Action and Adventure Analysis: Taken (2008)

The extract I watched was from Taken (2008) which starts off with just a few men talking, however after a few seconds it is evident that this is a hybrid genre of Action/Adventure from the use of combat and conflict.

Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) expertly takes out two men with a knife before killing two more with a pistol he got from a dead body. This scene is very typical of the Action/Adventure genre as there is a lot of danger and risk to what Mills is doing, as he could very easily be shot. This creates a lot of suspense, but only briefly as the audience realise that he is very capable of dispatching the enemies. However, there is still a lot of jeopardy as there are more men coming to try and kill him. He is vastly outnumbered and this again creates suspense.

Bryan Mills is a typical hero of an Action/Adventure film, although he does not always abide by the law. He will always be able to fight his way out of dangerous situations and has the courage to face many enemies alone. He always works alone and gets the job done, even if he doesn't want to.

The audience's heart is racing from the moment Bryan Mills finds out the place he has entered is owned by the people he is trying to fight against and from then on the audience is sent on a thrill ride of Action as the henchmen keep coming out and being killed by Mills.

09/10/13 PLANNING: LOCATIONS

Today we continued our discussion about where we could film. After settling on St Pancras and Paddington, Tom came up with the idea we use either the Bluebell railway or the watercress line. He remembers visiting those and how they run old fashion trains on the lines. This means we wouldn't have to worry about seeing new trains when our piece is set in the 1940s.

Watercress line

09/10/13 RESEARCH: FILM NOIR BOOKS

We skimmed through these books to give us inspiration about what we would do.

• Low key, black and white visual style
• roots in German expressionist cinematography 
• derives from crime fiction of United States during the Great Depression.
• central figure is often a private eye (The Big Sleep 1946)
• a plainclothes policeman (The Big Heat)
• an aging boxer (The Set Up)
• a hapless grifter (Night and the City)
• a law abiding citizen lured into a life of crime (Gun Crazy)
• simply a victim of circumstance (D.O.A)
• gives pleasure by making us uncomfortable: anxiety, vulnerability and fright are all part of the thill
• women are all usually virgins or vamps
• film noir is a cultural phenomenon
• strong female characters who disturb the men's world
• has evolved in to Neo-Noir (Memento)
• characters faces often partly shadowed to create hidden threatening spaces
• often sleazy milieu of claustrophobic alleyways or deserted spaces alternating with gaudy nightclubs and swank apartments
• high contrast lighting

08/10/13 PLANING: TREATMENT AND LOCATIONS

To start today's lesson we  finished off writing our treatment, as when we thought we were finished, Mrs Mann critiqued it and told us how we could improve on it. We checked again to see if there was anything we missed, and there wasn't. We then moved on to thinking about where we might like to film our initial shot, in a train station. We had two main stations in mind: Paddington and St Pancreas. We thought the inside of St Pancras was too modern, but the outside was good and we thought the outside of Paddington didn't look as good as St Pancras, but the inside was exactly what we needed, so we ended up being that we will shoot the outside of St Pancras and the inside station of Paddington.

Paddington station

St Pancras

08/10/13 PLANNING: TREATMENT

Film Noir Treatment

Kate Bradford, Thomas Stevens, George Flack, Charlie Myers

The film opens with a CU of a hand wrapping a package of a box wrapped in brown paper tied with frayed string.

Cut to the outside of ST PANCRAS STATION of a YOUNG WOMAN. She wears an iridescent tan trench coat tied at the waist with her hair tightly crimped into a bun. Cut to the inside of PADDINGTON STATION. A train departs from the station; signaling this by the WHISTLE and HORN of the train. There after the young woman walks along the platform of the station with a small tan leather handbag hanging from her right hand, carrying a package covered in brown paper with white string tied around in her other hand. The CLIP-CLOP of the young woman’s HEELS is heard. News of a murder is depicted.

A SUSPICIOUS LOOKING YOUNG MAN walks behind the young woman. He wears a light tan trench coat with a dark coloured fedora on his head. The young woman drops the parcel from her left hand and falls on the ground. The young man picks up the parcel off the ground of the station.

Cut away shot to THREE MIDDLE AGED MEN wearing dark trench coats and fawn coloured fedoras acting furtively. One of the men throws a cigarette butt onto the ground and stamps his foot on it to put it out.

The young woman walks out of the station with the man following behind her. She approaches a vintage car parked outside the station; she gets into the car with help of the DRIVER who opens the door for her. The woman notices that the driver isn’t her normal driver and asks where her usual driver is, followed by the CAR DOORS LOCKING.

Next, the THREE MIDDLE AGED MEN are seen discussing a newsworthy, debatable topic. While discussing, the three men are pushing around a picture of the young woman seen earlier in the opening and portray a reflection of mysteriousness amongst them.  It then pans back to the young woman in the back seat of the car. Followed by the loud sound of a GUN SHOT.