London spy opening analysis

 When we first see the protagonist on his way to the club we get a close up to see physical features and emotions he shows, it is unusual as usually the opening shot would be an establishing shot however we first get a close up of the protagonist putting in his earphones and proceeding to walk to a club, we also see he is a smoker as the close up features him with a cigarette in his mouth, he then proceeds to begin bopping his head to the song he is listening too and the close up becomes a medium tracking shot and we see his confident, funky style of walking, this is used to show he feels relaxed and comfortable, the next extreme close up has his face showing no emotion, no anger, sadness or happiness just simple calmness , we then get a shot of his jeans and white trainers showing us the rest of his attire. There is a few shots of slow motion on the character making the clips more dramatic and showing the audience he is clearly the main character to have this much focus on him simply walking. we see from another wide shot in slow motion his feminine way that gives off a possible stereotype of homosexuals. There is a shaky POV shot of him walking to the entrance of the club and we see from this most of the people in line are male suggesting it is a gay club.

We don't learn much about the protagonist from any narration or dialogue but we can make several accurate assumptions from what goes on in the opening, the fact he enters and leaves the club alone can show he probably doesn't have many friends and is not that sociable, he does call people after leaving to see if they are "still up" again showing his feelings of loneliness, the fact he wanders aimlessly on drugs show he is not very happy in life as we see from him sitting on the bridge in an aggravated manor and then he breaks his phone. His line to the second man informs the audience he has probably things like this in the past as he says "You don't know me but if you did you'd know I'm always fine" this can give the audience reason to believe he gets himself into bad situations before but usually ends the way he started and could be going round in circles. We can tell the other man is quite the opposite, he is clearly fit and healthy jogging very early in the morning. The audience can also see the man is kind and caring as he stops to help pick up the pieces of the phone for the protagonist and asks him if he is alright then leaves him his own drink. These acts of compassion spell out the jogging man is one of the good characters.

The editing is mostly simple in the opening, various long cuts and lots of slow motion shots. There are however quite a few examples of camera angels such as edu, ms, ls, POV, high angel shot and tracking shot which are all used in the right places for the correct effects. There is one point where the cuts become faster to help show frustration and stress the protagonist feels after leaving the club where it keeps cutting in the same place just him failing to light a cigarette, fails to get his friends out and simply looking around his surroundings.

 The camera does move and always follows the action of the characters. It also follows in different ways depending on the characters and their states for example in the beginning following the main character the camera is bouncy in the same motion as the characters walk but once he leaves the club clearly in worsened state clearly on drugs and the camera is rather shaky, this goes with the probable mental state of the protagonist during this time. The various use of slow motion in certain shots makes each one more dramatic like when we first see the second man jogging along the river or the protagonist walking towards the club, it allows focus to centre in on the characters which the directors want us to be focusing on; the protagonist and the second jogger man. 

 At first the main character walks in a very confident, carefree relaxed way but after leaving the club he walks in a slightly disorientated manner. His confident walk at the beginning represents him as clearly not being shy or afraid, he does walk alone although so perhaps shows he does not have many friends. His face shows no real interest before entering the club, he looks simply calm no fear or anger or happiness. Once he leaves the club his whole actions and facial expression shows high levels of stress, his repeated attempts to light his cigarette show his growing annoyance and then his call to his friends to see "if they are still up" his face shows simple desperation as if he does not want the night to have ended or to be alone. When walking across the bridge we again see his odd way of walking, possibly more awkward from his drug consumption, he looks out from the bridge again with no emotion in his face. We see him also throw his phone awkwardly in frustration which then results in him breaking it as he slowly proceeds to pick it up looking very regretful. When the second man helps him pick up they have a strange moment of both staring at each over in a rather awkward way with the second man clearly a bit confused as to whether the protagonist is okay, after seeing some sweat on him he realises the man must be on drugs and gives him a concerned look before leaving.

 During opening there is diegetic sound of the music that the main character is listening too but the audience hears it much clearer than other characters, when he enters the club there is the diegetic sound of other people talking in line to get into the club. Also once left the club there is a short while with only ambient and diegetic sound of the surroundings and the very little dialogue the entire opening has. Having him enter the club with non diegetic sound and then a quick cut to him leaving without it creates a slightly more dramatic exit and almost manages to grip the audience and let them know he is not in the same state he was when he left. There is hardly any dialogue in the opening, the protagonist speaks to his friends on the phone asking if they were still up and then later he and the second jogging man share a few words as he is questioned if he is alright. I think the lack of dialogue doesn't badly affect the opening but makes it almost more interesting as we mainly just see the characters actions and emotions. Non diegetic comes again when we first see the second man jogging on the bridge in slow motion, it also helps make the rest of the opening more dramatic and less boring for example it is still going during the awkward stare the two characters share which if was done in silence would actually make the scene seem much more awkward to the audience. The editors manage to put diegetic music in the right places and not in others to add extra effect to each of those scenes and makes them much better and keeps the audience keen, if it was used in the entire opening or not at all it would become too simple and become much more uninteresting.

The genre of the series is drama and we can tell that from what happens in the opening it could be nothing else except at the end where it could have an element of romance. It has no horror, action or comedy conventions within but has shuttle pieces of tension and dramatic effects telling us it could only be a drama series.

It is set in London where we can see some very miserable weather, something usually expected in London, we also get shots of the River Thames and some other London features which helps to confirm the setting of the opening.

I personally think it is a very good opening and makes the audience interested and keen to watch further to see what unfolds later in the episode and possibly rest of the series.