Analysis of Taken Genre : Thriller

At the beginning of the scene there is a point of view shot when the men come into the building so we can see from Kim’s perspective. There is also a sound effect when she realizes that something is wrong and this puts a lot of emphasis on the situation. It quickly cuts to a close up shot of her face so that we can see her emotion, whichin this case is fear, because she knows that she is in danger. There is close up shot when Brian realizes his daughter is in danger and gets his kit out to try and track her phone call, The close up shot is used so that we can see what he is doing. This gives us a sense that Brian is trained and knows how to handle the situation.

After running to cover in the bedroom, there is a lot of close up shots of Kim’s face and her father’s face as they are talking on the phone. We can see that they are both worried about what is going to happen from the close up and as an audience this puts us on edge because we don’t know what is about to happen. This shot shows the fear in in Kim’s face as she is on the phone to her father and he tries to calm her down and help her.

There are also more point of view shots from Kim’s perspective while she is hiding under the bed as the group of kidnappers come into the room, in this particular shot there isn’t much sound but we can hear the footsteps which creates a lot of tension and again puts the audience on edge. It also portrays the kidnappers as very mysterious because their faces are hidden so their identity is kept for secret for extra tension.

Next, we cut to Brian, and the camera slowly starts to zoom in to his face and we get a close up so we can see his emotions and the expression on his face. We know from this that he is worried because he knows that his daughter is in trouble. The lighting in the room also gives a darker tone to the scene and makes it seem more tense.

The next clip shows Kim being dragged by the kidnappers from under the bed. This camera shot is a low level shot which starts at a medium close up from under the bed and it makes us feel like we are there hiding with her, so that when we see her get dragged away, we can see the look of terror on her face.

The last clip of the scene we see Brian again, as he is listening on the other end of the phone to the sound of his daughter being kidnapped. The camera slowly zooms in so we get a better close up of his face where we can see how worried he is about is daughter.