Casino Royale Clip Analysis

Camera and editing:

The opening/establishing shot of this sequence of Casino Royale is an aerial shot circling an arena in an urban district of town or city in Madagascar. The camera changes to closer shots (MS) of the crowded arena then jumps to a close up on the ferret and snake in the arena. There is a close up of a bookie taking money off of some of the people for bets.

You the get a medium shot (MS) of the mark, the man Bond and his colleague are tailing. From the MS of the mark the camera then zooms out to a long shot of the mark. The focus of the shot then changes as the 2nd agent walks into the shot turning it into a close up. There are then various cuts of medium shots of Bond, the 2nd agent and the mark. Then there is a close up of the marks phone as he gets a text. As the mark leaves he spots one of the agents and chase begins. The spend of cuts increases and the angle of the shot becomes more extreme with low angle shots and high angles shots and a few canted shots. Then as the mark and Bond leave the arena there is an aerial shot of Bond running almost parallel to the mark.

Then as the action picks up more and more pace the shots start to incorporate fast panning and point of view shots all the way from the market to the building site.

Once on the building site the first 10 or so shots are all extreme long shots of the surroundings. Then it jumps to a close up of the mark drawing his weapon.

Then as Bond comes through a building in a truck a small sequence jumping between Bond and the mark commences with the gun being fired and the bullets impacting the truck glass. This obeys the 180 degree rule throughout and the time between cuts shortens until the mark runs for it.

As they start scaling the building the angles again become more interesting with canted, low and high angle shots.

Sound:

At the start the only sounds are the mob at the animal fighting arena and the two agents talking.

As the chase sequence really begins though there is a low note and pitch orchestral beat which I believe is played on drum and strings. This continues and builds throughout most of the sequence and takes a regular beat which does not change enough to be notice. While the case through the arena continues the mob can still be heard shouting and after the 2nd agent discharges his pistol, that shouting turns to screaming as people scatter. As they leave the arena though the rhythm does change and brings in African drums to the music. Over this the sound of people crashing through their environment can be heard. Silence then ensues as Bond disappears but comes back louder than before as he comes crashing through the building site, work men and machine going along in the background. Then as the chase starts to gain height by going up the building work the music becomes even more tense using higher pitches.