Taken 2 opening analysis - Stephen's post

The first initial clip of the film Taken 2 is an Ariel View of an unknown old truck which has a large amount of significance for the events which are to follow. In the bottom right you can see that the location of the setting has been but in place. The reason for this is because the film producers want the audience to know from the beginning, where the location of the film (or this part of the film) is set. As you can see, the truck is in a very isolated area which leads the audience to believe that a situation is going to occur.

This clip shows another angle of the same truck shown which is in the picture above. This time an extreme long shot of the truck is used to give the notion that it is travelling a long distance to get to a specific location. A non-diegetic sound of background music has been used for this sequence of film clearly symbolises a thriller film theme due to its intensity which continuously rises. Between all the clips of the truck before is reaches its destination the only transition which is used is a 'cut'. A cut represents an immediate time gap with no delay involved. A cut is a brilliant example of contributing to a thriller theme because it really brings out the intensity in situations such as this one.

This clip is using a birds eye view to capture what is going on in this particular situation. The reason a birds eye view has been used is so that the audience can see a wider area of the graveyard so that can picture what it is. As you can see it is not a normal graveyard, it is clearly a more undisclosed area of which a number of bodies appear to be being buried.  An off-screen diegetic sound is used for when the preacher is saying the prayers to the dead bodies, you can tell immediately that the nationality of the people is not an English origin. This diegetic sound softens the background music to match the sad situation of the people being buried. 

The clip which is shown here is of great significance to the thriller opening. A low angle is used to match the mood of the scene and helps the audience to feel emotion and sympathy.

You can see immediately that there is a class division between men and women in this scene through the use of Mise en Scene and other techniques.. You can tell this because :

• The women are kneeling on the floor wearing head-dresses and a set code of clothing.
• The men are clearly the superior characters as they are standing up, separated from the woman and wearing a much more relaxed dress code. 
• The preacher is also a man showing another aspect of superiority to the men.
• The fact that the women have to kneel shows that they are beneath the men and are of an inferior meaning.

This clip is most probably one of the most significant clips of the opening of Taken 2. The ceremony has just finished and the unknown character is paying his respects to the dead but throwing mud onto the bodies. A Medium close up has been used to focus mainly on the tattoo on the mans hand. This has been done to cause an Enigma. This will unquestionably create a puzzle in their mind to think what could be the reason for the tattoo. Is it a symbol? does it have a purpose or meaning? The answer is most likely going to be a yes. The tattoo is the first representation of a religious sign, this could mean that these people are very extreme.

 A very clever piece of editing has been used to emulate a flashback of what has happened in the past to the men that have died. You can now picture what the situation of what has happened and what the people around the graveyard want in return for deaths of the people. Artificial lighting has clearly been used for effect on this clip of the flashback, A powerful light (Key light) has most likely been used from the right hand side of the room to give more of a memory/flashback effect. On top of this a filter has been applied within an editing program to bring out this effect even more. 

In addition, follies have been used to imitate the gun sounds and other sounds to make them stand out to emphasis the severity of the situation.

This is one of the final clips for the opening of the thriller. This is one of the main 'bad' characters who is seeking to avenge his sons. He makes an emotional speech to his fellow people exclaiming how he will kill the man who killed his sons and friends. This is a powerful speech and has a very low level of non-diegetic background music. The sound of the mans speech is on-screen diegetic and is is meant to have the purpose of power and inspiration with a strong sense of vengeance. 

• Different angles of him are taken throughout the speech to give different perspectives.
• The camera frequently changes focus and goes onto the people that he is addressing.
• Shallow depth of fields and a variety of shot sizes are used to give emphasis on certain characters or groups of characters that the camera is focusing on.