Monday, 6 October 2014

Mission Impossible opening sequence analasis


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.

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