How genre, narrative and characters are represented in Skyfall

During the opening scene of Skyfall, we are presented with the hero named Bond through the tracking shot, which follows him as he enters the room. We understand that the situation is serious as there is a medium close up on Bond, showing he will do anything to save Britian. We also know the seriousness of the situation as we are shown a dying body in a dark room, with slight natural beams of light focusing on it. The light from outside has a yellow wash to it so we realise that they are not in London. As there a non-diegetic sound in the background, this builds up tension along with the dying body and helps us realise that the genre of the film is action thriller. We know that the main character is the hero due to the slow paced movements of the camera following him around the room, and the fact that we are shown how he tries to help the dying body in an over shoulder shot as he presses on the wound. As he leaves the dark room, he enters the light of the outside which symbolises the binary opposition.

Further on into the scene, we are introduced to the villain through the fast paced car chase. There are many edits where camera time is on Bond and Eve and suddenly switches to the villain in his car. As it keeps switching between the good people and him, we automatically know that he is the bad guy in the film. There is also a lot of cross cutting from the chaos in this car chase and the calm setting in the office where the mother figure and donor are helping and giving information to Bond and Eve. As there are only non-diegetic sounds in the car chase setting, this makes it seem more chaotic and so we know that this is a mission to defeat the villain. The setting around the car chase is stuffy and busy to make the situation seem more chaotic which clarifies that this is an action thriller film.

We meet the helper named Eve with a shot of her pulling up in the car and letting Bond get in the car. As the music shifts to a non diegetic, middle Eastern sound, it is clarified that she is not dangerous and is there to help. The music change also helps us to understand where they are and where the film is set at that point. During camera time on Eve, we see a shot of her smashing the car's front window as she can't see through it. This suggests that she is resourceful and we want to side with her.