The calling - Short film analysis
link: http://www.youtube.com/VirginMediaShorts#p/u/12/bHlaqbNNdBA
The film starts with a black screen but quickly cuts to an establishing shot of a bridge, This is back lit, by the sky and because of this you can not see the definition of the people rushing back and forth on the bridge this gives a feeling of mystery, this is accompanied by eerie music, this also adds to the weird atmosphere as we then cut to the titles. The titles take along time to come on and it looks like they have stuck with the feeling of strangeness that the film created at the beginning and they have used a ghost effect to bring the titles in, its like a black cloth sweeping over the words. The titles are small in size and rather than being in the middle of the black screen they are more to the left, again the film is going against the standard titles and i think that up to now the audience are drawn in and they are compelled to watch more to see what is going to happen.
The next shot after the titles is a Medium close up of what i assume to be one of the main characters, as usually they are shown first compared to everyone else, the man is laid on the floor in a pile of rubbish and dressed scruffy and dirty he is also asleep, with this kind of costume i suggest that he is homeless and is currently living on the streets of what looks like London from the first establishing shot at the beginning. Following this is a swipe transition made by someone walking past the camera, i think this is a good transition to use in a film, its a simple transition but gives a good effect to the audience, they use it mostly in action films or horror, to show a quick change of location or time, this leads to another medium close up again of a man but this time is dressed the total opposite of the other man we saw previously, this man is well dressed in a suit and clean, carrying a brief case which shows that he is some kind of business man, The shot soon moves to a close up as he walks towards the camera but slightly to the Right so he passes it at some point. The lighting again is very grey and eerie and the faces of the people are half lit (side lighting) which gives a feeling of mystery about everything also it can show that people have more than one side to them if used in a different context, and the eerie music continues to play but you can feel that it is building up to something. and i must point out that there has been no dialogue so far and the film is half way through the story.
The next shot involves both characters, as he sees the man with the sign on the floor, the sign says "I'm alive you are dead" which when the audience reads this they feel that something is not right with what is going to happen. The shot is a long shot and again sticking with the theme of the whole film throughout they are back lit so no detail is shown, just a silhouette of the men. The music begins to build up as the business man shakes the man on the floor to try and wake him, the cut are much more fast paced now, this shows a sense of panic, medium close up's of both characters and the music is building, the first reaction of the audience i think is that they will assume he is dead, until the music reaches its climax and there is a loud bang and the man who is on the floor opened his eyes at the same time the music clashes well, and gives a dramatic effect to the audience and the film, the shot is a close up and we are fixated on the mans eyes for about 5 seconds while the music calms down, as we have reached the climax.
The next shot is a point of perspective shot on the man laying on the floor panning up to the business man, which gives a sense of power to the business man, this shot suggests that he is the dominant one, as we come to see his face his eyes are fixated on the poor man on the floor, almost like he has been hypnotised. The business man then starts to undress, still with his eyes fixed on the poor man. The shots are jump shots to show that time has passed for example he would be taking his jacket off then all of a sudden he is half way unbuttoning his shirt, i think that the primary purpose of this type of cut is to show that time has past, or that you have jumped ahead in time, so that it makes things quicker to watch, rather than the audience having to watch him undress everything, half way of getting undressed the camera panned to the right behind the man on the floors head, this leads to a black screen for about 5 seconds, then pans out from the left again to see that the men have swapped roles, the business man is now the poor person and the poor person is the business man, i thought this was a really good way to show the change and again you would see them mostly in action or drama films. Following this are a couple of medium close up, cut shots to show the expression of both men, and it finishes showing the new business man walk to the right into the world, leaving behind the other man in his place, this them cuts to black and the finishing titles come onto the screen, the same sort of titles that were used in the first set, i really like these titles and i think that they link well to the feel of the film, because you wouldn't use a fancy font if the film was a horror, so the titles have to link with the genre of the film.
Throughout the film there was no dialouge, i think this was to add to the mysterious feel of the film, the fact that we did not know anything about any characters in the short film, we could only assume on what they were wearing about there personallity and what they do for a living, i think this makes the audience want to find out more about each character, also without dialouge it leves the ending open for the audience to give their own interpretation on what they have just seen, and make it what they want it to mean to them. Although i think the audience would have been slightley disappointed in the end as nothing was revealed about the characters.
No comments:
Post a Comment