Hostage (2005)

It starts with an establishing shot of a city. Dull colours at used to give off this deathly feeling. Everything is in black and white except the sky which is blood red, which leads us to assume that there are going to be bloody scenes, setting a dark, mysterious tone. The white bold letters stand out from the dull background.

Instead of having the words anywhere they follow simple lines of normal things you would find in a city. This is a telephone wire and the writing appears on the side of it. The writing doesn’t fade in or anything; it is stuck on the side of buildings to give the impression it has been painted on. The camera pans up slowly which creates this a creepy mysterious tone along with the tense music.

In this scene there is a police investigation going on, showing that criminals is going to be a big part of the film. The dark alleys add this uneasy, unwanted feeling and the dark figures sort of blend in to the background whilst also representing secrecy.

This image of someone holding a gun automatically makes the audience think that there is a victim or a criminal. It’s hard to say at this point what the plot is but the subtle hints allow us to make connections to the story and characters. The darkness of the characters connotes evil and no purity. The camera pans up along the gun so we can see the size and emphasises the power of it.

The close up shot of this man using the camera also implies that someone is being tracked. The camera changes and movement is very careful and subtle which could mirror how investigations need to be made with precision. The music changes in this shot, from being quite quiet and mysterious, then it swaps to being tense and fast pace, whilst also being very thrilling.