Tuesday, 20 September 2016

Collateral Opening Scene Analysis


Opening shot has very low depth of field causing the audience to focus solely on Tom Cruise’s character. Only sound is sound of crowd and amplified footsteps. Same procedure for next shot focusing on other character then cut by to Tom Cruise

Sudden change of shot as two characters collide background sound is decreased. Match on action as bags drop to the floor, sound of bags dropping is amplified to further draw audience attention. Over the shoulder shot with low depth of field focusing on other characters face no emotion is shown. Motivated editing is used as the collision between the two characters is surprising because we are not given any indication of their proximity to one another

Soundtrack begins to build tension  as shot switches to over the shoulder shot of tom cruises character with again low depth of field

Snap cut to interior of taxi office. Colour palette changes but sound track continues indicating some kind of connection between the two scenes. Switch in editing pace from long drawn out shots to rapid frame changes. Lingering shot on taxi driver are in contrast to editing during scene indication that we should pay special attention to person in frame

As taxi driver enters car multiple match on action shots are shown as he goes through his routine close ups used throughout to covey meticulous nature of character.

Soundtrack drops out as driver closes door leaving simple base beat which indicates isolation of the character from the rest off the scene which was previously very noisy and clutterd

Additional match on action shots that linger on his putting the image of the island straight indicates importance to character


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