Analysis of Skyfall clip
When linking Propp's theory to Skyfall the character Raoul Silva is indicated very clearly as the villain throughout many conventions and codes.To begin with when the camera pans out you start to see the character Sévérine on the floor by the broken statue,wearing lose ripped clothing and injured. Silva walks up to her and forcefully kisses her in front of James bond as you can see she is not enjoying this and wants to escape the scene.Later on in the scene the villain is proven again when he commands his hit men to aim at James bond forcing him to shoot the glass of alcohol over Sévérine in distress.Once James bond misses the shot in spite of him he picks up his gun and shoots her square in the head this proves he doesn't mind committing evil acts.In the text James bond is considered the hero this is because of the conventions of him walking in to save the day and to stop the villain this is shown how he follows along to what the villain orders him to do waiting for the right moment,when he is asked to shoot the glass of Sévérine head he misfires on purpose to let the villain have his way.The real moment where James bond is shown as a hero is after a short gun fight with quick transitions helicopters appear above and he stands in a heroic stance while the iconic traditional James bond sound track starts playing in the back ground.Finally Sévérine is shown as the princess in Skyfall this is for many reasons when James bond enters the scene she is in distress as her facial impressions show she is sad and scared she is also chained up and the camera angles make her look vulnerable and weak.James bond tries to stop Silva and appears to try and save her so this portrays the certain characteristics that the princess has for example the character who is in distress and requires the hero's help. Referring back to Propp's theory the theory of Strauss is also appropriate here because when viewing the text binary opposition is formed throughout the codes and conventions if there is a hero which is James bond and a villain which is Raoul Silva then there is the binary opposition between the two. Its unclear what reasons this connection will be but some ideas are examples like good and evil or right and wrong.
In in the text the Torodovs theory is present in a sense at the beginning of the clip because the tracking camera shots are included and only show James bond and Silva walking together,only when you see Sévérine as the transition fades into a medium shot you then realize that the scene is hostage scene.After the fight scene and after Sévérine gets killed there is a small sense of re equilibrium when James bond tries to stop the villain and save the day.
Observing the lighting in the scene its noticeable that high key lighting is used and this is in the form of the available lighting in the setting, this gives it a action genre appeal to the audience and this shows a bit of its genre by being as realist as possible like in most of the common actions films today.
When moving onto the general use of sounds within the clip of Skyfall there is two main events in which it is used for effect throughout the clip it is mainly quiet this builds up the tension to break the equilibrium because it is a action genre and they like to do this. Once the the equilibrium is broken such as in the scene with the gun fight loud powerful non diegetic sounds of the bullets are heard and the sound of James bond hitting the hit men to stop them.
Looking at the mise-en-scene used within the clip it is clear that everything is done on purpose to support its action genre the location of the scene was in a rundown area by a broken statue with Sévérine chained up in front of it,you can see hit men guarding the area giving a hint that action is going to go down.When observing the costumes and props used this indicates what character is performing what role for example Sévérine she wearing a loose ripped dress and she is chained up by her hands this shows that she is in trouble and assumed to be the princess role.