Extract Essay (24)
Jeffery Love
In the 24
extract, the director creates a suspenseful and tense mood for the viewers. He
does this by incorporating multiple factors such as dark lighting, the dialogue
used, and the types of camera editing, shots, and movements. The director
achieved this very well and even created more suspense because of the non-diegetic
beginning and added music in the background. It seemed effortless for the
director and actors to do this.
At the
beginning, the scene starts with a fade in and then you see a woman seated in a
chair in front of a table. She is shown in a medium close up shot which shows
her face all the viewer needs as of now. A over the shoulder shot is then used
to see the interrogator (a male) entering the room. As that scene ends music
begins to play (non-diegetic sound) to show a possible tension between the two
characters. The camera is then switched back to the woman and zooms in onto her
face to show her facial reaction the man entering the room. Camera quickly
switches back to the man where he is seen looking at the surveillance camera in
the room (camera the zooms into the surveillance camera). This was possibly
used to show the man knows someone is watching and may foreshadow to something
bad happening soon. The camera switches back to the man where he closes the
door and approaches the woman. Camera goes to the woman and quickly back to the
man where it shows a close up of his face showing he is not pleased with her
and is ready to question.
In these next
scenes, the man is seen throwing a file onto the table in front of the woman.
This is shown with a tracking shot meaning the director wants the viewers’
focus here which creates suspense as we do not know what the file is yet. The
camera the switches to the woman at an eye level angle showing her reaction to
this file. The music intensifies during this showing the tension in the room is
rising, ultimately building more suspense. It then transitions to another man
and woman (dressed formal) watching the interrogation room on monitors. The
camera is the brought back the man inside the room and quickly goes back to the
woman in cuffs (shot/reverse shot). This was used to show the facial
expressions of both while remaining silent. The camera then zooms on a ticking
clock creating even more tension because the sound of the ticking makes it seem
whatever she is there to do must happen soon.
Dialogue begins
between the two when the woman mentions that the man is wasting time by trying
to interrogate her. She also gives the viewer insight on why she might be there
because she mentions a bomb. This creates suspense because the viewer suddenly
wants to know where it is, when is it going to go off, and if they will be able
to stop it in time. An over the shoulder shot is used to show the man’s face
and him looking completely fed up. The man begins to ask questions and the
woman is not budging or giving him the answers he wants to hear thus increasing
the tension between them. The viewer then finds out that the file on the desk
is something to do with the president allowing them to infer the matter is
important. The man clearly does not care about the president’s file and wants
to keep interrogating her until he gets the answers he wants. Tracking shot
then shows the man approaching the table/woman saying things that may get her
to show emotion (no prevail) it then shows him flipping the table over in rage
(tension increases). The man gets in the woman’s face and yells in an angered
way (tension is finally obvious and shown physically) this foreshadows that the
man may try something to hurt her (he is aggressive). Camera then switches to
the people watching them and they seemed worried, but won’t step in.
The camera goes
back to the interrogation room and does a close up on the woman’s face and she
is unphased by the man’s aggressive behavior. She explains to him she is not
worried about him because if he touches her physically, he will be taken off the
case. He then seems to ease up and gets out of her face (music un-intensifies
hinting at this) and he takes a couple steps back. She then says something that
clearly upsets him (tension recreated) and music intensifies, and he gets up
and starts to choke her and tells her she better tell him what he wants to
hear. The people watching quickly run the room to get the man off her (split
screen showing both actions). The man lets go and exits the room when they arrive,
and the woman is seen getting her breath back (music still playing).
The dark
lighting used throughout gives an eerie feel to the scenes which creates most
of the tension and suspense in the extract.
