The themes of these extract are rivalry and a kind of daring enterprise. The man is trying to get valuable information on how to stop a deadly explosion out of the woman. She is in custody and clearly not very cooperative. The meaning behind this extract is that lives are at stake and two separate forces must come together to prevail. The director’s vision is to create a suspenseful and urgent feeling, causing the audience to be on the edge of its seat. This extract is most likely from an action or thriller genre, and this is definitely conveyed throughout this extract.
The first scene begins with a fade in to a medium close up of a woman. A fade transition typically implies a passage of time. A fade with black, specifically, is used when the scene that follows is going to be dark or action-packed. The director used a black fade in specifically to show us, the audience, that the scene following it was going to have a dark feeling. Eventually, a man walks in and we see him through an over-the-shoulder shot. Over-the-shoulder shots are great for adding perspective and establishing presence. We now know the woman’s location and where she fits in in relation to the setting. We also see the man’s initial emotions when he first sees the woman sitting there. We are able to see this all through the woman’s perspective and gain an idea of the relationship between the two characters. The first scene is interesting because it contains almost no dialogue and lasts almost a minute. This allows the audience to focus more on the lighting, props, and other sounds in the scene. We notice the clock ticking, the sound of the paper against the table, and the background sound in the TV room. These are all elements that we were able to focus on in more detail, and they were all important to the storyline. The director most likely did this on purpose to draw the audience in and focus on the important, minute details.
There is a sense of urgency that remains throughout the extract. This is accomplished through many things such as lighting, props, costumes, and angles. The security camera that we see in the first scene tells us a lot about the characters. The woman is not only in custody, but she is dangerous as well. The camera also tells us that there are other people watching them. The situation is important enough that there need to be witnesses. We learn that this woman is the only person who can dismantle a bomb, but she has proven difficult to work with. The sense of urgency and darkness is furthered through costumes. Both of the characters are wearing dark clothes to reflect their dark emotions. This shows the seriousness of the situation. The men in the TV room are wearing suits, showing that they are people in positions of power and the situation is important.
Camera movements are also great for showing emotion. The pan movement following the man’s entrance into the room shows us that the two characters have some sort of history. One thing that was different about this specific pan movement was that it followed a stack of papers. This definitely shows us that those papers are very important. So, through one pan movement, we can see that the stack of papers will play a prominent role later and that the two main characters know each other from a previous meeting. Scene 1 ends with a shot of the men in the TV room. We know that the two characters are being watched by them for some reason, but we don’t know exactly why. We hear a lot of background, ambient noise coming through in this shot. We know that there are many people involved in this interrogation, and we can infer that they are under the direction of the government. By the end of scene 1 we can see that the conversation between the two characters is not friendly and is being monitored by a powerful group of people.
Scene 2 begins when the man and the woman start talking. This is where we learn about their backgrounds and how they ended up in this position. After a while, the man becomes fed up with the woman. He throws the table between them out of pure frustration. By doing this he makes a loud, shocking noise. This is meant to slightly startle the audience, considering it is a random outburst if violence. This is a great addition of fear in the midst of a calm moment, really connecting to the thriller genre. The situation escalates and the man begins to attack the woma. Scene 2 ends with him pushing her against the wall and threatening her. Scene 3 begins with the woman telling the man that he will lose his job if he lays a hand on her. The tension is beginning to rise. The people in the TV room watch this go down and decide to intervene. The screen splits and we can see both inside the room and out, where the people are trying to get a hold of the two in the room. This split screen effect shows us many emotions all at once: the woman is fierce, but she knows she is in trouble, the man is furious, and the people from the TV room are fearful of what the man will do. This all plays into the suspense and darkness that has been building up.
Throughout this extract, we can see that the director used camera shots, angles, movements, and compositions, as well as editing, sound, and mis-en-scene to create a suspenseful and urgent feeling. The director has accomplished this in many ways and was very successful in his endeavor to create meaning through these physical elements.
