In this sequence from ‘Drive’, the driver is driving away from a
bank heist and is trying to get away from the police without getting caught by
the police, and successfully gets the money to the destination. He has two
other people in the back that robbed the bank and he is the driver that has to
drive them to safety. In the end the driver successfully drives them all to
safety and he gets his share money in the end.
At the beginning of the sequence, there is a key mise en scene to
tell a good description of what the character is going to be the driver (which
is also the main character’s name isn’t mentioned throughout the film and is
just called the driver) sitting waiting for the other two characters, he sees a
shadow in the car side mirror but he doesn't react to it that much and just
looks over his shoulder to see who it is. This shows that even though they are
robbing a bank, he is still very calm and is very care free, but could also
make the audience feel suspense as well, because they will want to know who
this object is, and they only got a shadow in the reflection. This section of
the scene has a lot of key conventions of noir films, because it is set in a
dark area of the city, it is also uses low-key lighting as well to show it is
going to be a dark, this is similar to ‘Batman Begins’, the main character
lives in a very corrupt city/area and is always hard boiled and doesn’t like to
get into anyone’s business, keeping himself quiet .This also shows that he has
committed this a lot of other times and is used to it now. But this scene
creates suspense, when he is driving down the road, the camera points at
him turning round the corner of the road. Also its easy to commit crimes if it
looks like he has done it before and doesn’t quite care he is committing a
crime, showing that the area is very corrupt, a convention used in a lot of
noir films today. This creates suspense, because only the character knows what
is round that corner and the audience will have to wait for the camera to
turn around and wait to show what it is. When the driver starts to drive
because the other two characters that just robbed the building are in the car
now, they start to drive slowly behind a police car. Even though they are
trying to get away from the police, he decides to drive right behind the police
without getting caught as well. This shows that he is very careful and knows
what he is doing, and knows what the best way of escaping is, it also shows
that he is a good driver to be able to know when the right time to sneak behind
the police car and when to leave without looking too suspicious. This raises
suspense and tension, because the audience wants the driver to escape without
getting caught, but he is very close to the police and can easily get caught,
so the audience don't know when the police might turn around and arrest the driver
and the other two characters in the back seat. When they are on the bridge they
are driving normally like all the other cars that would have normal citizens
in, but there is a helicopter with a spotlight trying to find the criminals. It
is shining its light at a lot of different cars but then finally stops it on
their car, the driver then starts to drive a lot quicker now because the police
might think it is them who stole the money. This shows that police have found
them and under pressure, the driver still can drive very well and tries his
hardest to try and escape from the helicopter without getting caught, and
eventually is able to escape it. This also shows that he is a skilled driver
and has been doing this a while because even though there was a helicopter
right above him, he still managed to escape from the helicopter. This also
create suspense with the audience because they don't know if he will escape
now, a helicopter is a lot harder to escape than a police car and he might get
caught now. Also when the driver was waiting at the road because there was a
red light, there was a police car just opposite him, and they could hear on his
radio that the police car was talking about them and could be a suspect. After
this was mentioned both vehicles were still waiting for the light to go green.
The traffic light was a key use of mise en scene because it shows that even
though both the Driver and the police officer had a lot of power, the traffic
light had the most power and kept them both waiting until it was green. This
will cause suspense for the audience, because they will want to see what the
characters will do, getting excited and can’t wait until the traffic light
turns green. They are located in the night of a big city in America. They seem
to be in a very rough area of the city and a place where there are a lot of
crimes committed in and low-key lighting. This is a typical convention of noir
films, set in dark cities with a lot of low-key lighting making it look
mysterious. This could make the audience feel tensed up and will suspect
something bad to happen to them because they are in a rough area, waiting for
action and what will happen to the characters in the car.
As well as using different pieces of mise en scene which gave me
an idea of what the rest of the film is going to be about, there was also
a lot of editing in this sequence as well, this is because they wanted to
use this to their benefit. Because it is a car chase, it is already exciting
for the audience, so because they keep changing it to different angles, it gets
the audience even more excited and enjoy the sequence even more. because it
keeps switching, the audience expect something different every time, but most
of the time it is the same and the audience get tensed up waiting for something
different building up the suspense. Also they used cuts to the other
characters, which had just robbed the bank, to show their faces and their
emotions at that moment in the sequence. The audience might feel that they want
to know what they are looking at to make the characters feel like that, and
this might cause suspense within the audience. Near the beginning of the
scene, it cuts to the front of the car perspective, showing what it looks like for
the front of the car. The film did this to try and get the audience tensed
because they know something might happen now, because it cut to that particular
angle and it also shows how well the driver is at driving and calm even though
he is being chased by the police at that moment. This is another convention of
noir films because it shows that the driver is very calm all the way through it
and doesn’t care, like most main characters in noir films. When the driver is
driving at the normal speed over the bridge, and the police helicopter spots
him, the camera cuts to him at a mid-shot of his waits upwards. This was done
to try and show what his reaction to it and how quickly he will take action,
driving a lot quicker now and showing that he is an expert at driving. This is
done in a lot of action films today and is one of their main conventions. For example,
in the expendables there is a lot of action, gun fire and fighting. But normally
if one of the characters are going to shoot their weapon, the camera switches
to them just before to show their reaction and expression to show the audience what
they are doing. This will make the audience feel tension as they know that he
is going to do something exciting and the audience will want to see how he will
take action. Also, every now and again, they had diegetic sound of the radio to
get louder, and then quieter. This might because they want to try and have the
audience to listen to the more important bits of information on the radio. It was
a baseball game, and the driver was using it to know when the game is over, so
they can successfully get away without being caught. This could get the
audience tense because of the radio, because they might be wondering throughout
the whole scene, why is that radio important? I also wondered why it was
important as well and understood until the scene was finished, trying to make
us solve it before it happened and only telling us at the end.
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