1) The scene analyzes a key moment in the film Taken where the protagonist's daughter Kim gets kidnapped by an Albanian gang in Paris. 2) The scene cuts between the daughter hiding under a bed in fear, the father on the phone urging her to hide, and the gang searching the apartment. 3) The lighting, sound, camerawork, and editing all enhance the tension and engage the audience by mirroring the characters' emotions through dark lighting, an ominous score, close-ups of facial expressions, and quick cuts between shots.

1. HOW DOES THIS SEQUENCE ENGAGE THE
AUDIENCE?
Taken was released on the 26th December 2008, and was directed
by Pierre Morel; a French director and cinematographer. It stars,
Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace and Leland Orser. It had a budget of
$45 million and the box office was $226.8 million. The plot consists
of a father reluctantly allowing his daughter, Kim to go to Paris with
her best friend. They both get kidnapped by an Albanian gang who
traffic young girls and have a specialty of prostitution rings. The
scene I am analyzing is the scene where Kim gets kidnapped, this
scene is iconic as it initiates the key part of the plot. The clip begins
with his daughter franticly ringing him as she hides under a bed in
her apartment. The clip jump cuts between 3 different clips before
she is finally taken: Bryan on the phone to his daughter telling her
what to do, his daughter under the bed sick with fear, and the gang
looking for her in every part of the apartment.

2. LIGHTING
In the establishing shot of this scene, Liam Neeson’s
character is on the phone to his daughter. Here, the two
lamps in the background of the shot are the source of
the diegetic light in the scene and contribute massively
to the low key, soft lighting that results in shadows.
Furthermore, the lamp is a backlight, positioned behind
the subject casting him into slight darkness. The way
Neeson’s character is in darkness connotes the dark,
dangerous events happening to him and his family. The
fact the light is behind him connotes that he is mentally
in a unstable, dark place mentally and he is far from
positivity and light symbolically and literally.
The lighting in this shot varies. The foreground consists
of a vast dark shadow and there is a strong absence of
light. The background of the shot has high key, non-
diegetic lighting which lights the whole shot and casts
the shadow on the foreground and on the subject. The
mobile phone screen in the foreground of the shot is lit
yet doesn't’t contribute to the darkness or the light of
the shot. The dimly lit shot is conventional for an action
film. In a dark area there is a higher chance of sudden
things to happen, as they are hidden, in this case; Kim
being dragged out from under the bed. The audience
would expect this sort of lighting as the dark connotes
the unknown and causes the audience to be on edge
and tense.
These shots are both blatantly lit
by studio lights as there is no
apparent source of light, it is
non-diegetic. In the shot on the
right, the right side of kim’s face
is lit, casting a shadow on the left
side of her face and the left side
of the shot. The only parts of the
shot’s lit are her face, to make
her facial expression prominent
in the shot and show the utter
terror she is feeling and how
alert she is, causing the audience
to mirror her emotions. Due to
these shots being extremely
simplistic it ensures all focus is
on Kim, heightening their
emotion. Secondly, her hand
tightly gripping her phone is lit
up to show the desperation she
has to speak to her father and be
close as close to him as possible,
again showing her pure fear.

3. SOUND
The film score was composed by Nathaniel Mechaly.
• In this scene, there is a underscore consisting of multiple, melancholic, long, low pitched
notes layered on top of each other playing harmoniously. As the scene goes on, the
underscore increases in volume, starting from barely audible to beginning to dominate
the scene. The underscore compliments the tense atmosphere of the scene, contributing
to increasing the intensity of it. In addition, about half way through the scene the pitch of
underscore increases so it is high and almost slightly painful to listen to as it is similar to a
long scream, which foreshadows the high pitched scream of Kim as she is dragged away
by the gang. The gang begin to walk away into another room, and the underscore
decreases in volume while the sound of their steps and then the floor boards creaking
takes over the soundscape. The clear sound of the footsteps is synchronous, ambient
sound. Combined with the shot looking up at the feet of the gang members, the sound
allows the audience to be in the position of Kim, first of all feeling her fear and then relief
as they begin to walk away. The audience would be engaged as they are able to feel the
emotions felt by the characters due to the sound being extremely ambient and
atmospheric.

4. CAMERAWORK
The majority of the shot types in this scene are close ups. This is
because the emotion of the characters is heightened, evident and
extreme. The close up shots enable the audience to see the intensity of
the emotion through the detail in their facial expressions. For example
in this shot, we can see the sheer relief of Kim as she believes the gang
members have left and she is safe and alone after extreme emotional
trauma. After the audience being on the journey of her stress and upset,
they would feel the relief she did. Suddenly the close up shot changes to a
mid-shot of being dragged away. This mid-shot shows Kim to be the main
focus of the shot, in the center third. Furthermore, the change in shot
allows the audience to view the action and what is actually taking place,
rather than just the emotion on Kim’s face, as in the previous shot. The
rapid change in emotion and atmosphere of the scene would cause the
audience to feel unsettled and shocked, mirroring Kim’s feelings.
In this mid/close up shot, Neeson’s character, is in the foreground and the
center third, ensuring he is the main focus of the shot, specifically his
face is exposed, highlighting his sickened and concerned emotion.

5. EDITING
• The pace of the edit is quite quick. Jump cuts are used to
jump back and forth between three different clips. This is
typical for a action thriller, particularly where there is a event
with high tension, action and suspense. Jump cuts give an
appearance of continuous time in the film as well as drawing
the audience to the nature of the film due to it being so
sudden.