24 Extract
The directors main purpose of the 24 extract was to build suspense while emphasizing the tension between the two main characters. The director does this in each scene using different techniques. These include camera movements, shots, angles, costumes, lighting, actors, makeup, props and setting. And sound and editing.
In the first scene the suspense and tension is introduced by the lack of dialogue. As soon as the man walks in there is a long period of time where they don’t speak to each other. This makes the audience wonder what’s going to happen and why these actors aren’t speaking to each other. Then the actors start speaking and once they do a lot of zoom takes place. The zoom adds emphasis on the subject of the zoom and in this case it adds to that tension and suspense. For example the woman starts to speak and the camera zooms onto the clock to show the time. Then the camera zooms into the man's face to see his reaction. This camera movement takes place a lot in this first scene. Doing so adds suspense with the clock because the audience wonders why it’s so important and the zoom on the facial expressions adds to the tension that the characters already have. As the story goes on the non diegetic soundtrack in the background gets louder. The tension between the man and woman have now started to develop more and are more visible. So because of this the director makes the suspenseful soundtrack in the background louder. For example, when the man and woman start to speak about the bomb the sound gets louder. This adds to the suspense of the bomb and the tension between the two of them. The first scene is building the suspense on the reason why the woman is where she is, the tension that the man and woman have and why it’s there.
In the second scene the tension between the man and woman builds and the suspense along with it. In this scene we see a lot of over the shoulder shots. This scene has a lot more dialogue between the man and woman so this shot is used to show their dialogue. The director used this rather than another technique because the actors are speaking but the conversation isn’t getting heated yet. The director uses this shot to build the tension between them, because their conversation is coming to a boil. While this is being used there is also a pan in place. When the man is speaking to the woman in this scene, the camera cuts from her face to an over the shoulder shot of him speaking to her. The camera pans back and forth as the man paces, when speaking to the woman. This camera movement adds suspense because when someone paces while having a conversation it usually means they are angry. By adding this pan of the camera it adds emphasis to the man's emotion and his anger that he has for the woman he is holding in. This adds suspense because the audience is not sure what he might do next. This adds to the tension because this is all taking place as the conversation between the two heat up. As the story goes on we see a cutaway shot of two other people in a viewing room. This shot shows that they are being monitored. This alludes that in this extract there’s not a lot of actors. There are only four and the other two aren’t even a main focus. This lack of actors was a specific move by the director to make the conversation between the two have more tension. The actors might not have said what they said or acted the way they did if more people were in the room. So by not using a lot of actors in this extract the director is adding emphasis to the tension. The second scene adds even more into the suspense and tension between the man and the woman and let’s the audience infer a big blowup at the end of the extract.
In the final scene the suspense and tension rise even more and then get to an all time high. In this scene the conversations get more serious and more intimate so eye-line match is used many times in this scene. For example, when the man and woman’s conversation develops into a conversation with more anger, they get closer. So the author switches from over the shoulder which shows the conversation is tense but more laid back to the eye-line match conversations which show the more tension that conversation holds. Using an eye-line match editing technique makes the conversations between the man and woman more tense and this gives the audience a feel of suspense. As the story continues more props are used in the scenes. In the last scene the table and chair present in the interrogation room the man and woman are in are used in a way the audience wouldn’t see coming. The man flips the table in anger at the woman because she won’t give him what she wants. After this happens you can feel the tension intensify between the two. Right after this the man then takes the chair the woman is sitting in and slams it into the wall and chokes her. This is the time where tensions reach and all high because the man has now resulted to violence. So by using these props in this scene in a violent way the author is adding loads of suspense and making the tension between the two so thick that you could cut it with a knife. After this happens the other two actors that were monitoring the man and woman in the room start running to the room where it is happening to save the woman. This makes the two shot that the man and woman were in into a wipe left and then a split screen. During this split screen you can see the man choking the woman and the people running. Using this split screen adds suspense because the audience wonders if the people will arrive in time to save the woman or if the man will kill . The director could’ve just done a cutaway and showed the people running but the split screen adds suspense and makes the scene more tense. This final scene is the cherry on top for the extract. The tension between the man and woman is now very intense and there is a lot of suspense amongst the audience.
In conclusion the directors purpose of this extract was to build suspense while emphasizing the tension between the two main characters. The director did this by using several techniques. All of these techniques add to the storyline and allude to the theme. Using specific camera movements, shots, angles, costumes, lighting, actors, makeup, props and setting. Is what makes the theme of this extract so obvious and so important.
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