Media studies- Casino Royale homework

Casino Royale is a film with thriller being its genre. The opening scene of Casino Royale sets our expectations for the rest of the story to be about a casino as the titles have a background of casino elements for example cards and there was a lot of guns so this implies that the film is going to be violent with guns and fighting in. The specific information we were given from the backstory was that there was two men dressed in suits, which shows they both have authority/power, talking to one another and a flashback of James Bond fighting somebody so automatically we think of a spy film because James Bond films are famous for being to do with spy/ detective work. You also get the idea that the two men are trying to be better than each other and are trying to show who has the most power and the audience can know this as well by the type of shot that is used for each character e.g. low angle shot to show that that character has high authority.

The titles fade in and out with the background of animated casino features e.g. cards with the font being white capitals letters but the jobs of the actors are in lower case letters, showing that the actors are standing out more than their jobs. The white font stands out from the background but they are quite boring titles as you focus more on the background than the titles. The title size is fairly small and the movement is slow and these titles link in with my expectations of the genre as the title is ‘Casino’ and it animated Casino objects.

The ‘stars’ that I recognise is James Bond and James Bond has been chosen because this is thriller and about spy and detective work which James Bond is most known for therefore the audience automatically know or have an idea what the film is going to be about just be seeing one character. The qualities that James Bond has that add to the character he is portraying is that he is dressed very smart, normally in a black suit and tie, which indicates that he has authority and power over people, he also shows a lot of violence and spy/detective work in previous films which helps portray his character in ‘Casino Royale’ of a suspicious character. The costume of James Bond is mostly always a suit which shows power/authority, his dialogue is not a lot but when there is dialogue it is slow and bold which he is showing power in his voice and the action helps to define that character as it shows that he doesn’t hold back and is violent towards many people.

The camerawork helps the audience to identify the genre as at the start there is two shots which shows the different power between both the characters, there is over the shoulder shot which shows both of the characters emotion between one another. There is low angle shots which shows the authority and power in both the characters. There is also medium shots of the actors to show what their costumes are which helps the audience identify the genre because commonly in action thriller films there is authoritative character so the medium shot shows a little of what they are wearing to give the audience an idea.

The film is in black and white and in the flashback of the fight the lighting goes a lot brighter and is not as clear which shows that the brightness focusses on the fight which shows that the film is action thriller because the lighting changes when the action of fighting comes into it which shows its importance. The music is high pitched which builds up the suspense in the film which action thriller films have a lot of suspense and the unknown of what is going to happen so the music fits in with the action and suspense. The sound effects are fast and loud which again builds up the suspense and there is magnified sound effects on certain things for example a gun shots is loud and magnified which makes the audience focus on that rather any background scene or talking to give effect of the importance of it in an action thriller film.

Some themes that I identified in the opening scene were a crime fighter which is relevant to

the genre because in the action thriller genre there is many fights as you need a lot of action in thriller so this is important because it is one of the basis for an action film. I also identified the theme criminality in the opening scene of murder which is important because it is spy/detective based genre so there has to be some suspicion of a crime and detective work is normally to do with a crime that has taken place and characters are trying to get the details of it.