Prisoners is an American film produced by Alcon Entertainment in 2013 and directed by Denis Villeneuve from a screenplay written by Aaron Guzikowski. The film begins with a male character sat in a Chinese restaurant alone on Thanksgiving night. He has a short conversation with the waitress before he pays the bill and leaves to get into his car, where he then receives a message through his walky-talky to go to a location of a campervan where the police suspect a kidnapper is hiding.
Sound - The main character, Detective Loki, has limited dialogue in his introduction to the film and has a low pitched voice which creates an air of mystery around his character as his character's intentions and personality is unclear.
Non-diegetic low pitched music is also used throughout the opening scene once Detective Loki leaves the restaurant which creates effects of tension and suspense as the music foreshadows that the narrative is building up to an event that the rest of the film will revolve around. As the detective approaches the vehicle the music fades out, and then begins to build to a crescendo as he catches the suspect and hauls him outside to arrest him. The heavy rainfall throughout this scene also adds to the tension and anxious feeling as the constant sound effects reflect the mood of the narrative, implying that the narrative will revolve around negativity and possibly sadness as these are common connotations of rain.
Camera - A close up of Detective Loki is used as the suspect is being dragged off towards the police cars for questioning, which creates anxiety and tension for the audience. The close up on the character's face highlights his angry and concerned facial expressions, which causes the audience to empathise and feel similar emotions as they relate to the main character. The close up also focuses all the audience's attention on his face and what he's saying, which shows he is one of the most important characters to the narrative and that he is highly respected and has power and authority over the other characters.
An over-the-shoulder shot from Loki's perspective is also used when the suspect is facing towards the forest, and turns back to stare at the police officers. This shot creates a fearful and uneasy effect as the audience feel as if they're in the situation too as they can see the situation unfolding through the detective's perspective. The suspect's facial expressions are also unnerving as his expression is completely neutral and blank, so it suggests that he feels no emotions towards the situation at hand and could also hint that he's unpredictable.
Editing - Detective Loki receives the most screen-time throughout the sequence which suggests that he's important to the narrative and is a character to pay attention to. His character is present in almost every single shot in the 4 minutes of footage I have watched, which implies that he is the main focus of the narrative and plays a key character of the film, so he's the main focus and is very involved in the plot of the film. This is stereotypical of thrillers, as the protagonist is usually male, brave and strong which is how his character is perceived from the beginning of the film.
As the detective arrives at the location of the campervan, the pace of the editing begins to speed up which creates an excited and tense effect. The editing starts to cut between different camera shots much quicker than before, which foreshadows that some kind of action scene is about to commence.
Mise-En-Scene - Low key lighting is used during all the scenes outside and inside the campervan, which helps to create a tense and scary effect as the characters are more difficult to distinguish in the limited lighting. The shadows on set are much more prominent and the scene appears to be much darker and spookier than before, which mirrors the narrative as it takes a sinister turn.
The clip then wipes to a black screen after the police officers take the suspect to their car and the detective heads off into the woods. The title of the film then appears in the centre of the black screen in white font to create a reverse block effect to make the title of the film stand out. The font is large and serif to attract the audience's attention and make them think. The title of the film 'Prisoners' hints towards the narrative of the film, suggesting that the girls the detective mentions are maybe being kept as prisoners, or possibly there's a deeper meaning implying that all the characters are somehow prisoners in some sense.
Original Clip-
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