Extract Essay

The meaning behind the extract, to me, is that desperate times can change or take the character out of someone. Through a crisis, people tend to panic and feel like they cannot trust others. During this extract I examined that a man was trying to get information from a person through questioning concerning a bomb. However, the two characters could not get along to handle the situation.

            As far as sound there was dialogue and incidental sound that played a major role in the theme. The dialogue was mostly shared between the two characters; the man that was questioning the victim and the victim herself. By their conversation tone, you can tell that there have been prior problems amongst the two. They both had plenty of pride because the man didn’t want to make a move until he got answers from the lady and the lady wanted to solve the issue on her own. The incidental sound warned the audience that something was about to happen. The music was very high pitched and got louder throughout the extract. It indicated that the tension between the two was about to be released.

            Another important aspect to the extract was the camera and angle. Most of the camera shots were close-up especially during the dialogue. It either showed just the face or from the neck and up. It made it clear of what the mood of the characters were. Sometimes there were times when the characters didn’t say anything but because the camera was close-up, the look on the face said it all. With this being said, the camera angle was eye level or normal shot. It only changed angles during the choking scene. These factors showed the tension whereas the sound let you hear the tension.

            Editing in the extract included split screen and eye-line match. The split screen happened after the man started choking the witness. Half the screen showed the crew watching the investigation running to the room and the other half showed the choking scene. The people were panicking and if you ask me why it’s because they were relying on the information giving by the witness to stop the bomb. By the man choking the lady out of frustration and desperation leads to my theme that ‘desperate time causes us to get out of character’. The eye ling match showed us the objects the characters were looking at. The most important eye line match shown was the clock. Indicating time is not slowing down and bomb is ticking.

            Lastly, the mis-en-scene included costumes of suits and the location of an investigation room. The importance of this shows the setting of the extract. The suits indicated the seriousness of the moment and situation. The location and lighting showed the necessity of the information contained by the witness. This contributed to the overall mood and tempo of the extract.