Practice Extract Essay

Practice Extract Essay - Breanna C. - Period 5

 The director's purpose in the extract from ”24” was to create a tension between the characters, along with a tension between the organization some characters are working for and some sort of terrorist threat. The director wanted the audience to feel the tension. As for the genre the director is working with, it seems to be some sort of cop drama. Throughout the extract, the audience learns that there is a bomb set to go off, and a lady who was a part of setting it. This lady seems to be in an interrogation room, and she is then interrogated by a guy who doesn't seem to have his emotions under control. Whether these two characters have some sort of personal past is unclear. These two do not seem to like each other, and keep pushing each other to act out, which the guy eventually does. There are other characters watching these events from another room.

The extract starts off with the guy entering the room the lady is confined in. Inside of this room there is dramatic lighting, having the characters stand out with this contrast. At first, there isn't anything explicitly telling the audience of the tension rising, but there are a series of other things that do. There are close-up shots of the two characters, creating a claustrophobic feel. The guy is also standing, and when the camera faces him, it is from a lower angle, while the opposite is true for the lady. This shows that the guy is towering over her, trying to elicit fear. But the lady does not fear, despite her predicament. She stays calm, always watching the guy. The background music is low and sparse, but the notes heard set the mood to be serious and dangerous. Immediately, the scene is set, and the lady starts off their conversation.

Both of them are fighting each other, but the lady is the only one that keeps her cool. The camera almost looks as if it is handheld, constantly and shakily zooming in on the characters and their expressions and reactions to what the other character has said. The scene cuts to show there are people watching these two, and they are worried for what can be assumed to be their fellow employee, the guy. The guy paces and his footsteps and heavy breathing only show more of how angry he is. The guy continues to threaten the lady, flipping the table as a show of his frustration. The lady only mocks him. At this point the audience is unsure if the guy is going to act further on his anger, as he sits down. The camera is constantly going back and forth, giving no rest for the audience. The music steadily rises as the lady smiles at him in victory, putting him over the edge. He attacks her. Pushing her chair against the wall and chocking her throat. A split screen shows the observers going to try and stop the guy, all the while the music is at an all-time high that you can barely hear the threat he gives the lady on her life.

 All of these things - the close-ups, the low/high angles, the zooms and shaky camera, the rising background music, the heavy breathing and quick footsteps, the constant back and forth, the dramatic lighting and threatening acting - they all serve to create what the director's purpose was: to create tension.