Opening Sequences 01 - Quantum of Solace

This is the movie opening for James Bond-Quantum Of Solace, the film opens with production company and the film industry. The beginning of the action starts inside a tunnel upon a steep cliff. Tension is built up for the audience with a non-diegetic sound, that slowly gets gets louder,almost notifying to the audience that something dangerous is going to happen.Then a quick cut scene appears of a moving car wheel, it is uncertain what car it would be, but if it would stick to the James Bond legacy, it is most likely going to be an Aston Martin. This automatically entices the audience’s attention, and wanting to know who could possibly be in the high speed car. At the moment  the scenes are accompanied by the diegetic sounds of cars being driven and the changing of gears. The music gets louder and the tempo rises, suggesting we are closing in on the main action of the opening. We then see a shot of another car, and a close up of the character changing gears and stamping on the accelerator, this is indicating to the audience that a car chase is going to begin.This builds excitement amongst the audience, and it is a notifier that tells them genre of the film, as car chases are something you associate with most action films.Then the rest of the action falls into play, with guns firing, and cars swiftly weaving in and out of civilian cars.All of this action is shown in a series of rapid editing, this is too show the speed and motion of how fast they are driving.

From the opening scene you are very much made aware of which character is the main character of the film as the camera is mainly focused on the face and reactions of this character(Bond). From this opening, we are able to just about make out the plot of the film as we know that bond is being chased which reveals, that he is holding information or has something that the people who are following him want. The costumes that Bond and the chasers are wearing are very smart and sophisticated suits. Usually when a character is wearing suits in an action film it usually suggests that they are security, gangsters or agents.

Something that is not made aware from the beginning of the opening, but closer to the ending, is the location of the film.We later on see after car chase has ended that it is based in Sienna Italy, which is made obvious as it is typed across the screen in black letters in front of a view of the city. 

In the Quantum Of Solace opening, the credits are done in a more interesting manor,as it is showing the character firing a gun with the names of the cast and crew coming up around him. instead of the credits being shown throughout the films opening, its shown directly after, this may have been done so the viewers have full attention of whats going on and have no distractions. 

I have learnt alot from the research i have done on the Quantum of Solace opening. Doing this research has contributed alot to what i will be doing in class, this is because the film is in the same genre category as one of the plot ideas that my group and i plan on doing for our movie opening. This opening has really given me more insight to what an action film needs to be recognized and considered as an action film.