To begin with, I looked at sound. In the clip, sound was used with: Helicopter noises (diegetic); sirens from the police cars (diegetic); shouting dialogue (diegetic); fast pace music at the beginning of the clip (non-diegetic); slow, tension building paced music at the end (non-diegetic).
The director has used diegetic noises of sirens at the beginning of the clip, in order to signify that this is a situation of panic and urgency. This instantly makes the audience feel more on edge, as they hear the loud sirens, recognise it is a warning of danger, and they are curious as to what is happening in the scene.
The use of the diegetic sound of the helicopter flying makes the audience feel worried. It signifies the seriousness of the scene as the police have had to bring in people in aircrafts; it indicates the criminals being chased are dangerous. This adds to the excitement of the scene, as it makes the audience feel they are involved in a thrilling scene.
The uses of such vehicals make the programme look more successful and planned, making it instantly more appealing. This is because the audience recognise that using a helicopter is an expensive prop and stunt for a programme to include, therefore they feel the programme is worth watching.
The dialogue is very important in this clip as it also signifies the panic of the situation. The characters are shouting over the loud noise of the rushing air, caused by the helicopter. They are all shouting over each other, this illustrates their fear and worry. This is effective, as if the scene was silent and the characters were just discussing politely what was happening, it would give the impression they are calm. Therefore the diegetic loud use of voices, adds to the tension of the scene, making the audience feel more on edge when watching it and building excitement to the outcome of the actual programme.
Fast pace music is used also to create tension amongst the audience also. It is played at the beginning of the clip, as this is where all the high angle shots of the helicopters and cars are. Therefore it is used to build up of excitement and curiosity for the audience, as they wonder what is going to happen.
On the other hand, slow paced, tension building diegetic music is used at the end of this clip, as the innocent are being revealed and the guilty have been discovered. This is in order to create a sense of sadness, however also for a sense of relief, as the audience feel all has been resolved. It also creates sympathy for the person that is being kicked off the service, as he has done wrong. But the slow paced music makes the reader confused about who they should side with.
I also looked at the camera editing. The camera is usually directed on the men as women are a key feature in the clip. The camera is moving fast, changing shots with the pace of the music. There are a lot of cross cuts this makes the clip seem more action packed. Also there is shaking headshots making the audience feel like they are part of the action. Moreover there is an extra long shot of the area allowing the audience to see where the actors are. Close ups warm the audience to wanting to watch the programme and feel like there is a personal connection.
The quick cut pace of the camera editing draws attention to the speed the men are in leaving the women behind looking like not as much as an influence and un-needed. Also when the camera zoom's in on the man it evokes he is a key role where as the woman is not.
Gender is used clearly to portray men in a way that makes them wrong. As the bad person is male, and the officer that fires him is male too. Everything the woman says is ignored by the male and seems unimportant. Therefore, men are shown to hold power and status that women are not.
I then analysed representation. It is raining in the clip, which represents the desperation and sadness of the situation the characters find themselves in. In addition, the barren trees connote the season and the despair of the situation.
In addition to this, all of the men are wearing standard business looking dress while the woman is wearing jeans and a regular top. This objectifies women because they are ‘supposed’ to be looking attractive when they are around men.
Another point is that there is only one woman in the entire scene, out of about ten characters. She only gets a total screen time of ~15 seconds which signifies how women are oppressed and not valued in the media. The fact that men occupy almost all of the screen time represents the hegemonic norm of men being the most important part of the police force. It is important to note that all of the men are looking very serious and seem to be armed, while the woman is not.
This clip also gives us some insight in to the hierarchy of the police force, and how superiority works within what the director of Spooks thinks the police force is like. It is quite obvious that the man in the middle of the police trio is the man in charge, and lets his two inferiors do the talking for him until it comes time to decommission the rogue operative. Lower still than the two officers helping the boss, are the guards. This is immediately obvious when the boss shouts a command at one of the guards, ‘take him back’ and the guard immediately responds to this.
This clip also has some ideas of relationships between men. It signifies the heated moments that can happen when two men have a disagreement, and ultimately ends with one police officer losing his job. The connotation of relationships between men is most apparent when the rogue operative yells “I’ve woken up to this job!” directly at his boss.
Lastly, I chose to acknowledge what I could about the mise en-scene. The whole scene is presented in a dark blue tone; this represents the darkness, coldness and bad events. At the beginning the car swerves and a helicopter chasing them and already the audience are introduced to a chase being pursued and the audience are engaged to what’s going on and why. Also all the cars that are seen are black this forebodes that the people in the cars might be responsible for negative behaviour later in the show. The dark colours the men in the cars are wearing again suggesting the darkness and negativity of this scene. We see that one man is behind the other this shows status of the man in front. Also when they are confronting each other there seems to be multiple people against one, this is unfair, the one man loses the argument and walks alone, signifying his loneliness and rejection from the crowd. We then see the helicopter fly above and over showing that he has lost and they have risen. Furthermore his cold breath shows his failure and disappointment.
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