Spaced Season 2 Episode 5 Analysis

Spaced

Contextual information

Spaced is a British television sitcom written by and starring Jessica Stevenson and Simon Pegg, and directed by Edgar Wright. Two series of seven episodes each were broadcast in 1999 and 2001 on Channel 4 on a Friday night.

Analysis
At the twenty minute mark we see an exchange of close ups between each character within the scene. This is used to help the audience identify with the characters.
The footage was shot and edited in opposing angles, this is to show the different sides of a conflict. The same technique is used in big budget movies, it allows the audience to immediately understand the allegiances of characters within a scene.

This is immediately followed by a fast cut action scene. In order to simulate urgency Edgar Wright created a quickly paced scene that includes many cuts and includes many action devices such as shot reverse shot, zooms, repeat shots and quick panning shots. 
This scene is a parody of classic action sequences, this plays into Wrights philosophy of visual comedy. By taking something familiar to an audience and using most of the trademark components to mock it Wright has been credited with revitalising visual comedy in cinema.

Throughout this scene Wright has edited non-diegetic sound of guns loading and bullets being fired. This is used for a similar reason to the previous point, it's exaggerated and overly-dramatic. 
This scene also uses a classic score highlighting the parody and making the scene feel more like a legitimate war movie.

Lewis Urquhart