James Bond veteran and BAFTA-nominated director Danny Kleinman has crafted all but one of 007's title sequences since taking over from Maurice Binder, the creator of Bond's iconic gun barrel shot, with 1995's GoldenEye. For Skyfall Kleinman created a moody, inky death dream of a title sequence powered by Adele's "Skyfall" theme song — a reflection, he explains, of the MI6 agent's dark emotional state as Bond's 23rd EON outing unfolds.
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"At the beginning of the film there’s always an amazing action sequence, and this time it ends with Bond being shot. So one of the things I wanted to do was perhaps suggest what might be flashing through Bond’s mind as he thinks he might be dying," Kleinman explained to Movieline.
Kleinman memorably used scorpions to open Die Another Day and turned Casino Royale's literal and figurative gambling theme into a kaleidoscope of deadly hearts, spades, diamonds, and clubs. The key guiding motif for Kleinman's Skyfall title sequence? Death. "It’s a sequence that starts with Bond underwater and thinking that he’s dying," Kleinman said. "I took that on as being almost like going into the underworld, feelings of mortality and feelings of, perhaps, regret and nostalgia."
In Skyfall's opening sequence Bond drifts through a watery dreamscape of daggers and guns, encountering faceless, shadowy foes who threaten to overtake him. "One of the lines in the movie is about the intelligence service working in the shadows," Kleinman said, "and I found that really interesting — the idea of being in the shadows and how shadows suggest different things but can also be intimidating."
"It’s quite a macabre and dark sequence, because I think the film is about Bond coming to terms with things that have happened in the past and with [Judi Dench's M], it’s a very emotional story — moreso than most Bond films. My intention is to set up an atmosphere that gives you little clues, little hints, but is not too specific." He paused. "It’s better than watching a bunch of names against black, anyway."
How does one go about creating a fantastic James Bond title sequence? Kleinman takes us through his creative process, the delicate art of teasing Bond's exploits without giving too much away, how closely he works with Bond theme song creators like Adele — or not, as it happens — and his favorite 007 title sequence of all time.
IT STARTS WITH THE SCRIPT:
"I think Adele’s song is a particularly great Bond song, but strangely I don’t get the track until quite late in the process. I have to start working on the ideas for the title sequence quite early on, so what I do is once I’ve read the script I do lots of sketches and drawings, just brainstorming different ideas of what could be in there – what could be poetic, but not too specific. I don’t want the sequence to give anything away in the film, or what happens later in the film, but it also has to be relevant to the film and have the right atmosphere. I also try to make it narrative, even if it’s a very loose, poetic narrative."
MATCHING MONTHS OF SEQUENCE WORK TO LAST-MINUTE BOND THEME SONG SELECTIONS:
"I take the ideas or themes that I like and try and work them into a flow of action. Then my edit goes together in maybe a three-and-a-half minute sequence, and at that point I’m probably several months into the process – but the song may still not be decided on, and even if it is decided on it’s probably only a rough demo. It’s still several months before the final song is recorded and mixed and edited to the title sequence. So it’s a little bit hairy! At the end of this I have to put the two elements together, the music and the visuals, and I edit it all myself on a computer. I usually have to swap things around a bit and change things, and I try to make it have not only relevance to the film but also some lyrical content from the song."
COLLABORATING WITH 007'S MUSIC DEPARTMENT:
"I have worked in the past with David Arnold, who I know personally, so we have in the past swapped emails that might have said, “Look David, I need to have some lyrics – please give me some lyrics so I know what’s going on!” But this time, I didn’t know Adele and I don’t know the musicians, so even though I did get a demo which was about five minutes long — obviously too long for the title sequence — I did do an edit of my own just to get me going. I sent it along as a suggested way that the track could be edited, and they decided to do it another way, which is completely fine considering that they’re music editors and I’m not."
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BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER WITH ADELE'S "SKYFALL" THEME:
"Adele had recorded her voice on it, and it was partly mixed, but there was a whole other section with an orchestra and strings which lifted it up and gave it a whole other dimension. And to finally be able to put that to the picture is great; it suddenly all starts coming to life. Each bit of the title sequence, the special effects and the ideas, gets a little bit better in increments, so it’s not until the very last minute that the whole thing comes together and I get to see it – probably even less than a week before the deadline when it has to be finished."
ON MAURICE BINDER AND THE ICONIC, MUST-HAVE ELEMENTS OF ANY BOND TITLE SEQUENCE:
"I think the thing is, if you take a girl dancing and make her in silhouette, and have some flames or explosions or something cued into it, then that is effectively lingua franca for James Bond. [Laughs] What’s amazing is that Maurice Binder invented that language, and that visual language is recognized the world over. It’s almost become a cliché; the trick is to kind of include it because it’s part of the heritage. It’s part of what makes Bond Bond. It’s exciting, it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up in the cinema and you’re thinking, “Great – I’m off on a Bond journey,” and the Bond theme kicks in. Those little elements, like the girls, are important to keep, but they have to have some relevance. I think it’s testament to Maurice Binder and his work that the visual language is so iconographic and universally recognizable."
ADDING DEPTH TO THOSE ICONIC OPENING SEQUENCE FEMALE SILHOUETTES:
"I think in a previous era a partly naked lady was slightly titillating and sexy, but it was to a certain extent fairly one-dimensional. I think it would be fair to say that Bond’s relationship with women in the past was fairly one-dimensional as well. But it has become much more nuanced. I consider the girls to be more of a new representation of something: Perhaps it might be malevolence, or danger, but they’re not just there to be salacious."
DANNY KLEINMAN'S FAVORITE BOND TITLE SEQUENCE OF ALL TIME?
"The one that always stands out in my mind is from You Only Live Twice, which I think was an amazing song — one of the best Bond songs. I love Shirley Bassey, but You Only Live Twice was Nancy Sinatra. I think it’s a great son. it’s the mixture of Japanese imagery with the Bond imagery, with parasols opening and the bubbling lava and the colors were very beautiful. I remember as a youngster thinking “Wow, that’s pretty amazing.”
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