Welcome to my blog, which will demonstrate the making of my final year Moving Image dissertation project, entitled Scorpius. My project aim is to create an animated opening title sequence for a new Bond film, but atypically, I am portraying the role of James Bond as a female lead.

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I chose to animate the title sequence by keeping a similar style to the previous Bond films, however, whilst picking this project, I did not realise how challenging it would be to create ideas and maintain styles throughout. This difficulty with being creative is portrayed well by Meyer & Meyer, who state, “After Effects can be thought of as a blank canvas – a canvas that comes with hundreds of brushes and tools to create images with. The problem with too many tools is that it can be hard to know where to start” (2010, p.2), although I knew that research on the Bond franchise would help with this challenge.

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I wanted to challenge myself with this project, as I know that strong knowledge of animation will be necessary for my graduate role and my future career in the film/creative industry. The word ‘animation’ derives “from the Latin verb, animare, which means ‘to give life to’, and within the context of the animated film, this largely means the artificial creation of the illusion of movement in inanimate lines and forms” (Wells, 1998, p.10). Therefore, I aim to create a clear, strong, and enticing professional-looking title sequence to give life to the female Bond story of Scorpius, as “the one enduring element that renders every movie unmistakably a James Bond movie are those sumptuous, spectacular, exhilarating and unashamedly overblown openers [which] all share the ability to place an audience immediately on Planet Bond” (Brown, 2017, p.3).

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After studying the Bond film, Skyfall (2012), directed by Sam Mendes, at A-level, I have since been drawn to the title sequences in the Bond film series. I thought that animating a whole 3 and a half minute sequence of this for my final project would be fun as I enjoy the action genre in films, and also believe that because Bond films have such a high production value, trying to create something by myself that could look as if it were actually from a Bond film, would help me gain lots of new skills on After Effects to help me in a graduate role after University.

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The James Bond “film’s opening title sequences are a fundamental aspect of the beginning of Bond films” (Brown, 2017, p.19), and they are not just famous for the animation skill, but also the popular songs which accompany them, the typical mise-en-scene, such as dancing Bond girls, guns, weapons, blood, fire, and of course, casino scenery, and also, the sneak peak of the film’s narrative from these few minutes of credits. This popularity of the title sequences for each Bond film is reiterated by Brown, who explains that the “Bond audiences expect a dramatic, yet familiar, opening credit sequence that functions as a transition into the film’s narrative” (2017, p.20), meaning that this initial sequence builds suspense for the audience, drawing them into the narrative already, and hopefully fulfilling some audience expectations too.

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My choice to produce a title sequence with a female actress as the 007 spy was mainly down to the commonly associated misogynistic and stereotypical roles that women play in the Bond franchise. The Bond films clearly portray “the Bond girl [as] an erotic accessory for Bond. If Bond is the man every male viewer wants to be, then the Bond Girl is the women every male viewer wants to bed” (Brown, 2011, p.3). This needs to change, as this development of the female representation in this franchise is incredibly outdated, which is why I have chosen to adapt the Scorpius story to star a female Bond.

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During research about the possibility of a female James Bond, I discovered the feminist author, Pryce, who explains how: