Media Unit (Bond) By Zac Southwood Essays

Media Unit (Bond) By Zac Southwood Essays Media Unit (Bond) By Zac Southwood Essay Media Unit (Bond) By Zac Southwood Essay For my media unit, I have chosen to study the opening sequence of Tomorrow Never Dies a James Bond film. I will describe and evaluate the dramatic techniques used in the sequence. I have studied the social and cinematic background to the James Bond movies as spy films and as the originators of their own genre The action spy adventure. I have watched the video of Tomorrow Never Dies, paying particular attention to the timings. I have also watched the video of Mission Impossible Two also paying attention timings. Hereinafter Mission Impossible Two will be referred to as MI2 and Tomorrow Never Dies as TND. I have studied the shooting script for TND and the original screenplay for Bond 18 later named TND.The opening scene of TND was set in a terrorist arms bazaar on the Russian border. James Bond has been sent there to identify terrorist suspects, a camera had been concealed with a satellite link to Headquarters in London where the mission was being controlled by British military office rs alongside British intelligence controllers. By way of the camera HQ was able to identify many of the worlds most dangerous terrorists and armaments they were trading. Admiral Roebuck decided that this was now a military matter and immediately ordered a missile strike to take out the whole bazaar. A scene showing the missile launch from an offshore battleship followed where it was stressed that from launch there was 4 minutes and 8 seconds to impact.Admiral Roebuck informed M the controller of British intelligence to get her man out of there and that he had 4 minutes and 8 seconds to do so. A message was sent to Bond, however further camera surveillance revealed that one of the jets at the bazaar had two Soviet nuclear torpedoes as part of its payload which should the missile strike would make Chernobyl look like a picnic. From the time that the missile strike was launched the events that followed took place in real time with the film sequence running exactly 4 minutes and 8 secon ds. Bond decided to do his job having realised the potential disaster he fights his way to the jet destroying arms and killing terrorists along the way. He boards the jet and flies it with its dangerous cargo out of the scene in precisely 4 minutes and 8 seconds just avoiding the missile impact.R Spottiswoode the director used many dramatic techniques to make the sequence as exciting and tense as possible. Admiral Roebuck is portrayed as an arrogant man who acts in haste at the same time as M is shown to be worried that his actions may be risky. The interaction between the characters creates dramatic tension with M being cautious and Roebuck gung-ho the resultant mistake confirms Ms fears. The conversation between Tanner and Bond, which leads to the revealing of the torpedoes and realisation dawning on, a now equally worried Roebuck ensures and enhances our realisation that there now really is a problem and great danger exists. Admiral Roebucks attempt to recall the missile and the failure of the missile to respond dramatically exposes the deadline of 4 minutes 8 seconds and Bonds reaction as now being crucial.Spottiswoode now emphasises the scene by having long shots tracking the missile as screen time runs in real time. Bonds time and our time as the audience are the same, this emphasises that Bond has an apparently impossible mission to accomplish in less than 4 minutes with a real countdown going on. Spottiswoodes techniques are in direct contrast to MI2 where there are also three time sequences and countdowns. Firstly a scene where Hunt has 40 seconds to penetrate the Atrium in fact runs to over two minutes of screen time. A further scene gives 10 seconds to get out of a bombed van which runs for 26 seconds and finally a 8 minute scene with Hunt isolated running 6 minutes and 30 seconds. None of these run in real time and run in a kind of slow motion, which is not as effective and exciting.Spottiswoode further enhances the excitement and tension with his use of cinematic techniques during the 4 minute 8 second sequence. He uses music during the scenes at headquarters to heighten the threat and tension along with the familiar James Bond theme music when Bond appears. The use of sound is also important with the commotion at the bazaar whilst fighting and the sound of the approaching missile all create excitement, which is then contrasted with the silence aboard ship, which emphasises the countdown to impact. The use of lighting with red light aboard the ship indicating a sinister danger and the shadowy headquarters where only the characters of M and Tanner are well lit, to indicate their worry, further sets up the atmosphere of the scene.The way the film has been cut and edited has all added to the sequence, short violent scenes without fades and dissolves are contrasted with longer scenes concentrating on the missile and M who is clearly worried. This theme is carried on with the action sequences being full of movement and increasing use of explosions and gunfire as opposed to shots of M standing very still and simply conveying her sentiment. Some of the shots used which are in extreme close-up for example a fist punching, a hand throwing, a hand planting a magnetic grenade, a face thinking, eyes narrowing created with rapid cuts and editing help to give pace to the sequence. We are therefore able to identify with Bond and the real time task that confronts him because it is in real time and the director has used virtually everything at his disposal, our tension is heightened by the impossibility of the task and increasing hope that Bond and we are going to pull it off.To conclude we know from the script that Real time is directors choice as there were originally only 2 minutes to impact. In fact the original script and shooting script was cut back by 10 pages and more to focus on this sequence. We can observe how the effect is heightened by techniques of rapid editing between scenes along with contrasting the a ction between explosive and silent and all running in real time, the audience is left spellbound. I found that this approach as opposed to type of slow motion sequences in MI2 to be more effective and enjoyable.