Semiotic Analysis Of 'Quantum Of Solace' Introduction

To help me get a better understanding of semiotics, I analysed the introduction to Quantum Of Solace. It helped me understand certain codes and conventions used, and what they signify. 

Quantum of Solace

Opening Scene – Semiotic Analysis

In this essay, I am going to analyse the opening scene of Quantum Of Solace. It starts off with slow, ominous music which signifies something is happening that is soon to be discovered. This is followed by an establishing shot of what appears to be an Island. The Island has big mountains on it which hint something big is going to happen. The overall Island represents exoticness which is classic with James Bond to those who have seen previous films.

We start to get brief glimpses of machine gun bullets and cars driving fast. This means there is going to be an action scene to come. The bullets signify it will be a shootout and the cars show it will be a chase. The brief glimpses continue and one of them is an Aston Martin logo. This is the main signifier of Bond himself if people understand Aston Martins are his signature car.

The chase scene is filled with car crashes, dangerous driving and gun shots. Because Bond is the only one who doesn’t crash or get shot, this shows he is skilled and experienced, even if he is breaking the rules. The music speeds up, this goes well with the speed of the cars. The calmness in Bonds face shows; as I said before; he is skilled and experienced.

In the mise-en-scene the police get involved within the chase, this represents that it is going to get more action packed. Very soon after the police joining, they manage to crash or get blown up, however Bond is still driving showing one man is more capable than half a dozen police.

One part of the opening is set in a Quarry, this gives a real chance for some immense driving. This scene enabled me to explore different camera angles, such as close up of Bonds face and a panning shot of the cars as they drifted around the Quarry. Sand and dust from around the quarry is blown around to show the high speed the cars are travelling at. The camera makes sure we can see how dangerous the quarry is by showing the large drops and thin paths.

To summarise, the opening scene features a lot of diegetic sound such as car engines and gun shots to emphasize the action within the scene. The use of set such as The Quarry and the Tunnel show that Bond is one of a kind and is very dangerous when crossed. The final part of the opening when Bond manages to get hold of a machine gun and kill the person in the car chasing him all happens in a short space of time. The short amount of time signifies that Bond is a quick thinker, those who are already familiar with Bond will understand this. The gun is fired when Bond is in an uncomfortable position in his car showing his fast reflexes are very beneficial and professional.

Analysing Potential Film Genres

To help us choose the genre of the film opening Rhiannon and I are going to create, we decided to list the pros and cons of different ones. This helped us identify what genre would allow us to make the best film opening we can.

Potential genre:

Horror

Pros:

- easy to find a suitable set

- doesn't involve a lot of dialogue

- can include a lot of codes and conventions

- shoot on location

- easily accessible music 

Cons:

- hard to find suitable actors/actresses

- difficult to make it dramatic

- hard to access camera angles

Comedy

Pros:

- shoot on location

- props are easy to acquire

Cons:

- hard to make it humorous

- hard to find suitable actors/actresses

- hard to get suitable music

Social-Realism

Pros:

- shoot on location

- wide range of locations to shoot on

- realistic mise-en-scene

Cons:

- hard to get suitable actors/actresses

- music will be hard to find

- hard to think of an original idea

 

Evaluation

What worked well:

-> The use of diegetic sound of students talking in the background creates a realistic effect of the natural school environment in which some of the shots were filmed.

-> Our match on action shot worked well, it consisted of a naturalistic flow of the opening of the door in the three shots used.

-> The actresses we used took the task seriously which improved the quality of our piece, making it look more professional.

What didn't work so well:

-> The shot reverse shot of Amy talking, there was nothing to rest the tripod on so I had to hold it, this caused the shot to be slightly wobbly.

-> When the dialogue takes place, the sound of the speech is overpowered by the background noise.

Overall, our preliminary task worked better then we had hoped. We had a minor issue as we had not included any dialogue, we overcame this by adding the part with girl 3 in the end. We thought this bit worked well as we were able to use shot-reverse-shot and it extended the length of the clip.

The Plot

A girl sits next to another girl on a bench as if they don't know each other. The other girl subtly passes a package to her and then walks off as if nothing had happened. Someone witnesses the mysterious package being given suspiciously, she then reports it to a teacher.

My Role

I was in charge of filming the scene, I had some inspiration on camera angles from YouTube examples and previous AS media preliminary tasks. I used a tripod so the camera was steady and still, this was very beneficial when the camera needed to be held at an angle. Other camera angles I used: facial close-ups, two shot, over the shoulder shot, low angle shot and a medium shot.

My partner, Rhiannon, was very helpful, she gave me advice on the camera shots I should use and these turned out to be very beneficial for the task. 

The Storyboard

The storyboard took a long time to do. This is because the scene we filmed featured a lot of shots. The drawings are of poor quality, art isn't my strong point. From my point of view you can clearly follow the story line due to what the colour represents and the caption boxes; these explain the different camera shots used. 

The Script

The script was hard to do considering all the dialogue was performed at the end of the scene. We wrote the script after we filmed and edited our piece. This was it as more accurate then the first script draft.

Task Brief

A short scene, which must be filmed and edited. It needs to involve a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down opposite another character. The two characters must then exchange a few lines of dialogue. The following camera angles must be demonstrated in the scene:

  -> 180 degree rule - the basic guideline that states that two characters in the same scene have the same left/right relationship with each other.

-> Match on action  - when one action begins in one shot and is continued or completed in another shot.

-> Shot reverse shot - a shot where a character is looking directly at another character, with the other character shown to be looking back.