HOW DOES THIS SEQUENCE ENGAGE THE AUDIENCE?

Taken was released on the 26th December 2008, and was directed by Pierre Morel; a French director and cinematographer. It stars, Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace and Leland Orser. It had a budget of $45 million and the box office was $226.8 million. The plot consists of a father reluctantly allowing his daughter, Kim to go to Paris with her best friend. They both get kidnapped by an Albanian gang who traffic young girls and have a specialty of prostitution rings. The scene I am analyzing is the scene where Kim gets kidnapped, this scene is iconic as it initiates the key part of the plot. The clip begins with his daughter franticly ringing him as she hides under a bed in her apartment. The clip jump cuts between 3 different clips before she is finally taken: Bryan on the phone to his daughter telling her what to do, his daughter under the bed sick with fear, and the gang looking for her in every part of the apartment.

LIGHTING

In the establishing shot of this scene, Liam Neeson’s character is on the phone to his daughter. Here, the two lamps in the background of the shot are the source of the diegetic light in the scene and contribute massively to the low key, soft lighting that results in shadows. Furthermore, the lamp is a backlight, positioned behind the subject casting him into slight darkness. The way Neeson’s character is in darkness connotes the dark, dangerous events happening to him and his family. The fact the light is behind him connotes that he is mentally in a unstable, dark place mentally and he is far from positivity and light symbolically and literally.

The lighting in this shot varies. The foreground consists of a vast dark shadow and there is a strong absence of light. The background of the shot has high key, non-diegetic lighting which lights the whole shot and casts the shadow on the foreground and on the subject. The mobile phone screen in the foreground of the shot is lit yet doesn't’t contribute to the darkness or the light of the shot. The dimly lit shot is conventional for an action film. In a dark area there is a higher chance of sudden things to happen, as they are hidden, in this case; Kim being dragged out from under the bed. The audience would expect this sort of lighting as the dark connotes the unknown and causes the audience to be on edge and tense.

These shots are both blatantly lit by studio lights as there is no apparent source of light, it is non-diegetic. In the shot on the right, the right side of kim’s face is lit, casting a shadow on the left side of her face and the left side of the shot. The only parts of the shot’s lit are her face, to make her facial expression prominent in the shot and show the utter terror she is feeling and how alert she is, causing the audience to mirror her emotions. Due to these shots being extremely simplistic it ensures all focus is on Kim, heightening their emotion. Secondly, her hand tightly gripping her phone is lit up to show the desperation she has to speak to her father and be close as close to him as possible, again showing her pure fear.

SOUND

The film score was composed by Nathaniel Mechaly.

• In this scene, there is a underscore consisting of multiple, melancholic, long, low pitched notes layered on top of each other playing harmoniously. As the scene goes on, the underscore increases in volume, starting from barely audible to beginning to dominate the scene. The underscore compliments the tense atmosphere of the scene, contributing to increasing the intensity of it. In addition, about half way through the scene the pitch of underscore increases so it is high and almost slightly painful to listen to as it is similar to a long scream, which foreshadows the high pitched scream of Kim as she is dragged away by the gang. The gang begin to walk away into another room, and the underscore decreases in volume while the sound of their steps and then the floor boards creaking takes over the soundscape. The clear sound of the footsteps is synchronous, ambient sound. Combined with the shot looking up at the feet of the gang members, the sound allows the audience to be in the position of Kim, first of all feeling her fear and then relief as they begin to walk away. The audience would be engaged as they are able to feel the emotions felt by the characters due to the sound being extremely ambient and atmospheric.

CAMERAWORK The majority of the shot types in this scene are close ups. This is because the emotion of the characters is heightened, evident andextreme. The close up shots enable the audience to see the intensity ofthe emotion through the detail in their facial expressions. For example in this shot, we can see the sheer relief of Kim as she believes the gangmembers have left and she is safe and alone after extreme emotional trauma. After the audience being on the journey of her stress and upset, they would feel the relief she did. Suddenly the close up shot changes to amid-shot of being dragged away. This mid-shot shows Kim to be the main focus of the shot, in the center third. Furthermore, the change in shot allows the audience to view the action and what is actually taking place,rather than just the emotion on Kim’s face, as in the previous shot. The rapid change in emotion and atmosphere of the scene would cause theaudience to feel unsettled and shocked, mirroring Kim’s feelings.

In this mid/close up shot, Neeson’s character, is in the foreground and thecenter third, ensuring he is the main focus of the shot, specifically hisface is exposed, highlighting his sickened and concerned emotion.

EDITING • The pace of the edit is quite quick. Jump cuts are used to

jump back and forth between three different clips. This is typical for a action thriller, particularly where there is a event with high tension, action and suspense. Jump cuts give an appearance of continuous time in the film as well as drawing the audience to the nature of the film due to it being so sudden.