Roberta Leary

Textual Analysis- Taken

The frame starts pitch black and typography (opening credits) slide into the shot. The font is in capitals and is out of focus which gives it an eerie sense. Each sentence moves in from a different side of the frame and is followed by another piece of text. This suggests that there is going to be some sort of a chase in the film. The shot is in dead silence which adds to the complete chill.
The scene cuts to a child’s birthday party. The effect given is that of an amateur home video from a while ago, we can tell this from the way they are dressed and the mise-en-scene of their surroundings. The vision is blurry and is not as clear as the new technology we have these days. There is non-diegetic orchestral, slow, spooky music playing in the background and a sound bridge of children laughing makes it appear disturbing. The children laughing sounds like an echo which could suggest a distant memory.
The footage of the child’s birthday party continues to play with all the props in the shot to give us that impression such as, party hats, the cake and the ‘5’ candle. The spooky typography continues to flicker on the screen beside the footage. We are very quickly lead to believe that the little girl is the main character and the focus of the film as most of the filming is focused just upon her. As the video plays, the piano non-diegetic music becomes increasingly louder to emphasise the fact that the scene will be changing and something new is going to happen. The music is slow and dreary and gives us a sense of sadness. As her cake is brought towards her, the camera flickers and stretches her face it makes her appear distorted. The video appears to be fast forwarded which is an example of continuity editing. The distortion makes the video appear to be a bad memory and the music continues to drone on.
As the girl blows out of her candles, the frame flashes to white and then fades open to a different scene of a newly awoken, middle aged man. This links the man to the footage of the child’s birthday party. It could either be a memory or what he had been dreaming. He appears to be confused and looks around as a precaution. It is dim lit with low key lighting. The mise-en-scene of the apartment is dull, spaced out, modern and lonely. There are two Chinese food cartons on the table that gives us an image of the man. He may live alone and orders fast food for himself. The piano music plays continuously throughout. It is droning on and gives a depressing feel, this impacts the fact he is alone. The man fell asleep clutching a picture of a teenage girl. This could be a link back to the home footage or part of a dream. The typography fades away. There is an extreme close up of some instructions that he is scanning. The close up insists that the object or person is of some importance to the film or scene.
The non-diegetic music stops with an echo for effect as he switches the lamp on to fill the room with high key lighting. As he stands up there is an over the shoulder shot of the picture in a frame in which the man was holding as he slept. The picture of a teenager is revealed and beside the shot is the word ‘Taken’ in the same font as the other typography, but slightly bigger and more spaced out. This is the name of the film and the effect of the typography next to the picture has a huge relevance to the main story line.