Coursework
Scene Analysis - Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
I have chosen the film Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and from the film I’ve chosen the scene where IMF Agent, Ethan Hunt, climbs up the Burj Khalifa. Below is what I could analyse, depict and connote from aspects of the scene such as mise-en-scene and cinematography.
Cinematography
There are many different types of camera shots and angles in this scene which all have useful meanings behind them. The first shot is an establishing shot of the Dubai scenery from the window of the building. The first thing this shot does is show where they are for the scene, it also shows how high up they are, which creates a feeling of anxiety for the IMF agent. The camera then pans to the right showing his gloves sticking to the glass, this is shown with a high angle to show his vulnerability as it exaggerates his size and how high up on the building he is.
The camera goes back to inside the room and cranes down from a view of Hunt climbing up the building from the inside to a machine and focuses from another IMF agent, William Brandt, to this machine. As the focus change in the same shot, this makes it a rack focus and it’s significant as it reveals the machine might be have relevance later on in the film.
There’s then a medium shot of Brandt’s face portraying a confused expression, which then cuts to a shot of the side of Ethan’s face reflected in the window with him holding the same confused expression, there’s a rack focus again from the reflection of his face to a reflection of a sandstorm in the background which is still far away. The fact that the sandstorm is only slightly shown hints some significance to it but that it’s not important right now.
Once Ethan gets inside the building and hacks into the building’s system, he is told he has to climb back down the building but he no longer has the gloves he used to get up, he stands there thinking and a rack focus is used again from his face to some rope near him, this kind of focus is effective in visually displaying his thoughts because going from his face to the rope shows that he’s thought of a way on how to get back to the original floor. A rack focus was done not to just show his thoughts but his intelligence as he’s able to think on the spot when needed.
As Hunt climbs down the building, there’s an extreme long shot which tilts down as he’s running, this camera movement is fast compared to the other shots, as a majority of the other shots in this scene are quite still and creates a sense of rush and agitation. That shot is followed along with an extremely low angled shot which tilts about 180° into a very high angle. This movement of the camera again shows this rush and a build-up of tension is created through this as it keeps you on edge because you just want to know if he makes it back to the room in time.
The agent is then faced with having to jump from where he is on the building through the window and back to their room. When he jumps there is a low angle of him, it’s strange that a low angle is used as usually a high angle makes someone smaller but the way this angle was shot makes Ethan look smaller and vulnerable. The reality of what he’s doing is shown again. This low angle is quickly switched to a high angle from behind Ethan and it shows him hitting his head and not getting through the window. As he’s about to fall another agent who is inside grabs his leg and an extreme close-up of a female agent grabbing the other agents trousers is shown and then another extreme close-up of her grabbing a rug on the floor is displayed. This is still fast paced, keeping this sense of rush and anxiety in the scene. One of the last shots in this scene has a dutch angle, dutch angles are used for dramatic effect to help portray unease and disorientation and this is exactly what it does. It shows Hunt in a very dangerous position as he could easily fall and die and justs puts emphasis on the true danger of what he was doing.
Mise-en-Scene
The mise-en-scene in this scene is quite bright compared to the rest of the film as it’s set in daylight. The scene uses ambient/high-key lighting, this stands out because in the rest of the film there’s dull lighting with blue/green hues to them. The purpose of this scene having this kind of lighting is so it can clearly reflect the real vertigo of the situation as you need to see the distance of Hunt from where he is on the building to the ground-how high up he is but also how small he is against the building. Ambient/high-key lighting shows the scene in all its detail and without colour-specific alterations.
The setting of the scene is mostly focused outside with Ethan climbing up the well-known building, Burj Khalifa, in Dubai. The fact that it’s the Burj Khalifa emphasises points like the height of Hunt compared to the building as the Burj Khalifa is known to be the tallest building in the world, this creates a bigger sense of fear for Hunt as there’s a bigger concern for him on such a huge building trusting these two gloves to carry him up. The gloves are a key prop in the scene as they’re what he uses to climb up the building and when one of them fails to work whilst he’s still climbing up the building he takes it off and throws it away. When he goes through the window he breaks the other glove and the glove is clearly shown to the camera which is unknown why until we find out he has to climb back down the building to get back to the room.
The IMF agent wears all black which shows some sort of mystery and secrecy about him that bright colours wouldn’t be able to portray.
There’s a lot of high tech gadgets that they have around them/use which shows off who they are and that they are these sneaky agents and are able to trick people or do their missions by making the numbers of room doors change, open the window with a laser or even make masks with a machine. The gadgets are important as they continue to prove this point that these people are agents and they have all this equipment that you don’t see people use or have.
I have chosen the film Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and from the film I’ve chosen the scene where IMF Agent, Ethan Hunt, climbs up the Burj Khalifa. Below is what I could analyse, depict and connote from aspects of the scene such as mise-en-scene and cinematography.
Cinematography
There are many different types of camera shots and angles in this scene which all have useful meanings behind them. The first shot is an establishing shot of the Dubai scenery from the window of the building. The first thing this shot does is show where they are for the scene, it also shows how high up they are, which creates a feeling of anxiety for the IMF agent. The camera then pans to the right showing his gloves sticking to the glass, this is shown with a high angle to show his vulnerability as it exaggerates his size and how high up on the building he is.
The camera goes back to inside the room and cranes down from a view of Hunt climbing up the building from the inside to a machine and focuses from another IMF agent, William Brandt, to this machine. As the focus change in the same shot, this makes it a rack focus and it’s significant as it reveals the machine might be have relevance later on in the film.
There’s then a medium shot of Brandt’s face portraying a confused expression, which then cuts to a shot of the side of Ethan’s face reflected in the window with him holding the same confused expression, there’s a rack focus again from the reflection of his face to a reflection of a sandstorm in the background which is still far away. The fact that the sandstorm is only slightly shown hints some significance to it but that it’s not important right now.
Once Ethan gets inside the building and hacks into the building’s system, he is told he has to climb back down the building but he no longer has the gloves he used to get up, he stands there thinking and a rack focus is used again from his face to some rope near him, this kind of focus is effective in visually displaying his thoughts because going from his face to the rope shows that he’s thought of a way on how to get back to the original floor. A rack focus was done not to just show his thoughts but his intelligence as he’s able to think on the spot when needed.
As Hunt climbs down the building, there’s an extreme long shot which tilts down as he’s running, this camera movement is fast compared to the other shots, as a majority of the other shots in this scene are quite still and creates a sense of rush and agitation. That shot is followed along with an extremely low angled shot which tilts about 180° into a very high angle. This movement of the camera again shows this rush and a build-up of tension is created through this as it keeps you on edge because you just want to know if he makes it back to the room in time.
The agent is then faced with having to jump from where he is on the building through the window and back to their room. When he jumps there is a low angle of him, it’s strange that a low angle is used as usually a high angle makes someone smaller but the way this angle was shot makes Ethan look smaller and vulnerable. The reality of what he’s doing is shown again. This low angle is quickly switched to a high angle from behind Ethan and it shows him hitting his head and not getting through the window. As he’s about to fall another agent who is inside grabs his leg and an extreme close-up of a female agent grabbing the other agents trousers is shown and then another extreme close-up of her grabbing a rug on the floor is displayed. This is still fast paced, keeping this sense of rush and anxiety in the scene. One of the last shots in this scene has a dutch angle, dutch angles are used for dramatic effect to help portray unease and disorientation and this is exactly what it does. It shows Hunt in a very dangerous position as he could easily fall and die and justs puts emphasis on the true danger of what he was doing.
Mise-en-Scene
The mise-en-scene in this scene is quite bright compared to the rest of the film as it’s set in daylight. The scene uses ambient/high-key lighting, this stands out because in the rest of the film there’s dull lighting with blue/green hues to them. The purpose of this scene having this kind of lighting is so it can clearly reflect the real vertigo of the situation as you need to see the distance of Hunt from where he is on the building to the ground-how high up he is but also how small he is against the building. Ambient/high-key lighting shows the scene in all its detail and without colour-specific alterations.
The setting of the scene is mostly focused outside with Ethan climbing up the well-known building, Burj Khalifa, in Dubai. The fact that it’s the Burj Khalifa emphasises points like the height of Hunt compared to the building as the Burj Khalifa is known to be the tallest building in the world, this creates a bigger sense of fear for Hunt as there’s a bigger concern for him on such a huge building trusting these two gloves to carry him up. The gloves are a key prop in the scene as they’re what he uses to climb up the building and when one of them fails to work whilst he’s still climbing up the building he takes it off and throws it away. When he goes through the window he breaks the other glove and the glove is clearly shown to the camera which is unknown why until we find out he has to climb back down the building to get back to the room.
The IMF agent wears all black which shows some sort of mystery and secrecy about him that bright colours wouldn’t be able to portray.
There’s a lot of high tech gadgets that they have around them/use which shows off who they are and that they are these sneaky agents and are able to trick people or do their missions by making the numbers of room doors change, open the window with a laser or even make masks with a machine. The gadgets are important as they continue to prove this point that these people are agents and they have all this equipment that you don’t see people use or have.
‘Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol’ (2011)
Production
Paramount Pictures produced the fourth installment to the Mission: Impossible franchise. Paramount Pictures are based in Hollywood and are known for films such as: Titanic, Shrek, Forrest Gump and Iron Man.
The idea of the film came when the producers JJ Abrams and Bryan Burk got the idea of Dubai as a filming location when they visited to promote another movie of theirs; Star Trek.
A sequel to Ghost Protocol came out in 2015 but didn’t do as well as the 2011 film.
The genre for the film is described as Action, Adventure and Thriller.
The director is Brad Bird who is known for directing other films such as The Incredibles, Jurassic World and Tomorrowland. However, Tom Cruise who also plays the main character (Ethan Hunt) in the Mission: Impossible series, is one of the producers for the film and is known for producing the other Mission: Impossible films along with Top Gun, Oblivion and many more. In August 2009, Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec were hired to write the film’s screenplay.
Stars that filmed in the movie besides Tom Cruise were: Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and Paula Patton.
The film was filmed in Mumbai, Prague, Moscow, Dubai, Bangalore and Vancouver. The premiere was in London on December 13th, 2011 the film was then released in IMAX and other large-format cinemas in the U.S. on December 16th and the general release was a few days later on December 21st, 2011.
Distribution
The distributor for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol was ‘Paramount Pictures’ in the United Kingdom and in the United States. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital download on April 17, 2012.
The movie had an estimated budget of $145,000,000. The first teaser poster for the movie was actually a repurposing of a previously-released publicity shot, with Cruise staring at the camera with a hood drawn over his head. Random numbers appear like some sort of code around him and the familiar M:I fuse that’s burning down appears at the bottom. There were three other posters designed for promoting the film, one showing Cruise in the middle of climbing the tower that was shown in the first trailer and this one was specifically to sell for IMAX presentations. The third poster showed more of the cast with sparks around them in the middle of the sandstorm. And lastly the fourth poster designed for IMAX, yet again, was of the Burj Khalifa turned into a lit fuse that is associated with the Mission: Impossible franchise. There were two trailers, one showing that the Kremlin will be bombed and the IMF agents are going to be blamed for it and so the mission is shown as them finding out who really did it and them clearing their names. There’s also a glimpse of Tom Cruise scaling the Burj Khalifa. The second trailer shows a lot more action and throws the bombing of the Kremlin straight away. It also shows the teams boss is killed and so they are left to work together without him. There’s more humour, action and more detail included in this trailer compared to the first one.
Exhibition
The movie was premiered in Dubai, Texas and London and was then released in cinema in other countries. It was first shown on the 7th December 2011 at the Dubai International Film Festival, then on the 11th December in Texas at the Austin Butt-Numb-A-Thon (annual film festival in Austin, Texas). Then the actual premiere was in London, UK on the 13th December. The movie had an estimated budget of $145,000,000 and profited with an amount of $549,700,000 as it made $694,700,000 at the box office. There was a limited release of 425 locations in North America which made $12.8 million over its weekend. It then expanded to 3448 theaters on its sixth day and it reached #1 at the Box Office with $8.92 million. It received an approval rating of 94% and had an average rating of 7.7/10 which made it the best-reviewed entry of the franchise. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol was released on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download on April 12, 2012. The movie is available on Youtube and Google Play Movies & TV, it is also available on Amazon Prime and was available to watch on Netflix for 37 months from November 30 2013-November 30 2016. On Amazon Prime they show the IMDB ratings and reviews for the movie which shows majorly 5 stars and an average rating of 7.4/10.
Production
Paramount Pictures produced the fourth installment to the Mission: Impossible franchise. Paramount Pictures are based in Hollywood and are known for films such as: Titanic, Shrek, Forrest Gump and Iron Man.
The idea of the film came when the producers JJ Abrams and Bryan Burk got the idea of Dubai as a filming location when they visited to promote another movie of theirs; Star Trek.
A sequel to Ghost Protocol came out in 2015 but didn’t do as well as the 2011 film.
The genre for the film is described as Action, Adventure and Thriller.
The director is Brad Bird who is known for directing other films such as The Incredibles, Jurassic World and Tomorrowland. However, Tom Cruise who also plays the main character (Ethan Hunt) in the Mission: Impossible series, is one of the producers for the film and is known for producing the other Mission: Impossible films along with Top Gun, Oblivion and many more. In August 2009, Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec were hired to write the film’s screenplay.
Stars that filmed in the movie besides Tom Cruise were: Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and Paula Patton.
The film was filmed in Mumbai, Prague, Moscow, Dubai, Bangalore and Vancouver. The premiere was in London on December 13th, 2011 the film was then released in IMAX and other large-format cinemas in the U.S. on December 16th and the general release was a few days later on December 21st, 2011.
Distribution
The distributor for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol was ‘Paramount Pictures’ in the United Kingdom and in the United States. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol was released on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital download on April 17, 2012.
The movie had an estimated budget of $145,000,000. The first teaser poster for the movie was actually a repurposing of a previously-released publicity shot, with Cruise staring at the camera with a hood drawn over his head. Random numbers appear like some sort of code around him and the familiar M:I fuse that’s burning down appears at the bottom. There were three other posters designed for promoting the film, one showing Cruise in the middle of climbing the tower that was shown in the first trailer and this one was specifically to sell for IMAX presentations. The third poster showed more of the cast with sparks around them in the middle of the sandstorm. And lastly the fourth poster designed for IMAX, yet again, was of the Burj Khalifa turned into a lit fuse that is associated with the Mission: Impossible franchise. There were two trailers, one showing that the Kremlin will be bombed and the IMF agents are going to be blamed for it and so the mission is shown as them finding out who really did it and them clearing their names. There’s also a glimpse of Tom Cruise scaling the Burj Khalifa. The second trailer shows a lot more action and throws the bombing of the Kremlin straight away. It also shows the teams boss is killed and so they are left to work together without him. There’s more humour, action and more detail included in this trailer compared to the first one.
Exhibition
The movie was premiered in Dubai, Texas and London and was then released in cinema in other countries. It was first shown on the 7th December 2011 at the Dubai International Film Festival, then on the 11th December in Texas at the Austin Butt-Numb-A-Thon (annual film festival in Austin, Texas). Then the actual premiere was in London, UK on the 13th December. The movie had an estimated budget of $145,000,000 and profited with an amount of $549,700,000 as it made $694,700,000 at the box office. There was a limited release of 425 locations in North America which made $12.8 million over its weekend. It then expanded to 3448 theaters on its sixth day and it reached #1 at the Box Office with $8.92 million. It received an approval rating of 94% and had an average rating of 7.7/10 which made it the best-reviewed entry of the franchise. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol was released on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download on April 12, 2012. The movie is available on Youtube and Google Play Movies & TV, it is also available on Amazon Prime and was available to watch on Netflix for 37 months from November 30 2013-November 30 2016. On Amazon Prime they show the IMDB ratings and reviews for the movie which shows majorly 5 stars and an average rating of 7.4/10.