Crank Movie Opening Scene Micro Analysis

Crank made in 2006 had the main star as Jason Stratham, which in the film he is called Chev. Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine directed it.

The opening scene begins with the diegetic sound of a characters heartbeat. Instantly the audience realizes that something is wrong and the camera is shot in p.o.v. He is shown looking down on the floor of an apartment and his eyes are flickering. The use of the information that his eyes are flickering and the sound of his heartbeat establish that something has happened to his body and he is also breathing heavily.

He suddenly begins to walk around fast and frantically. A screeching sound enters the scene, which is unidentifiable to whether it is diegetic or non- diegetic, this adds to tension of the scene to what is happening to him. He looks at his hands and realizes they are red and soar so he rushes them over a sink to cool them, which implies that he is panicking.

The mise en scene shows expensive lighting and well furnished tables, which conveys who ever the apartment belongs to, is very rich. The reason why it has been edited in this way is so you don’t know what happened to him is to create mystery and suspense to the audience.

First Scene Micro Analysis

Are character walks over to a wide screen plasma television and in front of it there is a plain DVD not in a case saying ‘ FUCK YOU’ on the front and the screeching sound intensifies.

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This suggests that the DVD will be useful in explaining more. He picks it up and puts it in the DVD player and the screeching stops to be replaced by a low-pitch drumming sound. The P.O.V shot is now of the television screen which shows a wealthy looking young Hispanic man (called Ricky Verona) who explains that he has injected our character (main character Chev) with some Chinese poison for assassinating a wanted Chinese man called Don Kim. He explains that the poison will slow down his adrenaline and that he has an hour max to live.

The camera changes to a head-on-close up of the main character Chev with an irate face. The audience has now established that it is Chev who has been injected with the poison. A non-diegetic sound of a slow paced guitar enters the scene, which gradually increases, to a fast pace rock song. The rock music is used to convey how enraged Chev is. The camera changes to a mid-shot of Chev picking up the television and smashing it, he then stomps on the screen with his foot to demolish it. He is breathing even more heavily now to build up more tension. There is also not much editing done to add to the tension and so the audience stays engaged.

Chev runs for his life out of the apartment and picks up his mobile phone to see one missed call, which infers to the audience that the screeching sound was the diegetic sound of his mobile. He carries on running through the building with just the sound of the rock music. He then reaches the car park where he gets into his car, here we here the roaring sound of his engine to convey his anger.

He drives out fast into a busy road and the non-diegetic sound slows down to a drumbeat. The camera is shot in a mid-shot showing Chev on the phone in his car window. He tries to call his girlfriend but she’s not there so he leaves a message telling her to call him. He then tries to call his doctor however he has to leave a message with a secretary saying that if he doesn’t get the doctors help within the next hour he will die. The music changes to some up beat hip hop music and the scene cuts to the doctor having a massage in a mid-shot. Then it cuts to a panning shot of a signpost saying ‘Las Vegas Nevada’ establishing where the doctor is. The effect of changing the music is used to show the contrast between Chev’s situation and the doctors. The scene changes back to Chev in his car except the camera is shot in a front view shot of his car. The audience can now observe that there is a hot climate and the roads are busy because you can hear the diegetic sound of cars blowing their horns. This has been done so the audience can now establish Chev’s surroundings of a very busy, hectic day. The diegetic sound of his heartbeat enters the scene again and he begins to look faint. All of a sudden he puts his foot down on the gas and the fast paced rock music comes in again. The reason for this is to play with the audience’s emotions, one minute it seems as though he has become too weak but then all of a sudden he gets his strength back.