Prisoners Clip-Cinematography Analysis

Prisoners clip- Cinematography Analysis

In the beginning of the clip instantly we get a contrast between lights, we get a nice bright light in the background whist we get low key lighting in the foreground, this implies that the background is a safe place where nobody could possibly get hurt or injured on the other hand the outside/ in the background is a dangerous place and someone could be in danger. The use of rain further amplifies that the outside is an unsafe place.

In the next shot we get a medium long shot of a man eating inside a building, the use of three-point lighting in this scene creates the impression that the character we are looking at is the main good guy/ the hero of this film. His clothes also suggest that he is just an ordinary working-class middle-aged man which could be important because he could be hiding his true identity. The use of diegetic sound in this scene such as the rain and the dialogue between the main character and the waitress, adds a sense of realism into the scene and shows the audience that this movie should be taken seriously.

In the clip we get a cut just after the main characters phone goes off then he goes straight into his car, the use of this cut symbolises that whatever was on his phone was really important and needed to be brought to attention quickly, this creates a mysterious atmosphere to the clip.

Later on, in the clip we get a shot of a man in a car that fades out its field of depth and it contains low key lighting the use of this implies that this is the main bad guy/villain. The fact he is waiting in the car creates the suspicion he is waiting on someone or something and he is up to no good.

After the clip of the guy waiting in the car, we get a shot of the main character pulling up to the suspected criminals car/van this creates an atmosphere of sympathy/distress for the main character because he is putting himself to experience the unknown.

The entire sequence of shots uses either low-key lighting or one source of light, this gives the effect that something bad is about to happen or something is about to occur which is unusual and not anything the main character has experienced.

After this we get a POV (point of view) shot of both the suspects wing mirrors, the fact he keeps looking at the wing mirrors show that he is scared/nervous of the situation he is in and shows us he’s about to make an important decision.

In the shot after this we get the suspects decision which showed by the use of a tracking shot, the criminal’s decision is to try and drive away from the police, he then crashes his car into a tree trying to end his life, this shows the audience that he has something to hide and that he is being a coward.

We then get a shot of the van smashed up against a tree, the van seems to be smoking a lot which could symbolises death and a passing of a person in different genres of films.

The next shot is the main character checking out the van to see that the suspect has gone and is not in the driver’s seat anymore, he then searches the van to see if the suspect is in there, this could be described as the solution to this scene of events. The main character finally says what the suspect has done when he says, “where are the girls”. This is when the action starts to decline, and the drama has been resolved.

There was a lot of uses of mise-en-scene and cinematography throughout the clip the uses of these techniques created a creepy/sinister setting to the clip and added the emotion of suspense because it waited right to the end of the clip, also the clip showed the emotion of the bad person. In the clip and it shows us how they react to situations which is not what a lot of these types of films do also the director made you waited to the end to tell you what the suspect had actually done. the end of the clip kind of left us at a cliff-hanger because we don’t know if the guy they took was the right guy after all.