Taken
The image we see is of a
birthday hat and what appears to be party decorations scattered over the floor.
This is shown to the audience in low quality in an unprofessional way
immediately showing the audience that this is home footage. From this the shot (still
unprofessionally filmed) jumps to the scene of a small girl blowing out her
birthday candles, the candle allowing us to know she is five. By telling the
audience her age it highlights the fact that she is vulnerable. The camera is
also focused completely with her in the middle of the shot even with what we
can see as her mother supervising her she is centred, creating attention to
this particular character.
As well as focusing on her
throughout the video the camera rocking as well as the use of jump shots, gives
the audience a distorted feeling about this character as if the tilting of the
camera reflects how that character might later on be disturbed just as the
camera is. The non-diegetic music of a piano playing builds a suspenseful
atmosphere as it puts the audience on edge due to it contrasting with the image
of this happy child. The diegetic sound of the mother speaking and the child
laughing then comes in, however that too has been distorted. The use of echoing
the dialogue and sound that we hear further builds onto the intense vibe being
given off by this short clip of footage.
From this footage the
camera flashes and cuts to Liam Neeson's character Bryan Mills, waking up
sharply as if the footage we have just seen was a dream.
The fact this character is
dreaming of his daughter shows that he clearly cares for her a lot. Bryan is
seen in a dark room that would seem to be his home with dim décor and
furniture. The darkness possibly reflecting the sadness in his life or the
death and horror he has witnessed. The non-diegetic piano music then comes to a
sudden stop as he turns on his lamp revealing old Chinese take-away boxes on the
table; this gives the audience an insight into how he lives, for example –
living off takeaways and not getting the sleep he need. This is when we realise
that he may live alone as the people seen in the home footage are nowhere to be
seen.
Bryan sighs and gets up off
of his seat, showing us that it is a chore to him to even stand, a picture of
what would appear to be his daughter but older on a horse is revealed in a
picture frame next to the chair Bryan was previously sat in. From this picture
we can see that his daughter is happy with her life, the fact that he does care
for her a lot is reflected again as he keeps this picture of one of his
daughter’s achievements close to him.
Next to the picture the
title of the film 'Taken' is revealed in white blocked letters. This then gives
the audience the impression that his daughter may be taken from him as the fact
of him caring for her so much is contrasted against this one word.
The scene then cuts to
Bryan pulling up outside of and entering an electronics store, whilst being
greeted in the store he then smiles as he replies allowing the audience to see
the first sign of emotion from this plain dark character. He then jokes with
the assistant and shows even more emotion whilst coming out of his motionless
shell he has been depicted like in the previous few scenes. He is wearing
fairly bleak coloured clothes with no real style to them pushing forth the idea
of him having little funds, however he snaps at the chance of purchasing a
karaoke machine. This determination gets the audience thinking about the
importance of this item as there is still mystery of this characters life.
Whilst wrapping the karaoke
machine with accurate precision we then gather that it is handled with extreme care
and therefore being given to the one person we can now see he cares a great
deal for, his daughter.
The fact that it is clearly
a present then links with the opening footage of her birthday and how much has
changed since the footage was taken. The audience are now intrigued to know
what has happened between the two birthdays that has forced him to not be with
her.
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