[…] Tony drives the minivan through streets of Tehran. The Houseguests sit in silence, looking out the windows. There is a vehement DEMONSTRATION going on -- stars-and- stripes burning in Molavi Square -- and it's taking place right in ...read more […]

I watched Argo only a week back, and I've gone mad since then just disliking any movie which is not atleast 20% engaging compared to ARGO! And this particular scene, after reading the script I am totally blown away! When I was watching the film, I hold my breath when the minivan has to cross the demonstrators. Its a 2 minutes (I timed) of scene, (I must emphasize on this ie 120 secs or 2880 frames of video) where there are NO DIALOGUES just the EXPRESSIONS of the actors and the 'CHANTING & YELLING' of the crowd. The way the scene was shot and edited and with the particular pace which matches with the speed of the moving minivan.. ohh damm its simply amazing! But in the script, in the description of the scene, it feels like they 'just' got away... there is hell of a difference between how its written and how its in the final film. I was wondering how the hell did the filmmakers created the tension within that 2 mins. And a small research with the above given video clip gave me some answers(I think). What I observed : There are 48 shots cut within the 2 mins, which means only a clip will be 2.5 secs, which means a very fast cutting - amazingly this looks seamless. From 01:47, the shots have rapid camera movement like panning. That is where the tension is at its peak - with the crowd 'yelling' and 'slapping on the windows' add as catalyst . That feels like more chaotic.

Thanks for that detailed analysis, SK Tagore. Always fascinating to compare what's on the page to what's on the screen. Sometimes we, as writers, can approximate cuts every few seconds in an action scene, but often that is something best left to the director.

It was a great film, and because of this blog I was able to download the script (and many more). I think one way the film makers increased tension was placing the camera low in relation to the crowd, and keeping it close to the Americans, so we feel the kinetic chaos of the crowd. When an object is close to the lens, even a small motion ends up with a big impact on the screen.