Taken Analysis

 

For my media coursework I have to create beginning titles of an opening film. The genre which it has to be is thriller, so for part of my research task I have decided to look at existing successful thriller opening scenes to get ideas and analyse them looking at camera work, editing, sound and mise en scene.  Also as I have found that many people get mixed up between trailers and the opening titles of films I thought it would look further into this and analyse the difference between the two for each film I chose to annotate.

The main point of a movie trailer is to promote and advertise an upcoming new movie. A trailer is a commercial clip of media which is taken from the film which mostly shows the best parts of the film in order to make the audience want to watch it which doesn't always go in order of the film. A good trailer would sum up the plot of the film so that it gets the audience its targeting interested into the movie itself for which it should be interesting and eye catching so that at the end of the trailer it has successfully persuaded you to watch it and go and watch it at the cinema or to buy it on DVD or online. A trailer tries not to give too much away at the same time as the audience may feel as if they have seen too much to even excite them as they may think they've just witness the whole of the film in less than 5 minutes. Most of the time a soundtrack would have been made which would somehow fit into the movie itself for instance Adele recently produced the soundtrack for the new Bond film 'Skyscraper' which is a massive publicity point as it brought massive advertisement to both the movie and the audience. But in some cases the soundtrack isn't always played in the movie itself it may have simply been produced to be on the trailer. The editing involved a lot throughout trailers are mostly cross dissolves as therefore it’s easy to follow and it being the trailer together nicely also throughout trailers they mostly try to concentrate the camera work on the main characters in the film this sometimes can be a massive promotion point as it could have famous actors or actresses in it so they would try to use a lot of camera work on them demonstrating who is in fact in the movie itself.

Taken:

Opening sequence:

Even though Taken is seen to be an action film I also think that it could be classed as a thriller and as it is one of my favourite’s films I thought it would be a great chance for me to analyse it and look deeper into the film itself. The film titles start with a black screen with the traditional 'twentieth century fox presents' which is in white writing this instantly hints danger and mystery to the audience. Throughout the whole of the opening sequence there are credits which are shown overlapping the action on screen. The opening sequence further goes into an old video of a girl on her 5th birthday which suggests to the audience that it’s a happy home video as you can hear a voice over of a happy father although the sound on the other hand suggest suspense as it does not fit into the happy cheery video. The camera work makes the audience pay more attention to the innocent young girl as it mainly filming her.

Later on in the sequence you get to see who it is who is watching the video and after guessing it’s the young girls farther you begin the guess that he misses her and guessing that he may not see her as much as he did when she was younger guessing something has happened which instantly you begin to start guessing and start to feel sorry for him. Whilst the father is in shooting the lighting has gone from high key lighting which helped suggest to the audience of joy to low key lighting. The lighting at this point help give the audience the feeling that the character is alone sad and worried as it makes the audience feel as if he is depressed. Whilst the name 'Liam Neeson' comes up in the titles the characters head come up from looking down suggesting maybe to the audience that he is a main character in the film and that you should pay attention to him even though at this point he is still looking powerless and alone. 

At the end of the opening titles it shows an ECU of a photo frame which had a picture of a girl on a horse suggesting that it could have been the girl in the video clip he was watching which suggests to the audience he is missing someone. At the same time the title of this the film’s title comes up 'TAKEN' this could get the audience guessing that the girl in the photo frame in in danger.

 Trailer:

I think that the taken trailer is one of my favourable trailers as I especially enjoy that they have their indents at the beginning of the sequence so that it doesn't disrupt the other filming as sometimes I find that it can take your attention away from the rest of the trailer.

Throughout the trailer there is a non-diegetic soundtrack quietly playing throughout its which is also played beneath the layer of diegetic sound. The diegetic consists of a lot of speech which I found to build tension for instance the screen from the daughter when she's dragged from under the bed.

The mise-en-scene at the beginning of the trailer suggests a typical setting and normal as the locations throughout the trailer doesn't look different from everyday life at the beginning demonstration normality as the main locations are houses. 

The body language and speech throughout the trailer help to recognise the characters relationship with one and other as for instance the body language between the father and the daughter is very happy and caring for her and also with the daughter and her friend they are very excited for something as they had planned something for them to enjoy. Throughout the trailer there is many props used to help build tension. One major prop is a phone because throughout the whole clip many characters use a phone to contact each other which could suggest that communication is a massive key throughout the film and that they may not in fact know the other person on the end of the phone.

The trailer uses a lot of fast cuts, particularly in the second half of the trailer, to group together the action sequences, which are shown at an extremely fast pace. Split-screen is also used throughout the trailer, to show both sides of the phone call. This is to show various scenes from the film, in as short a time as possible, whilst also creating a narrative.

 Throughout the trailer there are many different camera shots and angles which helps draw the audience into the action. In the trailer there is an establishing shop of Paris which helps show the audience the different location which is used through the movie. As there is many conversations throughout the whole trailer as well as the movie so shot reverse shot is used a lot to demonstrate conversations as well as over the shoulder shots. Also in the trailer there is a close up of the phone which shows points out to the audience that it may be a very important prop and may have a big impact throughout the movie.