As the audience is exposed with cuts of medium between long and close-up shots help to give the sequence balance keeping the audience focused on the main characters and excited until they are at the edge of their seats. As music gets faster and louder the acceleration of the car then slows down this crescendo is emphasised so that the audience focuses on the actions of bond and Zao in the car. Therefore this relates to their techniques of immediacy needed where the use of tracking shots are employed so the audience can see both characters taking advantage of firing missals, rockets and gunshots at each other continuously engineered by their cars.
Their high powered gadget packed sports cars relates to the familiar trademark used in bond films.
The cross cutting of the three stories where Halle is trying to escape inside of the ice mountain and the other scene from space creates suspense. These different editing speeds of fast motion and then the slow down of motion in between the different shots draws attention to the audience the main features of action which is the ice chase scene.
At the part where Bonds car is upside down Zao locks onto fire a heat seeker with the use of computer system Bond presses his ejected seat where the audience see the pivoting of the car upwards in seconds just before the rocket whizzes by this illustrates to the audience that bond is a precise professional alert man and this is a moment where the natural trait of perfection of Bond is demonstrated. This part of the scene brings the audience to a calm feeling after the climax has been minimised by Bonds careful reactions.
The director’s use of stunts from the heat sensors, computer time bombs and missals are conventions expected in Bond films as this leads to dramatic climax of action and leaves the audience burning with excitement of what it going to happen next and gives more realism to the culture of the scene.
The diegetic sound of these properties adds realism and an exciting atmosphere within the scene as the tracking shot employs the captive fast action of these elements.
As James is in his car the denotation of his dress code which is black suit and sleek hair connotes to the audience his natural charisma and precise movements against his rival. This is another convention of Bond’s styles in his films. Whereas the villain is dressed sporty and this signifies a thugged out style and a man who spontaneously thinks who is fast and dangerous but cannot outsmart Bond.
Natural light is used to portray the cold, edgy atmosphere surrounded by ice elements of rocks and the lake; this creates an unbalanced atmosphere of a calm bright vista which is irony to the action portrayed in the scene. The use of back projection of ice rocks adds realism of natural tranquillity and isolates the two characters within the scene
Computer generated images are used as the audience is shown a cut in space where the light from satellite reflects directly on the outer edges of the ice palate. The director uses this method to create a pattern of expectations throughout the film and leaves the audience in tension of dangerous consequences that could occur from this.
The director portrays a long shot at the ending of the sequence, where the audience visualise Bond in the Aston speeding with Zao in the Jaguar following him. This is portrayed so that the audience capture the speed and density of driving on the blue colouring spread on the ice lake to give a glossy real effect where the shot also adds distance and a cold wiery atmosphere that Bond escapes from in which the scene ends.
My conclusion of Tamaton’s use of spectacular physical action in the ‘Ice chase scene’ of explosions, chases and battles adds to the narrative of the story and the deployment of state-of –art special effects to emphasis in performance on athletic feats and stunts. This has been a conventional trend from the 1980’s and a dominant trend in the 1990.
Therefore these natural conventions in the scene that Tamaton has used create the expected atmosphere of unprediction and tension that builds up playing on these important elements. This is why the ‘Ice lake scene’ has given a cold exciting thrilling atmosphere and exhilaration to the audience’s expectations from the beginning and the ending of the scene.
