Skyfall

What company or companies produced it?

SKYFALL © 2012 Danjaq, LLC, United Artists Corporation, Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. Skyfall, 007 Gun Logo and related James Bond Trademarks © 1962 - 2012 Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation. SKYFALL, 007 Gun Logo and related James Bond Trademarks are trademarks of Danjaq, LLC. All Rights Reserved. © 2012 Sony Pictures Digital Inc. All rights reserved. IMAX® is a registered trademark of IMAX Corporation.

What was the budget?

£93.7 ($150) £28m coming from Heineken

How was it financed? Were there any difficulties?

The financial worries started with the financial problems in 2010 of MGM. The new Skyfall very nearly did not make it production following MGM studios were close to bankruptcy.

Who directed it?

Sam Mendes directed it. At 24 he was the first artistic director of the Minerva Theatre. At 27 he founded the Donmar Warehouse (10 year run). He directed Assassins, Cabaret, translations, company, The Glass Menagerie, Habeas Corpus, The Blue Room, Uncle Vanya and Twelfth Night. Now become the worlds leading playhouse. His other theatre credits include Troilus and Cressida the tempest and others. His many theatre awards include Olivier awards, Tony Awards, Evening standard awards, Critics’ choice awards and the Hamburg Shakespeare Prize. He was significant thanks to his creative and artistic skills. They also needed someone who could hold his own and his own right for all the different locations they had to shoot at.

Who were the stars?

James Bond – Daniel Craig

Judi Dench – M

Silva – Javier

Gareth Mallory – Ralph Fiennes

Naomie Harris – Eve

Bérénice Marlohe – Severine

The reason for this choice of the cast was that to appeal to a wider market across the globe. With stars from various parts of the world, Skyfall instantly had a larger market. Thanks to the diversity, Skyfall had the opportunity of better media coverage from not just the UK and US, but also numerous other countries such as France, Spain and China.

In what countries was it shot? Is there any significance behind some of the locations?

Skyfall was shot in a total of 39 locations. The countries consisted of: England, Scotland, China, Japan, and Turkey. The scenes in England involved: Bond drilling a hole in a window after seeing a hit-man enters a Shanghai building, a Bond and Silva chase, Shanghai hotel swimming pool, building rooftop, Q meeting Bond, Shanghai Building and the MI6 training ground and HQ.

The Scenes in Turkey included: fight on top of train and the opening sequence.

One of the major significances of different locations was to be able to gain a wider audience across the world, from scenes shot in Europe to Asia. Some of the scenes were also best suited to be shot in those specific countries.

 Was it shot digitally or using an old fashioned camera?

This film was shot digitally; the cameras used were two new ARRI Alexia studio prototypes. Skyfall was the first Bond film to be shot using digital cameras. 

Who are the films partners and what role did they play?

- 007 legends

- Bollinger

- Coca-Cola zero

- Heineken

- Omega

- 007 fragrance

- Sony

- VisitBritain

- TASCHEN (James Bond archives)

- OPI

-DK

All of the partners were involved in promotion of Skyfall. In return, the partners also received promotion for being linked to James Bond. A Fragrance was released (007) and TASCHEN published a 600 page book with information of the past 22 Bond films. They also had specials of the cast and crew documenting their time with this series.

What companies distributed it? UK and US

Sony, MGM studios distributed Skyfall in the UK. Columbia pictures distributed Skyfall in the US.

How was the film publicised and marketed? (Why were the Olympics important?) How was web technology used?

The film was publicised through many mediums, such as adverts, posters, merchandise, well-known companies and use of the Olympics to convey the message of its release to a worldwide audience as over 1billion people tuned into the Olympic opening ceremony. The film was also marketed well through the 25^th anniversary of the James Bond films coming up shortly, this, alongside the Olympics created an energetic field amongst Bond fans especially. It also got the idea of Skyfall running through everyone’s mind (especially those who tuned in to the Olympic ceremony to see James at Buckingham Palace escorting the Queen to the Olympic stadium-only for the “Queen” to parachute out of the helicopter, into the stadium.   

Web technology was used to publicise the film by uploading a teaser trailer onto YouTube, then releasing many other versions of the full trailer and a lyrical video of the song Skyfall by Adele. The song was fantastic use to publicise the film because Adele is a very famous and respected singer. At the time of Skyfall, she was one of the biggest artists in the world winning many awards prior to and after the release of the film.

The company also made use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter by creating adverts to alongside the official Facebook page and a hashtag to go alongside the official twitter account. The Hashtag (#skyfall) become a worldwide trend many times. Although not planned, many celebrities also tweeted about the film, creating an even wider audience with more encouragement to watch the film.

What other James Bond products were used to sell the film?

Products used to promote the film included of a Bond game and experience and a fragrance (007) which was said to have “a classic scent; dangerously sophisticated and uncompromisingly masculine” the description also went on to say “…a robust cologne which instils Bond’s cultivated charm in all who wear it – a must have for the 21^st century contemporary man.”

When did the film open in the UK? In the US? Did it have a staggered release?

                                                                                                     In the UK it was         

                                                                                                    Released on October

                                                                                                   26^th 2012. In the US it

                                                                                                   Was released on

                                                                                                      November 9^th 2012.

What formats was it available in at the cinema?

It was converted to be available in an IMAX format.   

How much did it take in its opening weekend?

In the UK, Skyfall took £20.1m – according to BBC

How much as Skyfall grossed in the UK? In the US? Has It been a success?

In the UK, Skyfall grossed up to a £1 billion , which is the highest ever UK grossing film, and the highest of any Bond film. In the US its gross was $304,360,277. Skyfall was a definite success, receiving a sufficient amount of profit too.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

how has the industry changed?

Over all the years the film industry has existed, there have been many changes. The industry has thought to have started in the late 1800's when the first motion picture camera was invented. The earliest surviving film known is "Roundhay Garden Scene" by Louis Le Prince released on October 4th 1888. This film lasts for 2 seconds and consists of 24 frames.

Considering this film, the film industry has changed fundamentally, with films lasting for longer than 2 seconds. Such as the latest adaption of Les Misérables  (2012) which lasted near to 3 hours. However, this is not the longest, the longest is "The cure for insomnia" - 1987. This film lasted for 5220 minutes.

Another difference and big change is the use of CGI. The first ever full length film to use the effects of CGI was the first Star Wars film: A New Hope. Understandably, the use of CGI looks more authentic this decade due to the advances in CGI technology. As mentioned by Sabrina in this interview:

 There is also in a change in the use of women and women being represented in a sexual manner within plot lines. Such as dating back to war time films such as "the railway children" to females as a just a "good looking object" for super hero's. Film had come far from this representation with films where women take lead roles where the character is not vulnerable, for example Lara Croft. The use of sexual imagery is mentioned by Rida below.



 Along side all this change, there has also been a change in the plot lines of many films. The majority of films in this modern day have story lines which are complex within their own right but have the plot portrayed clearly, this does not leave much for the audience to interpret. However, there are a few shares of films which have kept the idea of leaving the audience to take what they want from the film such as "Black Swan" and "Sucker Punch". The main changes within plot lines are mentioned below by Iman: