickly try's to earn it back by winning a high stake poker tournament in order to sabotage plans for villain Le Chiffre, leader of a large terrorist group.
Lighting & Colour
lighting and colour is an extremely important part of any film making. It has the power to dramatically enhance the audiences viewing through many different effective ways. Lighting has the ability to create a range of different moods in a film. it ca also enhance certain people, object or areas in a scene. Low key lighting is used for the opening of the bond film. Parts of bonds face are lit up whilst the other half is dark and his handgun is also luminated. This is part of representation of the character in the film. In this film we see a much darker side to bond and this is a great example of how the producers of the film exaggerated this through use of the lighting. This signifies that bond has two sides. He serves his country but the way that he does it shows that he also has another side to him. This is also a great way to engage the audience early. When they see this representation they will be eager to see what he does in the film and how he is represented throughout. This showed the audience that bond would maybe conflict with his good side and start confusing the way he does things with the way he shouldnt. The audience would want to see the twist in this film as their first taster is right in the first few minutes. Low key lighting is also used throughout the opening sequence as the scene is set at night. Night time is generally the time that people think bad things can happen which also builds tension. If it was set in the daytime it would not have the same effect. High key lighting is used later in the film helping the viewer see the shots are in daytime. Using high key lighting to represent daytime makes it more realistic for the audience to watch.
Use of Camera
Camera work in films is one of the most important factors to making a good film, particularly in an action packed film such as Casino Royale. You get a range of different angles and distances to see the action from. During the opening sequence bond is represented through the use of the camera. A low angle shot from under his body is shown which signifies a great deal of power and presence in the scene. This lets the audience know strait away that bond is a very important character in the storyline and the audience are keen to know how this is going to be shown later in the film. Further on in the film there are a lot more range of shots particularly in the chase seen between bond and the villain from the embassy. As they are on a construction sight there are a lot establishing and high angle shots showing the severity and danger of the sequence. This will engage the audience strait away as they will see the danger Bond is putting himself in. There are also a lot of close up shots of the two characters involved showing the emotion and feeling they are showing throughout the chase. You can see that from the look on bonds face he is very determined to catch the villain no matter what and the audience will carry on watching to find out exactly how he will do this.
Sound
Again sound is one of the most important ways to contribute to the making of the film. A film with no sound would be no way as exiting as one full of sound. Films consist of two types of sound, diegetic and non-diegetic. Diegetic sound includes things such as dialogue, sound effects and any sound that you would hear if you where in that scene yourself. Non-diegtic sound is sound that is put over the top of a clip to help reinforce feeling and moods. Non-diegetic sound is very important in Casino Royale as it helps set the pace for the high energy chase scenes. In the case of the chase in this film they use the Bond theme music and edit it slightly to make it quicker in order to accompany the chase on the screen. This is a very well known piece of music that the audience can relate to. Also diegetic sound plays a big part in the film. You can hear people screaming in the background but cannot see them on the screen. This again makes the audience want to know what is going on so waits for the clip to catch up with the sound and see why they are screaming.
Mise en Scene
Mise en scene is everything that appears on the screen in a film. This includes the set, props, actors, costumes and lighting. Getting the mise en scene correct in a film makes the film much more realistic and helps the audience relate to what is on the screen. A good example of mise en scene in Casino Royale would be the props used for the filming of the chase sequence in the construction site. The massive beams and cranes helped to make the viewer believe that what they were seeing was a real construction site as a pose to just a set. The height of all of this equipment made it exiting for the audience to watch as it made the scene that much more realistic. Another part of the mise en scene that is represented well in Casino Royale is the costumes. Throughout most of the film bond is dressed up smartly in an expensive looking suit. This helps the audience again realise the authority and importance of bond and again makes it feel as though bond really is a double 0 agent rather than just an actor playing him.
Editing
Editing is the final bit of adjustment to the film that makes the film how it is. Editing involves putting all the scenes shot into the correct order and making sure that all the sound and video goes together well and keeps a good flow in the film. Also any special effect that need to be included in the film will be done after it is filmed when they are editing. Editing also involves making credits for the beginning and the end of a film. At the start of Casino Royale the whole first clip is in black and white. This is a good example of editing as the original footage would have probably been shot in colour and later changed into black ad white. This clip with no colour also helped the audience realise that what they are seeing is a flashback of Bonds from the first kill he had to make. Showing this at the beginning of the film also shows the audience a quick glimpse of what is to come later in the film. The chase scenes are edited very differently from the scenes at the poker table for instance. During the chase scenes there are lots of quick cuts keeping the audience on the ball and psyching them up to the quick paced action. The editing in the poker room is a lot slower and is more relaxed enabling the audience to feel the atmosphere in the room.
Casino Royale is a brilliant film to analyze as it has a big variety of different techniques in all different areas. From the editing to the lighting all aspects of the film are thought through carefully in order to build up feelings in the audience, that will hopefully engage them and want them to watch more. There are some techniques we can incorporate into our own main task from this film.
