The Cinematography of Skyfall

Rodger Deakins, CBE, ASC, BSC, is a British cinematographer who is truly remarkable.  He has worked as the cinematographer on such incredible films as Fargo, The Shawshank Redemption, No Country for Old Men, Oh Brother Where Art Thou? and now Skyfall.  Deakins has been nominated 10 times for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography and each time he has been robbed.  In particular this past award year really bothered me, as Skyfall was one of the most beautiful films I have seen in the past few years.  On top of that, Deakins lost to the cinematographer from Life of Pi, which makes little sense to me, as the film was almost entirely created in post production.  But, that is another story altogether.  I want to take an in depth look at the real reasons why Deakins deserved the 2012 Academy Award for Best Cinematography.  In particular, throughout the film, Deakins' use of light and color is magical.  We see incredibly rich yellows, blues and even some reds.  

First Shot:

Deakins does not waste any time. His first shot starts out completely out of focus.  The only light is coming from behind Bond, he is not front lit at all.  As James Bond walks down the hallway, he moves into focus.  When he move completely into focus, he is lit with rich yellow light only capturing his eyes.  This intriguing scene immediately pulls us into the world of James Bond (only the first 30 seconds are necessary to get the point).

Shanghai:

  

James Bond pursues an assassin to Shanghai, and then follows him to an upper floor of a skyscraper.  Here Rodger Deakins takes advantage of the beautiful effect that can be found from reflections.  The theme of reflections is something that Deakins plays with throughout the film, not just in this scene.  He uses them a lot around the cell of the villain.  

In Shaghai, he reflects the beautiful neon colors of the city throughout the scene.  Bond and the assasin fight amongst the mirrors and the reflections (and the camera is never in the shot, despite the many mirrors).  The skyscraper is bathed in neon blue, which casts much of Bond and his target into shadow.  This comes into beautiful contrast with the room in the adjacent skyscraper.  The focus on the shots are also incredibly well done (see image below).  

Macau:

Bond follows a lead he received from the assassin to a seedy gambling ring in Macau.  Here we have an insane lighting/color palette.  Deakins and the production team on Skyfall put together incredible lanterns and dragons.  These colors tend to be a very red/yellow/orange palette which contrasts really beautifully off the previous scene in Shanghai.  These lights and colors are tied together with some really impressive crane shots and tracking shots.  This then ties into some fireworks, which we can even see off of James Bond's face.

Scotland:

Deakins then contrasts both of these scenes off of Bond's home, Scotland.  These scenes are very misty and washed out and Deakins uses a significant number of wide shots to really show case the beautiful landscape.  The skill with which Deakins captures the landscape reminds me very much of the skill with which Peter Jackson captures the beauty of New Zealand with Lord of the Rings or the way JJ Abrams'  TV series, Lost captured the landscape of Hawaii.  The shots in Scotland start in the afternoon, progress through sunset and end with night shot.   The precision that comes with having to light this transitional period of the day, is huge.  

In addition, the lighting that came from having to deal with the mansion on fire.  Once the mansion is on fire, and everyone is leaving it, they must be lit accordingly.  For this shot Deakins had to bring in a significant number of Dino lights.  

In post production the Dino lights are edited out and the flaming mansion is edited in.  This was an incredibly strong climactic scene of the film.  

I would highly recommend any of Deakins' work, but Skyfall was very strong in particular.  The cinematography of Skyfall really deserved to be recognized in the form of an Academy Award.  

Skyfall

Spoiler Alert!

Over break I ended up seeing the new James Bond film, Skyfall, and I loved everything about it. It is one of the best Bond films ever made in my opinion. I thought their locations and production design were amazing. The whole scene with the abandoned island and then Bond's old home were the perfect locations. They showed the desolation that was needed for those scenes. Besides that, the cinematography was great. Roger Deakins is such an experienced cinematographer having shot other films such as No Country for Old Men, True Grit, The Shawshank Redemption, and now Skyfall. The only thing that stopped this film from being perfect I think is one scene towards the beginning when Bond shows up in M's office and Deakins' goes handheld I assume in order to show disarray and confusion, but I really didn't like the way he did it. He tilted off to the side and it didn't look like a standard handheld shot. That is the only flaw that I noticed watching this film. If you guys haven't seen it yet, it's definitely worth a trip to the theater.

Skyfall

Skyfall is the latest entry in the James Bond franchise, directed by Sam Mendes. The film is unique in the respect that it is not a direct continuation of the story from Craig’s previous two Bond films, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

The film's poster

The film notably brings back many “classic” elements to the franchise, with the inclusion of iconic Bond characters such as Moneypenny (played by Naomie Harris) and Q (played by Ben Whishaw). Being a departure from the previous films, Whishaw is the youngest actor to portray Q. Additionally, the end of the film shows MI6’s relocation to the classic Universal Exports building from previous films, with Ralph Fiennes succeeding Judi Dench as M.

Whishaw (left) as Q and Craig (right) as Bond

Ralph Fiennes as Gareth Mallory, the new M

Skyfall also includes the return of Bond’s spy gadgets. However, in keeping with the more realistic feel of Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, Q’s gadgets are simpler and more practical; upon meeting Bond, Q presents him with a miniature radio to signal for backup as well as a Walther PPK/S with palm print activation designed specifically for Bond.

Bond's Walther PPK/S

The rear of the gun; the circles turn red when someone other than Bond attempts to fire it

The film was shot in a diverse set of locations, including London, Glencoe, Istanbul, Adana and Macau. The scenes in Macau were based on Hashima Island in Japan, while sets were designed to recreate skyscrapers for the scenes taking place in Shanghai. Two of the most memorable shots take place in Adana and Glencoe: the former, where Bond is shot off a train crossing the Varda railway bridge in Adana, and the latter, where Silva’s helicopter assaults the Skyfall Manor in Scotland. 

The Varda railway bridge

Skyfall is an excellent addition to the Bond franchise, with Bardem’s Silva being a memorable villain that brings true depth to the story and its characters. I believe that Skyfall will appeal not only to classic Bond fans, but to new fans as well. I enjoyed the film, and I’m already looking forward to the next Bond movie!

Bardem as Raoul Silva, the film's antagonist

For more Bond, here’s the Skyfall trailer:

Skyfall BTS

I can't post a review of Skyfall yet because I haven't seen it, but I looked through some of these videos and they just make me more excited to see it. Even before I was interested in filmmaking, I always loved watching behind the scenes of movies and seeing the "magic" of how everything was made. And now after being involved in film and movies more I can appreciate the behind the scenes even more and appreciate how much work went into one shot and how they got everything to work and look like the feature film that it was. Next week hopefully I will be posting a review of Skyfall after seeing it! For now everyone should take a look at some of these videos they are very interesting.


http://nofilmschool.com/2012/11/james-bond-making-of-skyfall/

Skyfall: Homage to the Bond classics

This weekend I saw the latest addition to the Bond legacy, Skyfall.  This film was able to appeal to the current generation's "action movie go-er" while still paying homage to the classic Bond spy movies.  Regardless of the movies attempt to have a more realistic plot/take than some of the old Bond movies the director took special care to not over step his bounds and preserving many aspects of the older films.

First off James Bond/ Agent 007 kept his name as did "Mom" and eventually Agent Moneypenny, along with several other characters. The preservation of names, regardless of how silly they seem now, directly points out the commitment to maintaining the tradition of "Bond."

Throughout the movie old plot points from previous Bond films were brought up such as exploding pens and ejector seats.  These moments of brief dialogue were directly for those who knew the old movies and allows the audience into the mind of the writer/director of the film saying, "No this is not a remake of the old Bond movies but instead another chapter in the legacy." Such comments pass right over the heads of people who don't know the movies, but add another dimension to those who have been following Bond from the beginning.

The film even went as far as to reintroduce the spy car the original James Bond used in the past films.
Recognition of the creators of Skyfall to address the fact that the film industry has changed and that the plots of action films today differ from those in the past allow them to change the story/character accordingly to still preserve Bond as an admirable, suave, and all around "cool"character.  The idea of an exploding pen would be better suited for a comedy than a serious action film is the perfect example of this.  However the fact that Skyfall incorporated and worked so hard to bring back elements of the old movies in the best way they could added an entirely new dimension to the film.  In my opinion the new Skyfall movie did the Bond series justice and through its homages to the classics of the past appeased many fans who may have been apprehensive about re-igniting the Bond legacy and tradition.