Analysis of the teaser trailer "Taken" focusing on location

Taken Directed by Pierre Morel

Analysis of Taken, focusing on locations

The film starts in a pleasant location, this is indicated by the code of clothing of the girl in the first shot and the mise-en-scene such as the vase of flowers and the music played along with these shots. By the second shot it is evident that they are in a restaurant with the man in the shot having a drink and some of the other extra characters in the scene. The restaurant seems light and airy this is enhanced by the calm, warm colours used such as pinks, light browns and creams. 

In the restaurant a conversation takes place about going on holiday to Paris, the father says no and the daughter ends up storming off.

The next location is a house/ residential area, this is portrayed as a nice area, clean and bright with lots of whites and cream colours used. We can tell this by the one shot here. The father has gone to apologise to his daughter, the girl who stormed off. There is then a shot of her showing the inside of the house, showing it to be nice inside. The typical suburban area resembling Deperate Housewives shown in the next picture down. There is only two shots here of the suburb.

Then it goes on to show the father waving his daugther off at the airport.

There are 4 shots at the airport and it is evident that it is an airport due to the mise en scene. The security, metal detector can be seen on the far left. Also there are other people who are waving other passengers off, and the sheer volume of people in the place also indicate it to be an airport.

Here the girls are now in a apartment in what we presume is a different country due to the airport scene. Here one of the girls appears to be having fun whilst the other has her hands over her ears, not having the same idea as the other one had. 

It then cuts back to the house once more showing the events that lead to being at the airport and in the other apartment. Over the scenes of the airport and apartment, there is a sound bridge of the father talking to the girl from when she was at the house and him at the door.

 Up until now everything had been safe, shown by the editing, with a smooth fade to black effect on every shot, indicating everything to be calm. The next transition is a flash which makes people un-nerved.

Now the shots are back in house/apartment the editing style has change, the mood has changed. It is now less innocent and more sinister. The editing speed increases eventhough they are in the same location, there is a series shots with, flashes to white inbetween. This gives the impression of losing control and panic.

Here the daughter is on the phone to her dad.
 

The location changes to where the dad is, the code of expression shows his face to be worried. Then quickly it cuts back to the apartment and the girls friend in then kidnapped.

The flashing editing style continues in the scene in the apartment as the girl herself is then taken.

It then cuts back to father on the phone. 

Here the pace picks up further to portray the action of the father looking for his daughter. The locations are nothing out of the ordinary, they could be anywhere appropriate. On a street, it is the action that is important.

Through out this part there is a sound bridge as it keeps cutting back to father on the phone.



It is actions shots like this which need specific location, a bridge. There are very few of these in the trailer, for exmaple here it isn't evident which country he is in as it isn't a specific land mark.


The rest of the trailer is full of many action shots less than a second, the viewer only gets a glimpse of these, this makes them intrigued as to what it is about and overall a memorable trailer, which is the aim of the advertising campaign.

In this trailer there is both music and speech. The music adds a slight sinister edge to it. But the main sound is both diegetic and non-diegetic, with the father talking on the phone and then his voice becoming a sound bridge and almost a narration for the duration of the trailer. This narration is a substitute for the copy or titles often used. This film trailer was most probably filmed when the movie had finished due to the extensive range and variety of shots.