Exposition

EXT - RESTAURANT - DAY

FOOD INSPECTOR WALKS SLOWLY THROUGH KITCHEN INSPECTING FOOD.

KITCHEN STAFF LOOK NERVOUS AND WALK BEHIND FOLLOWING INSPECTORS EVERY MOVE

Chef

Would you like anything to eat or drink ?

INSPECTOR LOOKS AT CHEF WITH BLANK EXPRESSION

Chef

(Smiling anxiously)

Apologies

INSPECTOR CARRIES ON INSPECTING THE FOOD AND THE KITHCEN AND STOPS AND LOOKS AT ONE DISH

Chef

I apologise, that's not supposed to be there

INSPECTOR SIGNALS CHEF TO LEAVE PLATE ON THE TABLE

HE THEN TAKES A FORK AND TAKES EATS A PART OF THE DISH

Inspector

(Laughing)

Wow ! This is amazing.

The Killing - Silence Sequence

Silence starts at 1:14 and ends at 1:27

I started at that bit in the clip because that when the character feels she’s safe as she is hiding behind a tree and so the audio being quiet will draw us into the situation with her - trying to be as quiet as possible in order to lure the ‘predator’ away. 

It ends at 1:27 because at that point the airplane comes in and the actual setting would not be quiet anymore so it makes us feel uncomfortable because we thought that the character is safe, but the airplane could expose her.


In the opening scene, there is no dialogue however we still are able to tell that this is a chase because of how the characters expression is and how urban the location is. In addition Laura Mulvey theory - women view themselves through the male gaze. We see here that again, the female is being chased and is the victim and the male is the predator and is the one in control.

Analysis 'The Killing' (Pilot Episode)

The Killing

Sound

• Diegetic - we can hear her breathing heavily and this connotes that she is scared and the sound of her footsteps signify the importance of her running away from what we soon now will be her killer.
• Non-Diegetic - the sound of the drums could imply a human heartbeat and the music does not stop throughout the scene.

Editing

• Jump of cuts - the pace of the cuts also could connotate her running away as fast as she can and that the drums stopping at a point in the scene could lull the audience into a sense of security
• Motif - the setting of the location and the seriousness of the situation can be seen through the soundtrack 

Cinematography 

• Camera shots - we get significant close up shots of the victim's face to show the blood and the fear in her face;at the same time we are not shown any feature of the killer.
• Framing - we always see most of the victim e.g when running through the water, we see her struggling to get back up on ground, but we only see the bottom half of the killer and we are just shown him searching for the victim with his torch.

Mise en Scene

• Location - the urban location gives us the impression that she has no hope as the lighting is dark.
• Costume - the victim's clothing points out that she is the innocent one as she is only wearing a thin nightdress and the predator was wearing all black and he could not be seen.

Main Theorists

Theorists

Neale - “genre instances is repletion and difference”
In ‘The Killing’ genre is film noir and we see this how there is dark colours and most of the characters are wearing dark clothes - e.g the detective wears all black.

Todorov - ‘Equilibrium - Disruption of the equilibrium - Recognition of the disruption - Fix equilibrium - New equilibrium 
In ‘The Killing’ - the equilibrium is when everything is going well and so we are aligned with all the characters, however the disruption is when we hear that Nanaa is reported missing - we then begin to ask questions.

Strauss - ‘Binary opposition drives the narrative forwards’
In The Killing, the binary opposition is the opposites between the detective and the murderer

Knight ‘the thrill comes from the prolonging of the invetiable’
The thrill in 'The Killing' is when the inevitable that Nanaa has been killed, and so us as the audience begin to align ourselves with the detective in hope that Nanaa is found.