Mission Impossible
The first shot that is seen in the opening scene is an
establishing shot. The shot is an aerial shot of the Grand Canyon and is
designed to give the viewer a sense of where the film is set. There is also
non-diegetic sound of wind rushing through the canyon this gives the impression
that there are not many people around and that this is a hostile environment.
There is then a zooming shot of the main character on the
side of the canyon, he looks calm and in control. There is then the slow
introduction of non-diegetic music showing that this character is important. There
are then a couple of aerial shots showing the character climbing the side of
the canyon and some diegetic sound of him breathing.
The character then stops climbing and locks his leg in a gap
and leaning back, this shows he is not afraid is confident in what he is doing.
There is then a non-diegetic eagle noise signifying how high up the character
is and showing that he is in America due to the fact that the national animal
of America is the eagle.
There is a close up shot of the characters hand griping a
rock covered in powder, the powder is used to grip this shows that the
character knows what he is doing and is confident in doing it. The music also
gets louder and more is added to it, it is at this point that it becomes
contrapuntal because it sounds like holiday music and this contradicts the danger
of the situation that he is in.
The camera then zooms out showing how small the character is
in comparison to the environment. Then goes to a point of view shot that is in
the middle of a shot reverse shot to show how high the character is and his
reaction to seeing it.
The character then jumps from the ledge that he was on to
the ledge opposite. The non-diegetic sound of music then gets reverted back to
just its beat to show the danger of the situation and create tension. The shot
is also slowed down to heighten the tension and the sped back up to relieve it.
The character then slips and the shots move quickly between each other to try
and show the heightened danger.
The character then grips on with one hand as the shot goes
from a close up of his face to a mid shot. The music the returns to normal as
the character swings around and grips with the other hand. The position that
the character then finds him in compares him to Jesus. The fact that the
character is compared to Jesus then shows that he is important and that he will
be the character that saves the world or completes the mission.
There’s then a close up of the characters face to appeal to
the female audience, this is because the movie is mostly action and this
doesn’t appeal to the large female demographic so adding an attractive actor
makes more females likely to see the film.
There is then a panning shot that goes all the way round the
character to show how high the character has climbed. This turns into an areal
shot that circles the character and towards the end there is diegetic sound of
a helicopter.
The character then sees the helicopter with a point of view
shot and as it turns sideways it reveals a man in a black suit, this is
commonly used to portray a secret agent. The secret agent then fires a missile this
increases the tension. The character then smiles and approaches the missile
making the tension fade. The missile opens revealing sunglasses.
As the character puts them on there is a close up of his
face. This then goes into a point of view shot as a typical British accent
begins talking. The sunglasses show that the character is cool and calm. When
the British person stops talking the sunglasses say they will explode in five
seconds. The character calmly takes them off and throws them, as they explode
they turn into a CGI intro screen with the mission impossible music playing
behind.
