Casino Royale Teaser Poster Analysis Guidelines
DECONSTRUCTING THE CASINO ROYALE TEASER POSTER
Who is communicating with whom, why and how?
“If you don’t change, you die. We had to reinvent Bond.” Barbara Broccoli, Eon Productions, co-producer of the James Bond films (Total Film, December 2006)
We know from all the pre-release publicity material for Casino Royale that the producers of the latest James Bond film set out to “reboot” the franchise by making a “darker”, “edgier”, “more realistic” film, with a Bond character who is both “more physical” and “more vulnerable”. Nevertheless, as Daniel Craig has been keen to point out in interviews, although it is in some ways very different from previous films in the series, “Casino Royale is religiously a Bond movie” (Empire, December 2006).
With all this in mind, analyse the film’s very carefully constructed teaser poster, focusing on each of Graeme Burton’s image analysis categories below. Use bullet points to explain clearly how you think each element of the poster helps the producers get across their message that Casino Royale is different, but still a Bond film i.e. how it helps them sell the film to its target audience.
Position Signs : how we are given a particular Point of View by the camera
• Focal point (lens centre) i.e. where the camera seems to be directing our attention; this often indicates what the image-makers consider most significant in the image and you should ask yourself why this may be so.
• Angle of shot i.e. whether the camera is at eye-level or above/below eye-level; this can imply things about the relative status of subject and viewer – equality, inferiority, superiority – or evoke a psychological state e.g. a high angle shot of the subject may suggest vulnerability, whilst a low angle shot may suggest arrogance or something aggressive and threatening.
• Size and Distance of Shot/Proximity i.e. how close the camera allows us to be to the main focus of the image; this often indicates the extent to which we are invited to
Who is communicating with whom, why and how?
“If you don’t change, you die. We had to reinvent Bond.” Barbara Broccoli, Eon Productions, co-producer of the James Bond films (Total Film, December 2006)
We know from all the pre-release publicity material for Casino Royale that the producers of the latest James Bond film set out to “reboot” the franchise by making a “darker”, “edgier”, “more realistic” film, with a Bond character who is both “more physical” and “more vulnerable”. Nevertheless, as Daniel Craig has been keen to point out in interviews, although it is in some ways very different from previous films in the series, “Casino Royale is religiously a Bond movie” (Empire, December 2006).
With all this in mind, analyse the film’s very carefully constructed teaser poster, focusing on each of Graeme Burton’s image analysis categories below. Use bullet points to explain clearly how you think each element of the poster helps the producers get across their message that Casino Royale is different, but still a Bond film i.e. how it helps them sell the film to its target audience.
Position Signs : how we are given a particular Point of View by the camera
• Focal point (lens centre) i.e. where the camera seems to be directing our attention; this often indicates what the image-makers consider most significant in the image and you should ask yourself why this may be so.
• Angle of shot i.e. whether the camera is at eye-level or above/below eye-level; this can imply things about the relative status of subject and viewer – equality, inferiority, superiority – or evoke a psychological state e.g. a high angle shot of the subject may suggest vulnerability, whilst a low angle shot may suggest arrogance or something aggressive and threatening.
• Size and Distance of Shot/Proximity i.e. how close the camera allows us to be to the main focus of the image; this often indicates the extent to which we are invited to