Chase Sequence Analysis

The filmakers use various techniques to maintain the atmosphere and feeling of suspense. The editing, music and camera shots all provide different aspects to the momentum, and how the chase scene maintains the audience's interest. They keep the music up tempo, the actors never stop moving and they tend to keep to a higher level, rather than the chase taking place completely on the ground level.

At the beginning there is a number of close-up and and reaction shots, so you can quite clearly see the actors expression before the vehicle drives in to the fence, and after when the man shoots at him. There's both diegetic and non-diegetic sound, the non being the incidental music which is used well for adding suspense to the scene. The diegetic sound is the sound effects, such as when the vehicle crashes into the fence, the gun shots at the beginning etc.

There is a whip pan when the guy jumps on to the structure, and also what could be called a low angle shot when the camera is underneath him as he jumps and then begins to climb. There are a lot of birds eye shots when the 2 of them are jumping on different objects and when they're standing on the crane, to maybe show the audience just how 'high up' the characters really are, to add to the excitement of the scene. There is also another low angle shot at 1:06 - 1:09 when the man jumps off the structure; it shows how far he has to jump and how close he is to falling off, which again obviously adds to the suspense of the clip.

There are a lot of long shots as well, when the 2 are chasing each other, to get an idea of where they are, especially when standing on a higher level during the scene. A following shot is used towards the end (4:34 - 4:37) when the camera follows the mans legs as he runs around the corner. Reaction and closeups are used in the stand off from 2:14, and an arc shot is used at 2:00, for the camera to circle around the 2 of them on the crane.

When the actors are above ground on the crane, helicopter/crane shots are used, as well as a racking shot. The birds eye view shot when looking down on them is effective, and could be called an establishing and an extreme long shot to because in some bits you can see their bodies, but the distance beneath them as; it shows just how high up they are, and how thin the structure they're standing on is.

However, at 4:32 - 4:35 especially, although no specific editing styles are used, the way the camera films it from the angle ensures that it looks effective, especially when the car drives past and the scene changes to the other man running again. When the car drives past and the scene goes on to the other man again, this could be seen a whip pan. Although they are both in the same place, the shot still adds tension. The sound of cars racing past (diegetic sound) are also probably emphasised so you can hear when they rush past, giving the audience a taster of what the characters can hear as they run.

Continuity Edit Example