1. Analysis of Taken
Taken is an action/thriller film that came out in 2008. The
clip I saw is when Kim realises people are in the house and
eventually gets kidnapped. The suspense starts at a close up
shot of Kim as we see her face drop for an unknown reason a
this point, the close up is used to emphasise that something
is very wrong. It quickly changes to a point of view shot of
where Kim sees a group of men that have broken in to the
apartment. During the next minute or so there are many cuts
between the father and daughter as the father is trying to

2. piece together what is happening whilst on the phone to her.
This is putting the audience on edge as we don’t know what
is going to happen and suspense is building up as Kim is
getting more frightened. At the same time Bryan is starting
to worry about Kim getting away safe. Extreme close ups are
used well here as we can see the facial expressions of the
characters and how Kim shows an extremely scared
expression, where as Bryan is scared but shows a more
angered expression.
Close ups are also used whenever Liam Neeson is using
something. For example when he grabs the suitcase there is
a close up on the suitcase as he quickly gets it down. He is
shaking which means he knows she is going to be taken but
he wants to remain focused on her making sure he will be

3. able to track her down.
After she has ran into the bedroom and hid under the bed
there are a lot of close-ups on Kim’s face, which show how
she is crying a lot and how she feels like she won’t get out of
the apartment alive. These close ups are used to make the
audience feel emotional but also makes the audience
intrigued to see if she will make it out alive or will the
people in the apartment take her and kill her.
In this next shot it changes to a close up of Bryan’s face as he
is getting more nervous about the fact that his daughter is
getting closer to getting kidnapped. The close ups are used
to show his change in emotion from being happy he is
talking to his daughter, to the realisation that his daughter is
in a lot of trouble. The fact that the daughter is now really
panicking is showing as he is getting more and more serious.

4. The next shot is a low level shot with a close up showing Kim
getting dragged from under the bed. This is used for the
audience’s advantage to show how scared she is and when
she gets pulled out the audience will feel more shocked as
they can see her facial expressions in great detail as they are
so close to her. If a medium shot of higher where used then
this wouldn’t have gave the same effect so the use of a close
up really makes the audience empathise with Kim.

5. The final shot is a close up of Bryan, as he knows his
daughter has been taken. An extreme close up is used as he
now has a worried facial expression whereas before he was
acting more confident. His facial expressions are very clear
and he is now a lot more worried.