GD Technical Analysis of 'Leon' (Besson, 1994)

Shot by Shot Analysis

The scene starts with what seems to be a camera on top of a vehicle travelling through a very urban area in New York with credits of people invloved in the film in each corner of the screen in a basic white font, Theres a jump cut to another area of the city but going down another street the camera pans up and zooms to a sign which reads "Welcome to Little Italy". The camera then cuts to the front of a little restaurant presumably in 'Little Italy' the shop is called "Supreme Macaroni" the italian theme can commonly be associated with the Mafia so this connotes that kind of theme. The camera tracks into the darkness of the shop most likely on a crane due to the flow of the movement.

The camera then cuts to inside the restaurant with an ECU of someones (Leon's) hands at the bottom of a glass of milk which helps build a character image. Theres then a matched cut to an ECU of one side of Leon's darkened glasses which helps create a mysterious and distorted image of who you are watching making the viewing more intense.There is then an ECU of the man sitting opposite him lighting a cigarette creating the same affect for him and also making a more real environment, the camera pans up slightly to an ECU of the mans eye still keeping that mysterious edge. There is then a cut to an over the shoulder point of view shot which is a close up of Leon's face yet the mans hand is in the way so still his face is not fully seen. Cut to an ECU of the mans eye again moving in response to what Leon says the camera moves slightly following the mans movement of smoking the cigarette but still at an ECU so his full face is not seen. At this point it is evident that some sort of deal for an assassination is going on. Cuts to an ECU of the man stubbing out his cigarette which tells the audience the deal is about to start and you should listen carefully.Cut to a close up of the mans mouth who says "Lets talk business" another signal to the audience. Cut to an ECU of the table and the man slides a picture of a man in front of Leon the picture being significant as you know this is a character to look out for and helps create an interest into how Leon is going to deal with him. Cut to and ECU of both Leons eyes but with the darkened glasses on which not only hides his face but his emotions too creating the typical assassin image of a cold hearted killer who doesnt care. It also shows him studying the photo as you can see the reflection. Cut to a close up of the mans eye which moves to look at Leon at an important moment when he tells him what the objective is. Cut to another ECU of the photo to reiterate they are talking about him as he says "but this guy" and that you should watch out for him. Cut to another ECU of the mans eye still keeping the mystery of who they are. Cut to an ECU of Leon's glasses again keeping his calmness and agreeing with the mans proposal. Cut to the ECU of the hands and glass of milk which he then picks up. ut to ECU of mans eye watching him drink the milk as you can hear him doing so, cuts back to ECU of Leons eyes with glass in view this time, then finally back to ECU of the one hand on the table and he puts the glass down suggesting his leaving and a move to the 'mission'.
Cut to an ECU of the picture being dragged off by Leon and the back to ECU of glasses still with the mysteriousness and calmness.

The camera then cuts to a new scene of a high angle shot of the man in the picture walking down a corridor with his guards. Preparing the audience for something to happen and also the guards being seen as an obstacle for Leon and helps add to the thrill of how he will do it. Cut to the old man by the elevato who says "nice to see you again Mr Jones" as he walks past but gets no reply creatin a negative view of the man in the photo and siding the audience with Leon. Cut to low angle mid shot of another guard watching the CCTV and the photo man looking up at it creating another problem for Leon to overcome. The man walks to the door and it cuts to outside the door behind the photo man and is opened by the man previously watching the CCTV. This shows how you cannot get in through the front without being spotted, A challenge. The camera follows the man into the room who talks to another man before cutting again. That is the end of the first two minutes.

The Soundtrack

At the beginning there is some music played as it goes through the streets which involves strings and some sort of woodwind instrument its quite soft and may help to create a mysterious mood as it sounds almost oriental. Diegetic sounds of cars etc is also present. As you go into the restaurant the music volume increases as it goes into the blackness and then fades out once inside to leave just diegetic so as the characters can set up some sort of narrative. Throughout most of this scene its wuiet with just dialect and digetic sounds the dialect setting what the beginning of the story will be. Toward the end as Leon puts the glass down the sound is emphasised i think this is used to set up for a change in scene and him to go into action. Then some bass drums come in to raise tension as it moves into the next scene with a sound bridge. The drums and bells used help create a tense and dramatic feeling and when the phot man enters the room a synthetic 'charge up' sound is used to help establish this place as the area of action.

What Have I Learnt?

From this analysis i can see that for the genre of thriller keeping a sense of mystery about the characters can help to build tension and 'hook' the audience as they wish to learn more about this chracter and eventually empathise with him. Soundtrack is also extremely useful as it can help create a mood and signal what kind of theme the scene will be having. Furthermore there is a large amount of cuts that you would not realise just watching it without thinking yet each one has a meaning and helps you to understand the story as it goes along something we will have to take into account when filming our opening sequence to a thriller.

Heres the link for the sequence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoCo5ltLvJg