Analysis- From Russia With Love

The purpose of an opening sequence is to engage the audience right from the beginning of the movie. Some opening sequences give an introduction to the film showing what the film is about. However other films create a set of enigmas which makes the audience want to carry on watching the rest of the film.

The common techniques and conventions of opening sequences is firstly the productions titles are shown at the beginning with the studio name, then production company, star cast followed by some other important people and finally ending with Director or Directed by. All opening sequences create enigmas in the audiences mind. This keep the audience focused on the film and continues to keep them watching throughout to answer the questions they think about.
Different approaches to opening sequences have different effects as sometime titles are given at the beginning then straight into the film and sometimes after the production titles then there is a short film clip followed by more titles. Depending on production company or studio some titles many appear as the opening seqeunce has already begun.

From Russia With Love

From Russia with Love is about James bonds played by Sean Connery. It is produced by Albert Romolo. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and is directed by Terence Young. The character of James Bond is a fictional MI6 agent. This film was released in 1963

Firstly the Production titles appear at the beginning as on all/most films would have. The production is Metro Goldwyn Mayer with their logo, trade mark and website. At this moment during this title there is a synchronous sound effect of a lion roaring. Then there is a small  introduction sequence with James Bond which is at the beginning of every James Bond movie it is also known as the ‘Gun Barrel Signature’. The reason why this is featured is because it shows links between films and as James Bind is part of a series of films, it links them together and the audience also knows what is expected in the film. There is a score that plays over this sequence which is like a spy, action, thriller type of music.

Then there is an opening sequence which is uninterrupted by titles. The sequence begins with a character following. During this sequence there is not much dialogue, only until the end we hear someone speaking. Until then there are only synchronous sound effects of a gun being shot and footsteps of the two characters. However in between we can also hear a non diegectic, score being played in the background. It is slow and low which makes it thirlling for the audience because hardly any sounds can be heard so the audience would tend to listen very carefully. Therefore this makes the audience focused right fom the beginning until the end. Gradually the score becomes faster which creates tension and anticipation until the character is killed. Suddenly there are floodlights and the person who is dead turns out to be someone else and all of this was just practice.

There are many Enigmas which the scene creates for the audiences. Some examples are:

• Why is a character following James Bond?
• Who is the other character following James Bond (who is the protagonist)?
• Who are those people who were watching him?
• Why were they practicing to kill James Bond (with timing)?

There is a red herring placed at the end when the audience sees that the person who was just killed was not actually James Bond and it was another person wearing a mask. This is used a lot in mystery and thriller stories, it is a way to distract the audience or confuse them which surprises them at the end when they find out the truth. This helps the story to become more interesting for the audience and makes the film beyond expectation.



Finally, then there is the rest of the titles (full credits) which is shown. A score played is over the titles. The score and titles if of the 60s style. There is a female who is dancing whilst the title come over her making it creative. As women must be beautiful to appear on television, the female is good looking and she is shown in an 'attractive' way as we can see her body moving along with the titles.

The opening sequence is a 'stand alone' sequence which is traditional in James Bond films. This sequence does not directly link to the film but creates a mood of tension suspense because is it quite slow. It makes the audience concentrate on the film of the theme, the sort of characters in this movie and the style. In other opening sequences they are normally link to the rest of the film and are normally important however for this film the opening sequence is not as important and the audience would still understand what is happening in the rest of the film without watching this sequence whereas in other films they may not understand the film without the watching the opening sequence such as London to Brighton.