James Bond

The ultimate spy thriller, British secret agent, who doesn't seem that secret as whenever he confronts the villain they seem to know who he is, anyhow one of the best spy thrillers ever made based on novels written by Ian Fleming. So far there are 23 films and I am sure there are many more to come because it is a franchise   that should never die, its brilliant. Based on Ian Flemings 14 novels, and short stories the film industry has produced 23 films and counting.

Recipe for a Bond Film

•A dashing, sexy, and heroic secret agent.

•An eccentric villain of equal / greater strength

•A number of gorgeous women Bond will make love to.

• Exotic locations and plot devices

•Exciting stunt-driven action (often a little absurd).

•The John Barry music.

•A ‘pop song’ that will promote the film.

•An opening action sequence.

•Bond being given his ‘mission’ – ‘M’ + gadgets

•Fights and car chases.

•Bond trapped.

•Final scene (often on an island) where Bond overcomes the odds and triumphs.

The film adaptations have included 6 actors to play the lead man. Each lead man has brought something unique to the table, comedy, action, cars, women, swarveness, sophisication.

Sean Connery


George Lazenby


Roger Moore


Timothy Dalton


Pierce Brosnan


Daniel Craig.




The first James Bond film was Dr No, in 1962. In the film, James Bond is sent to Jamaica to investigate the death of a fellow British agent. The trail leads him to the underground base of Dr. Julius No, who is plotting to disrupt an early American manned space launch with a radio beam weapon.Dr. No was produced with a low budget, and was a financial success.

Budget	$1 million
Box office	$59.6 million

Sean Connery did five films before being taken over by George Lazenby a less successful Bond he was only required to do 1 film On Her Majesty's Secret Service 1969  it seemed he was not suitable for the role to do more that one film.

Budget	$7 million
Box office	$82 million

After Lazenby's disappointing attempt at playing James Bond, Sean Connery was asked to return, and so he did for an extra film, Diamonds are Forever 1971. 

Budget	$7.2 million
Box office	$116 million

Roger Moore was next to put his stamp on James Bond and it seems he did it very well being the person to play Bond longest with him returning for 7 films, his first taste into Bond life was Live and Let Die in 1973,  In the film, a Harlem drug lord known as Mr. Big plans to distribute two tons of heroin free to put rival drug barons out of business. Mr. Big, however, is revealed to be the disguised alter ego of Dr. Kananga, a corrupt Caribbean dictator, who rules San Monique, the fictional island where the heroin poppies are secretly farmed. Bond is investigating the death of three British agents, leading him to Kananga, where he is soon trapped in a world of gangsters and voodoo as he fights to put a stop to the drug baron's scheme. 

Budget	$7 million
Box office	$161.8 million

And who should follow in Roger Moore's defined footprints, Timothy Dalton he was a good Bond but didn't seem to leave a lasting impression as Bond as he only did 2 films, The Living Daylights in 1987.

Budget	$40 million
Box office	$191.2 million

 And Licence to Kill in 1989.

Budget	$32 million
Box office	$156.2 million

Daltons box office went down and was deemed not a very successful Bond.

So Timothy Dalton's stint as James Bond had run its course and who was to be the next bond... Pierce Brosnan, (my personal favourite) he started his fairly successful stint as James Bond in 1995 with GoldenEye, many say that Brosnan was not a good Bond but I and critiques disagree "Some critics viewed the film as a modernisation of the series, and felt Brosnan was a definite improvement over his predecessor." GoldenEye was actually quite successful.

Budget	$58 million
Box office	$356.4 million

Brosnan lasted 4 films his final film Die Another Day in 2002.

Budget	$142 million
Box office	$431.9 million

Brosnan's box office increased from his first to last film as Bond, but he was seen as ageing for a Bond, the action as Bond in his films went down, so Bond needed a new face.
So Brosnan was gone and it was time for Bond to regenerate and have a new face, it was Daniel Craig's time to shine, his first film Casino Royale turned out to be quite a hit. 

Budget	$150 million
Box office	$599,045,960

Daniel Craig is the current Bond he lasted 3 films so far and is rumoured to be doing another one. His latest film SkyFall has been the most successful film of the franchise, I've already seen it twice it is amazing it has to be the best Bond film yet by far. 

Budget	$150−200 million
Box office	$796,574,734

Skyfall has become one of the most successful films this year, its box office is record breaking. 

  

Cliffhangers

A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a difficult dilemma, or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode. A cliffhanger is hoped to ensure the audience will return to see how the characters resolve the dilemma.

The clip above is a cliffhanger from the film Kill Bill, the transition to grey colours, suggests more is to come, it infers a element of danger, as in the scene it seems set in a hospital with the IV drip attached to the chair, but after the revelation of the daughter she thought was dead being alive, then cutting to a black screen gives the audience things to ponder in their minds, will she find her daughter? Does the daughter know about her mother?

Psychological thrillers

• Psychological – Elements that are related to the mind or processes of the mind; they are mental rather than physical in nature. Sometimes the suspense comes from within one solitary character where characters must resolve conflicts with their own minds. Usually, this conflict is an effort to understand something that has happened to them. These conflicts are made more vivid with physical expressions of the conflict in the means of either physical manifestations, or physical torsions of the characters at play.
• Thriller – Generally, thrillers focus on plot over character, and thus emphasize intense, physical action over the character's psyche. Psychological thrillers tend to reverse this formula to a certain degree, emphasizing the characters just as much as, if not more so than, the plot.
• Psychological thriller – Characters are no longer reliant on physical strength to overcome their brutish enemies (which is often the case in typical action-thrillers), but rather are reliant on their mental resources, whether it be by battling wits with a formidable opponent or by battling for equilibrium in the character's own mind. The suspense created by psychological thrillers often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state

A good psychological thriller is Shutter Island, the storyline is U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston's Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. He's been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he wonders whether he hasn't been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister. Teddy's shrewd investigating skills soon provide a promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects would break the case wide open. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals "escape" in the confusion, and the puzzling, improbable clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything - his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.

This film toys with your mind to the extent of confusion, the twist in the film makes you wonder why everything else happened and how did he make his make believe world seems so real.

Red Herrings

A red herring refers to a device or diversion used to distract the onlooker from the original idea. Red herrings are often seen in films, adventure games, and puzzles. 

In films, a red herring can often be found in Alfred Hitchcock stories, where characters and things turn out to be anything but what the viewer expects them to be. One of the best examples of the use of a red herring in modern film can be found in the film Saw. During the whole film, two characters spend time imprisoned in a room in which a third character lies dead. Throughout the film, both characters appear to be guilty of a series of murders, until is discovered at the end that the third person in the room is not actually dead. He is, in fact, the killer.

In the Bodyguard the red herring is the creepy stalker guy, who everyone assumes is the killer. However the real killer is a hit man hired my the targets sister!

This is the stalker who is believed to be the killer.              

This is the actual hit man who is not even suspected until the final moment.

Chuck Jones- Road Runner

Chuck Jones was an animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, producer, and director of animated films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio. He directed many of the classic short animated cartoons starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Sylvester, Pepé Le Pew and a slew of other Warner characters. 





Roadrunner
Chuck Jones created a set of "rules" in which the roadrunner series must comply.
The "rules" were;

1. The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going "meep, meep."

2. No outside force can harm the Coyote -- only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme products. Trains and trucks were the exception from time to time.

3. The Coyote could stop anytime -- if he were not a fanatic.

4. No dialogue ever, except "meep, meep" and yowling in pain.

5. The Road Runner must stay on the road -- for no other reason than that he's a roadrunner.

6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters -- the southwest American desert.

7. All tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation.

8. Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote's greatest enemy.

9. The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.

10. The audience's sympathy must remain with the Coyote.

11. The Coyote is not allowed to catch or eat the Road Runner.

Suspense

Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work. Suspense is not exclusive to fiction, though. Suspense may operate in any situation where there is a lead-up to a big event or dramatic moment, with tension being a primary emotion felt as part of the situation. In the kind of suspense described by film director Alfred Hitchcock, an audience experiences suspense when they expect something bad to happen and have (or believe they have) a superior perspective on events in the drama's hierarchy of knowledge, yet they are powerless to intervene to prevent it from happening. Films having a lot of suspense belong in the thriller genre.


The Trailer above is from a film full of suspense.

When her sister disappears, Jill is convinced the serial killer who kidnapped her two years ago has returned, and she sets out to once again face her abductor. The suspense build by the minute as Jill is frantically trying to work out what happened to her sister, she fears desperately for her own life this builds tension, fear and adds to the element of suspense.

Maguffins

In fiction, a MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or maguffin) is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object
 The specific nature of a MacGuffin may be ambiguous, undefined, generic, left open to interpretation, or otherwise completely unimportant to the overall plot. The most common type of MacGuffin is an object, place or person the exact details of which are not integral to the narrative. However, a MacGuffin can sometimes take a more abstract form, such as money, victory, glory, survival, power, love, or even something that is entirely unexplained, as long as it strongly motivates key characters within the structure of the plot. Whether the audience should care about or identify with a MacGuffin in a story is open to debate among producers of fiction.
The MacGuffin technique is common in films, especially thrillers. Usually the MacGuffin is the central focus of the film in the first act, and then declines in importance as the struggles and motivations of characters play out. It may come back into play at the climax of the story, but sometimes the MacGuffin is actually forgotten by the end of the story.

In North by North West the maguffin is the drugs being smuggled via a statue.

The most famous MacGuffin of all time, the question driving Orson Welles' 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane was what newspaper tycoon Charles Foster Kane meant by his deathbed utterance, "Rosebud." Although it's now widely known, the revelation that this MacGuffin was a symbol of Kane's lost childhood still packs a punch
.
In Reservoir Dogs the diamonds are the Maguffin. At the centre of that unseen robbery and all its horrible, horrible consequences is a bag of diamonds. Rarely seen and barely mentioned, the diamonds are the impetus for all the swearing, fighting, shooting, killing, torturing, and backstabbing. Things get so horrific that audiences can be forgiven if they forgot that the bag of diamonds are what brought the colour coded madmen together in the first place. And in the end, every one of them (except for Mr. Pink) ends up dead for the MacGuffin.

Unknown

We watched a film called Unknown, a man who has created an identity to hide his assassin life, he is involved in an accident and when he wakes from a coma he believes his made up identity is who he is, the life he thinks he has is torn apart, no-one recognises him and no-one believes his story, he then has to start retracing his steps in order to find out who he is. Liam Neeson plays the main character Martin Harris a scientist who is in Berlin to attend a conference  he is separated from his briefcase at the airport so goes back for it then he is involved in the accident.



This is a poster that was released with the film, the main character is surrounded by darkness and a blurred landscape this can represent his state of mind as his memory is blurred by the accident. The slogan "take back your life" is a clear message that is shown throughout the film, Martin Harris has lost all control of his life, he is lost and confused by the fact he is not known to his wife and colleagues that he believes he has been with and worked with for years.

Types of thrillers

A thriller consists of different genres that overlap to make a thriller, there are different types of thrillers, spy thrillers like James Bond, crime thrillers like The Thomas Crown Affair, political thrillers like Nick Of Time, conspiracy thrillers like The Conspiracy Theory, medical thrillers like Contagion, psychological thrillers like Se7en, horror thrillers like Silence Of The Lambs and action thrillers like Die Hard.





James Bond is a spy thriller or spy fiction, because the hero (James Bond) works for a government agency who must take violent action against, rival government agents or terrorists. 
With the use of gadgets, fast cars, and the constant action to protect Queen and Country James Bond is the ultimate spy thriller. The clip below shows a montage of Bond, the action, cars and gadgets, the music and theme tune is catchy but has an element suspense building.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSOVCW3UoS0


The Thomas Crown Affair is a crime thriller because it is full of tense scenes based on the theft of a famous painting that leads to an insurance agent following the trail of Thomas Crown.
This clip is the return of the stolen painting, it is so cleverly filmed, it plays with your mind and makes you wonder where the painting is, who has it and how are they doing it? It would of required lots of planning and time to perfect each change of brief case to ensure the right one got where it needed to go. The music is quick and speeds up the pace of the film and the film is ironic as Thomas Crown will have to go on the run after this as the police know it is him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8W5wjXsrR0

Nick of Time is a political thriller as the main character is made to kill the governor in order to save his daughters life. The governor is wearing red this draws our attention to her, the music speeds up and this reflects time running out for the father to make his ultimate descision to save his daughter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ylx6aTM2hU
A conspiracy thriller involves a person going against a large group of powerful people that are often hiding a big story, only the main character can see the extent of the cover up, The Conspiracy Theory is a prime example of a conspiracy thriller. So Jerry has been collecting evidence for years about a secret service he thinks is hiding something they have found out that he is trying to get people to believe him and now they are after him will someone believe him or will he suffer for talking?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svphE__WU5Y

Contagion is a medical thriller that shows a disease spreading and those who currently immune to it are fighting to find a cure and save loved ones. "Contagion" follows the rapid progress of a lethal airborne virus that kills within days. As the fast-moving epidemic grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself. At the same time, ordinary people struggle to survive in a society coming apart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sYSyuuLk5g

Se7en a great psychological thriller involving a rookie and veteran detectives on the trail of a serial killer who uses the 7 deadly sins to kill his victims. There is a tick tock sound up until a body is found this can show that it was only a matter of time until the body was found like it was planned for them to find it. At the end of the trailer the ticking becomes a lot faster this shows that they are getting closer to the criminal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4YV2_TcCoE

Silence Of The Lambs a young FBI cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQKs169Sl0I

Die Hard John McClane, officer of the NYPD, tries to save wife Holly and several others, taken hostage by German terrorist. With gun fights and car chases it is a great action thriller. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qxBXm7ZUTM
   

Montage Theory

This Rocky clip is a montage of his training, it shows time passing and building up to a point where the action can resume.


Luv Kuleshov was among the very first to theorize about the relatively young medium of the cinema in the 1920's. He argued that editing a film is like constructing a building. Brick by brick (shot by shot) the building (film) is raised.
some time near 1918 Luv Kuleshov a Russian director conducted an experiment that proves his point. He took an old film clip of a head shot of a noted Russian actor and inter-cut the shot with different images.
A montage consists of a selection of many different images that are quickly edited together. A montage is used to show how time passes it can build up to a point where the action resumes it is what the montage was used for to build up to the point where the actors can act once more.

Diegetic and Non- diegetic sounds

So this clips shows a hard exterior man with all the power in the situation, he puts music on that is in such contrast to the original feel of the clip, originally the audience feel fear and then when the music play the severe juxtaposition makes the audience wonder if the guy with the power who starts dancing is mental or just really weird, why would you play such a light hearted song when torturing another person it seems very bizarre.
The music is a voice over, voice overs are a device used that is not meant to be there it does not really fit in in the world of the film. Other non-diegetic sounds can include sound effects.

Diegetic sounds are sounds that are implied to be there by the characters, it is also called real or actual sound, voices and objects that can be seen are diegetic sounds, they belong in the world of the film.

Sound bridges are a sound that cannot be seen when its made but it has relevance to the scene, an opening of a door which is not seen can be used to show that a new character has entered the scene.

mise-en-scene

What is it?
It is the arrangement of everything in a camera shot. It is very important as the viewers can pick out little things that appear in a shot and think about what it could symbolise, for example the colour red can infer a range of emotions from anger to love depending on the film genre. To send the right message for the film the mise-en-scene must be right the director is the one who looks over the mise-en-scene and they can tell whether the actors, props, lightening, décor, and the costumes are all correct and set the right tone for the film.



This image shows a man with a mask behind the girl, although they are blurred they are still there giving the illusion of danger, their strong stance infers fear and the element of danger for the girl. She is in focus draws in our attention to her but because of the different focus' we are also drawn to the masked person. There is a red carpet, because of the colour the audience infers a sense of danger and fear. The masked man is in black they give off no sense of innocence in fact they give the impression that they have something to hide.

BILLY BOND by Rachel, Billy, Rosie and Kelsey

This is our camera exercise that shows a variety of different camera shots and angles. We decided to have some type of sequence so that there was a bit of a story behind each shot and so it follows on in some type of way. Billy is basically a detective his actions and the shots we get of him create a  form of tension and suspense.

Psycho !

Another great Hitchcock thriller, Psycho has the constant element of what is going to happen, curiosity, suspense and tension build as the film progresses. The story is all a Maguffin we are originally led to believe  that the money stolen at the beginning is the reason for things happening, however the plot unravels and the story is really about a motel owner Norman Bates a man with a deranged mind that shows a twisted ill side of him.

Psycho has lots of action that all happens in different ways, not like current action or thriller films where one guy is shot, ten minutes later another guy is shot. The first bit of action that causes suspense is when Norman Bates kills Marion Crane who is the person who steals the money at the beginning, this character we are led to believe that she is a main character but she gets killed so early in the film which flips our views we then start to wonder whether her murder will be found out. Marion dies in the famous scene whereby she is killed in the shower by being stabbed multiple times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VP5jEAP3K4
The music in this clip is very dramatic and the high pitched instruments mimic the knife movements. You can also hear the knife cutting/slashing sound it is very high pitched and quite disturbing just like the scene. Back when this film was shot they had to be careful on what was exposed the camera angles help to reduce any nudity. The different shots also cause more drama close ups on her face show her real emotions of fear and panic, and the views of the knife create more fear and tension. There is only a silhouette of the murderer which makes the audience's mind wonder as to who the murderer is, the audience suspects it is Norman Bates' mother.

After Marion is killed another blast of suspense is dished out, Norman puts her in the boot of her car and rolls it into a swamp, tension is built by the slow swallowing of the car, at one point we believe that the car can not be swallowed any more and then as it is still showing above the swamp we think that he has not got away with it and his plans and failing him, but the swamp does engulf the car and his plans have worked like he thought.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPt2PNpjOq4

So Marion's family notices she is missing and start to get concerned a private investigator is also looking for Marion in association with the money she stole, he also ends up at Bate's motel he asks questions and investigates Normans behaviours, he is sent away by Norman as he doesn't want to answer any more questions he also forbids the investigator to question his mother without a warrant, the investigator goes back when he thinks Norman is not about he goes up to the house and tries to find Normans mother to ask her some questions as to whether she knows anything about what happened to Marion but a shocking twist happens and the following clip explains the twist...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bieIiX5KLQ

Not what you thought would happen is it. The film has lots of action, tension and the constant element of suspense to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

Skyfall

So I watched Skyfall yesterday, lots to say really, I loved the opening sequence with the theme tune was quite unique including Daniel Craig in the clip when the film song was being played. In comparison with other Bond film where when the film song is playing there is normally there is lots of computerised images playing when the theme tune is playing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfCXQsKv1jg
This clip is from the 1999 Bond film "The World is Not Enough" it is a prime example of the computerised images that go along with the theme tune.
Although a poor copy this is the Skyfall opening title sequence;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGmxoKJ-ee0
Skyfall is not the only Bond film to include the actor in its opening sequence but I found this opening title sequence more unique than others.
This is the opening sequence to "Goldfinger" it is great because it is less animated, it shows clips and images of the film and actors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsKkBDGc55g

The action in Skyfall was consistent, there were many tracking shots that made you follow the action precisely, the bike chase on the roof tops was exciting.
The enemy Silva is very cunning a former agent, that is seeking revenge on M.
When Silva is in solitary confinement you can hear his breathing above the surrounding noise, when M approaches him you can hear the muffled footsteps which show us what he can hear.
In the latest edition to the Bond film series you see a lot more of M her relationship with Bond is shown more there is a connection between them that is developed more and more as the film continues, Bond goes out of his way to protect her and does everything he can to prevent her from being hurt.
This film had a bit of everything you would expect from a Bond film, it had guns, fast cars, the element of danger and fear. But something separated it from other Bond films I cant put my finger on it but I really liked this film in comparison to other Bond films, I'd go as far to say the best one yet.