Extract Essay - 24

          The theme of the extract feels like a rivalry between two people. The man, that can be assumed as a police officer or detective, is trying to get information from a woman that is being held in custody. There is a feeling that they have met before that scene, but the woman will still not be cooperative with the officer making him feel really angry. The officer is very nervous because people’s lives are in danger due to the bomb that the police is trying to disarm. The woman is the only one that knows someone that can disarm this bomb and she won’t tell the man, that creates a big sense of tension and rivalry in the scene.
          The scene starts with the man opening the door to the interrogation room that the woman is in. We are able to see the woman through an over the shoulder shot, that type of shot is great to show the actor’s perspective. After that, the director zooms into a close up of the woman’s face to show her reaction to seeing the officer, that type of shot is a great way to show someone’s emotion or reaction to something. From the woman’s face the scene changes to an eye line match to show the officer looking at the camera, that shot helps the viewer understand that the officer knows that he is being watched and that anything he does can be used against him, that shot is great to help the viewer to understand how serious the scene taking place is. There is another over the shoulder shot but this time it is to capture the officer’s emotion when staring at the woman. The camera moves into a close up to the officers face to show how serious and mad he is when staring at the woman. The officer then puts some papers on a table in front of a woman, that prop helps the viewer to understand that an investigation is going on and that the papers might contain evidence of a crime that the woman committed. After the papers are thrown the director cuts and shows the people monitoring the cameras in the room in a two shot, that shot helps the viewer to understand how serious the situation is. Another eye line match takes place when the woman looks at the clock in the room, a non-diegetic sound is then added to show the clock ticking, that shot helps the viewer to understand that the woman might be in a hurry.

          The scene transitions from the clock into a close up of the woman’s face. She then starts the dialogue saying that she wants to keep the interrogation short, adding to the conclusion that she is in a hurry. An over the shoulder shot is used to show the officer’s response to what the woman said, that shot is a good way to show both of their reactions to what is being said. During the dialogue we can hear the officer’s footsteps in a diegetic sound, the sound helps the viewer to see how apprehensive the officer is at the moment. We then see a pan from the officer’s shoulder to the woman sitting in the chair. The medium shot of the woman in the chair helps the viewer to see that she is tied up and to understand more the situation. The officer then is fed up with the woman and throws the table on the ground making it a really loud diegetic sound, that sound helps to catch the viewer’s attention to the scene. The scene then cuts into a close up to the man watching the room through the cameras. That shot helps to see the man’s reaction to what is taking place in the room.

          The scene transitions from the man’s face to another two shot of the people watching the room through the security system. The camera then closes up on the woman’s face once again for her to say a line that would make the officer crazy enough for him to attack her. That close up is really important to the scene because it shows very clearly the woman’s reaction saying that line, she was having fun and even smiled, and that could probably be the reason the officer attacked her. When the officer is running to attack the woman there is also a tracking shot, the camera tracks the officer until he grabs the woman by the neck. That shot helped to see how mad and how hard the officer wants to hurt the woman. When the officer pushes the woman we can see the chair she’s sitting on scratch the floor. A diegetic sound happens to put more tension in the scene. After the officer bangs the woman on the wall we can see a split screen of the woman being chocked and the people watching the room through the cameras run to try to intervene with what is happening. The split screen shows very well both of the reactions of the man and the woman and it also transmits a lot of suspense to the scene. In the split screen a tracking shot takes place as the camera follows the man running trying to get to the room where the officer is. The tracking shot also helps to add suspense and action to the scene. Score sound is also added to the scene bringing a lot of suspense and action to it.

          In the extract, the director tries to add suspense and the feeling of rivalry between the officer and the woman as much as he can, by the use of sound, camera angles, movement, shots and etc. By using a lot of close ups to capture emotion and reaction the director was able to give the feeling that the two main characters hated each other. Using specific diegetic sounds and adding non diegetic sounds and score the director was able to add a lot of tension seriousness and suspense to the scene, making the sure the viewer was always hooked to the movie.