TEA Essay

I watched an exert from the show 24. The excerpt, to me was about a traitor to a country named Nina, and an agent by the name of Jack. Jack goes to question Nina and quickly gets frustrated, causing him to (attempt to) get physical. I believe that the director is trying to create a suspenseful production, and possibly an action genre.

            The first scene begins with a close up that shows both Jack and Nina’s faces. This is used in order to portray the characters’ emotions for the audience to better read. This allows the audience to analyze the characters and how they are feeling about each other basically from the get-go. Next, an eye-line match showing Jack eyeing the cameras is used to demonstrate Jack acknowledging the cameras as well as his observers. This again gives the audience the impression that he is fairly cautious as a character and person. After this, diegetic sound is used to show the sound of certain objects. It is used to create a sort of intensity and sharpness to the production which goes hand in hand with it being somewhere in the action genre. Next, the monitor room setting so other people can monitor Jack and Nina is used to contrast settings and have people to intervene for when Jack gets angry. This creates suspense because the people in the room are just watching, making the viewer believe that they are almost waiting for something to happen. After this, dialogue is used to illustrate conversation between characters. This dialogue enhances the plot and leaves the audience intrigued like the director planned to. Last, the desk is used as a prop and allows Nina a place to sit. This prop acts as something that is wrecked to illustrate Jack’s anger. This is common in action films, because there is usually a lot of destruction. All of these things contribute to the spread of the director’s message.

            In the second scene, things start to escalate after Jack gets angry at Nina. This scene starts off with a split screen used to show two events occurring at once. This is used to provide more contrast when it comes to how the different characters are reacting to Jack’s anger. It gives the audience the memo that a lot is occurring, similar to how it is in other productions in the action genre. After this, an over the shoulder shot showing the agent’s perspective is used. This is used to show hoe Nina and Jack behave and what is going on in that room from another perspective. These aspects also contribute to the director’s message and genre as well.

            To sum it up, the camera shots and movement, sound, editing, and mis en scene used all contribute to the message of the director and the genre of the production. Throughout the excerpt common conventions seen in the action genre are used and when  closely analyzed, certain details used aloe the director to convey their message to the audience.