Enemy of the state
The opening credits begins with an unique type of credits, as it is all security camera footage this could connote a sign of surveillance which is in fact the plot of the film, the music soundtrack is very dramatic and powerful which indeed fits in perfectly with the surveillance camera. The typography is appears to a font in which looks smart which could show that the government is involved The swift movement of the camera is very effective as it appear like they are searching for someone, also the swift movement of the camera also fill you with adrenalin, this could represent how quick and thorough the movement can be in a criminal search investigation. Shots of a CCTV camera appear in super speed this also gives the feel of observation. The way the music, typography and the camera shots are used you can easily
identify that this is an Action/Thriller film by the high amounts of tension and adrenalin.
The first set of titles appear during birds eye surveillance shots with a locate gliding over the screen in perfect harmony with the actors names, this could show which actors are the ones being tracked as Will Smiths name has a tracker hovering over it or it could be that he is the leading actor of this film and they are highlighting the fact that he is the leading actor. Buzzing and bleeping sounds occur when the locator hovers over the actor’s names; this could show that they have found a direct match. Near the end of this sequence shots of police chase in a point of view shot appear, straight after an over shoulder shot of a man watching a vast amounts of screens, this show that his character is the one trying to locate Will Smith.
The next series of shots are of crimes caught on surveillance; these shot possibly could be actual footage, such as robberies, and street violence. There is one shot of a sheriff arresting a criminal, this could represent authority of the law, all theses shots are in blue or a sepia tone of red, and this could connote the colour of a siren of a police car, red and blue. The soundtrack slow a down in pace now but the surveillance shot continues to speed up with a mixture now of bird’s eye and ground shots now, this show that the titles are almost at an end. The final few shots is a montage of violent car accidents accompanied by a sad violin tune. The end of the sequence is a shot of Washington D.C and it fades out by television static this leaves the audience itching for more..
007: Casino Royal
The opening credits of 007: Casino Royal begin with the typical James Bond sequence of him standing at one end of a gun barrel, he fires and the screen goes re this symbolises danger and blood. This is then accompanied by heavy rock music played by Chris Cornel. The entire sequence is all graphical animation, this give it an unique effect which would appeal to action fans. Once the screen is completely red a vortex appears with is completely made of playing card suits Hearts, Diamond, Spades and Clubs, this in some way looks like a kaleidoscope the way the symbols spin in around to make patterns . This show the theme of film as it is set in a casino the mis-en-scene is brilliant as this sequence as the playing card symbols keep appearing in the sequence, the typography of the sequence is also related to casinos as it is the same font as on regular playing cards.
In the next part of the sequence 007 is sitting on a branch, loading a gun, he appears to be preparing to assassinate someone. Again mis-en-scene appears again as the branches appear to have the same pattern on them as in a pack of playing card the King, Queen and Jack clothing has the same pattern, the suit symbol’s club and spades continuously sprouts out of the branches. James picks a spade a loads it into his gun, they represent bullets. When James is about to fire a Jack behind him lifts up a gun and fires at the exact same time as James, this could show that James represents’ young, powerful authority. The next shot is of many guns open fire, the smoke from the gun is a clubs and the bullets are hearts, this again show mis-en-scene to the story line f the film.
The next series of credits are fight sequences of James killing enemies, these sequences are silhouettes of the characters James is black and white but the enemies are red, which could connote danger, but on the other hand James black and white which could represent Ying/Yang a perfect balance of both good and bad. When he defeats the enemies they fall apart into playing card symbols of hearts and diamonds, this also could resemble blood, some of the fight sequence occurs on a poker table. The next set of shot start off with a cross hair gliding across the screen and over a queens face we it does this her face changes to one of James main lovers of the film, is could show that she’s hiding her true identity and may not be trusted, the next shot is of an enemy fall through cross hairs but when he hits them they change into poker chips this also relates to the storyline of Casino Royal.
The colour theme now changes to blue and yellow in a Spiro-graph pattern and a shower of playing cards and James dodging them this could represent throwing daggers. One of the fluttering cards is a 7 of Hearts and a gun shoots two holes in front of the 7 to make 007 this relates to James agent number. The Sequence end with James in the distance loading his gun as he walks closer and loads again playing cards explode out of the gun he is no longer a silhouette and show his true face this could connote that he has a secret identity, this also could make the transaction into the movie quick and fluid. This should leave the audience roaring for more.
