In the extract from the television show 24, there are many different filming and editing techniques used. Along with these techniques, different sounds are also used. The combination of these sounds and techniques help to create a feeling of tension between the characters and suspense for the audience. The tension between the two characters is created because of the lack of trust that they have for each other. This tension helps to establish what the director may have been trying to convey: during times of stress and tension, one must decide if power is more important trust.
The extract opens with a woman sitting in a dimly lit room as a man walks in. The lighting in the room sets up the mood to be serious and mysterious. The only natural light is coming from small barred windows and the other light is coming from artificial locations such as the lamp or ceiling lights. The lack of natural light helps to create a feeling of being trapped and not being free. The man looks at the woman and the camera zooms in on her face, he then looks at a surveillance camera in the corner of the room and the camera zooms in on the camera. The use of zoom in the extract helps to point out certain details in the location. The zoom of the woman's face may imply that the man and woman have a relationship with each other. The zoom of the camera implies that the man and woman are being watched. For a short period of time the man and woman just look at eachother, there is no dialogue between them, only the diegetic sounds of breathing and some low background music. The lack of communication between the two characters helps to create the tension between them. We then witness a cutaway to what looks like an office where two people are silently watching the man and the woman on a small TV. The camera cuts back to the interrogation room and the camera zooms in on a clock after the woman sitting looks at it, implying that she is running out of time for something. Something that becomes repetitive in the extract is that prior to each time the camera zooms in on something, there is an eyeline match between the character and the object that has been zoomed in on. The main male character had an eyeline match with the camera and the woman had an eyeline match with the clock. The purpose of using an eyeline match edit may have been to show that those objects that are being zoomed in on have a relationship with the character that looked at them, this helps to create more mystery and suspense within the scene.
After looking at the clock, the woman sitting then says something to the man. This is the first time that dialogue is spoken in the film. With this dialogue, it becomes apparent that the two characters don’t like each other. The man doesn’t trust the woman enough to take her to the destination that she requested to go to. The dialogue in this scene is extremely important to what the director is trying to convey. The dialogue explains that in order for the woman to stop a bomb from going off, the man interrogating her must trust her enough to allow her to go to the location she requested. This perfectly shows the theme of having to trust one in order to get an answer to a problem. In this scene, the acting of the characters really shines through. The man becomes very angry and frustrated with the woman he is interrogating and he eventually flips the desk over to try and intimidate the woman. This shows an obvious power struggle between the two characters. The woman does a great job staying in character and still being serious but also being smug at the same time. The male character’s frustrated and frantic attitude paired with female characters calm and in control attitude helps the audience understand why there may be a trust barrier between the two and it also adds to the tension of the scene. Another thing that is noticed in this scene is that during many points of dialogue, a close up of the actors face is shown when they speak. The use of this close up helps to create more suspense and traction between the characters as they speak. The close up only puts those two faces on the camera that creates a feeling of tightness which may connect to the tightness that the two characters fell towards each other.
Moving on into the extract, tensions begin to rise as the man and the woman continue to argue. Another cutaway happens and we see the same people watching the man and woman in the interrogation room. This cutaway is important because it shows that the man and woman are being watched by someone else and it implies that the man is not totally free to do what he wants to get the information out of the woman. After the cutaway, the woman being interrogated tells that man that he must follow her lead. After she says this, there is a long moment of silence where the camera switches back and forth between the man and the woman. This shot reverse shot effect helped to establish the tension between the two characters' struggle for power. This struggle for power was made even more evident when the man suddenly pushed the woman against a wall and began to choke her. This action shows the man's rage building up as he tries to gain his power stance with the woman. Incidental music is played during this scene which builds the tension in the scene and between the characters. The scene then creates a split screen effect between the people in the office from the cutaway and the man and woman in the interrogation room. This was a very interesting effect that was used because it showed why the man looked at the camera in the beginning and why the people in the cutaway were watching the interrogation room. This cutaway also adds to some of the stress that the audience feels. Watching the man choke the woman in the interrogation room as the office workers run to stop him will help to keep the audience at the edge of their seat. The extract ends with the characters from the cutaway breaking into the interrogation room and stopping the man from choking the woman.
The theme of the extract is that in times of stress of and tension, one must decide if power is more important than trust. The different editing and filming techniques along with the different uses of sound and the mise en scene helps to create the tension between the characters. This tension is increased as the audience begins to notice the lack of trust and the power struggle that is between the woman and the man in the interrogation room. The real conflict of the extract goes to the man who is interrogating, he must decide if he should trust the woman and give her power or if he should keep his power stance and not trust the woman. The dialogue, cutaways, and acting helps to create a clash between the characters. The uses of dim lighting, zooms, close ups, and eyeline matches all help to increase the growing tension in the scenes. The incidental music and split screen creates a serious and mysterious tone for the extract that keeps the audience at the edge of their seat. Altogether, the different filming and editing techniques allow interesting drama that keeps the audience guessing.
