Analysing the camera shots, editing and tempo of the car chase scene from Bourne Supremacy, and a fight scene in Merlin

Analysing the camera shots, editing and tempo of the car chase scene from Bourne Supremacy, and a fight scene in Merlin

This scene is overall, a very fast tempo scene, it slows down at one point, after the police officers call for back-up, because we see the Mercedes Benz undercover police cars drive out of a different area and join the car chase. This is slower to allow the audience to understand where these cars are coming from, why they are coming, and who they are representing/transporting. However, the fast tempo quickly returns – the rate at which the shots change usually gets faster when Bourne does a swift gear change. The editing in the scene is amazing – it switches from an outside view of the chase to an inside view of the car and Bourne’s expressions, to get an understanding of who he is extremely resourceful, an excellent driver, but he is still nervous. The editor has also managed to string about 100 shots into one scene, that is easy to follow and engaging to watch, that only lasts a few minutes. We also see that Bourne is shot – he has a gaping wound in his shoulder which he pours alcohol on at the beginning of the scene before the car chase picks up the pace.

 The music in this scene is very upbeat and fast tempo as well – this adds emphasis to the speedy car chase. Fast scenes usually indicate a quick get-away, urgency, desperation, and a fear/anxiety of capture.

We understand that during this scene, Bourne’s adrenaline must be very high.

I have also analysed the camera shots, editing and tempo of a scene of my own choice. The scene I have chosen is the fight scene in the market, episode 1 of Season 1 of BBC’s Merlin.

In this scene there is quite a lot of dialogue as well as action. This slows the pace of the action down – this insinuates the fight is not serious and is more of a play-fight than one where they intend to seriously injure each other. However, the pace of this scene – because it’s a fight, and because there is some running and hiding – is quite fast, as a faster tempo creates a sense of desperation and urgency and so builds excitement.

As soon as Arthur takes the first swipe at Merlin, with his mace/flail, an upbeat, yet historical sounding music begins – this signals that the fight has begun. (The music does not sound like there it uses any electrical instruments – this is relevant because Merlin is set many centuries ago when electric technology did not exist). The music however changes at the end of the scene when Merlin is beaten by Arthur, because Gaius distracts his attention. The music changes to a more mysterious music because Arthur tells his men to ‘let [Merlin] go’ and we as the audience do not quite understand this decision as we presumed Arthur would punish Merlin for his behaviour. Arthur then says; ‘There’s something about Merlin, I can’t quite put my finger on it’ – which emphasises the mysterious melody of the music.

Within this scene there are a lot of camera shots used – however, due to the active nature of the fight they are usually moving shots – this implies that camera shooting methods such as the use of a ‘dolly’. A few of the camera shots are also wobbling around and shot from behind a table – the camera almost mirrors where Merlin runs and hides from Arthur.

Furthermore, this scene of Merlin uses several cut-away shots. For example, we see Arthur aim and lean forward swinging his mace at Merlin, and then we see merlin jump back out of the way as he is almost hit by the mace.

Moreover, in Merlin there are a lot of sound effects - such as smashing eggs when Arthur hits them - these sounds have most probably been added after the scene was filmed and edited into the scene at the right moment. The majority of sound in films and TV is added during the editing process.