OPENING 007: the Skyfall Opening Sequence

Dissecting the intricately beautiful opening sequence of SKYFALL, the latest blockbuster in the James Bond legacy, is a heady task. First hurdle is the length. Director Sam Mendes dedicated over 3 minutes and 55 seconds of his film to the sequence, and designer Daniel Kleinman clearly had no trouble filling every frame with richly layered compositions hinting toward the movies key themes and elements.

I love the gorgeous segue from the Prologue into the Opening Sequence! As Bond (Daniel Craig) crashes below the water's surface, we shift from the reality of the main story into his psyche. Our hero plummets into his dark, watery grave as finely manicured, female fingers grip his collar pulling him deeper into his own demise.

Click here for more still-frames and the link to watch the FULL video:

Lost & Found

Rihanna lets us have it (yet again) with her new video for "We Found Love". It's dark and dangerous, and dares to be everything Britney's "Criminal" is not.

It's shaky, hand-held vibe and fast cuts are jarring, and the art direction makes me go-- wait, is this a Levi's commercial? And then I'm all like, no way... RiRi is a ho for Armani Jeans, right?

Right now somewhere in the world Ryan Mcginley is going "huh?".

But I dig it.

Let's break it down:

Okay, so RiRi lives in the big city, but it's kinda gloomy out-- so she's not that into it.

  

But she's got a fine man in her life... and  he's totally artsy.

 

 And he doesn't like that it's so bleak either.

 So, they take a bath.

Together. (Love the product placement, btw)

 And smoke.

 Together.

Go forth. 

"Levi's... getch your Leviiiii's...."

 

I'm not even going to dignify this with a remark. 

 Look familiar? See the Too Cool For Pool invite for yourself. We were way-way ahead of this one.

 

They eat dingy fast food.....

 

Things are gettin' stormy....

 The try to let off some steam at an underground local skate park.

 But that's not enough, so they take some pills. A lot of pills. 

Their eyes go all Requiem-for-a-Dream. 

 The room goes crazy. 

 They go freak-nasty...

  Great, now there's a mosh pit.

Oh, gawd-- it's just too much to try explaining. Just go watch the hot mess for your self. 

PS - when do I get to make a full-time job of analyzing pop music videos.

PPS - who said the music video was a dead medium.