Research on Short Films

The Black Hole (Future Shorts.)



This short film is about a man who works in an office and comes across a photocopy of a big black circle. The subtext of the narrative is about greed. The man realises that things disappear when put through this black hole and he puts the paper onto the office safe and starts taking the money. He then crawls into the safe and gets stuck. The moral of the story is that greed will you land in trouble. The office is typically portrayed as dull with plain colours and a blue filter over the camera and the man looks typically bored at his office job.

Occupied (Future Shorts.)



The short film 'Occupied' is about a girl on an aeroplane who is desperate to have a cigarette. She locks herself into the toilet and we are shown a montage sequence of the things she has hidden about her person in order to disable the smoke alarm, block the vents and put her Zippo lighter together.

Lovefield.



This film was directed by someone called Mathieu Ratthe. This film contains the element of surpirse. Ratthe described this film by saying "Lovefield combines elements of horror, suspense and drama to create a story that takes the audience on a roller coaster ride of emotions." The short film demonstrates how music can create tension and it plays a big part in convincing the audience to feel different emotions. Mathieu Ratthe obviously had more of a budget when creating this short film and therefore could afford to spend money on a crew and on special effects. The narrative of this story is leading the audience to believe one thing when actually the complete opposite is happening. This film could also be an example of Claude Levi-Strauss's approach to narrative with the use of binary opposites; the idea of death vs birth. The narrative uses the enigmatic code, a simple story which turns out to be a guy who finds a woman having a baby. The cornfield and black crow usually signify a horror film as you imagine deserted ranches with strange people who live on their own, isolated from the world. The man in the film is dressed in a way that fits this stereotype as he is dressed in a pair of dirty overalls with a vest underneath. The fact that we see a dirty foot and the phone beeping leads the audience to believe that someone has been murdered. However, this turns out to be quite the opposite.

Lucky.



I would say that the genre of this film is action. It has a quick pace and involves the audience. The short film uses Todorov's approach to narrative; the use of equilibrium and disequilibrium. The beginning of the film is when the man is in the truck. The middle of the film is when the man is on the car and the end of the film is the explosion. The story is mainly told through image. There is no soundtrack and no talking. The only sound is the music at the beginning, establishing the mood. The location is in the middle of the desert. This usually signifies where bodies are buried or where people go to die. The make up and costume helps tell us the situation with the blood on the tape across his mouth and the old western style red car. The camera is handheld and shaky, it makes everything seem more real and gives a sense of urgency.

Post-It Love.



This film's genre is romantic comedy. It has a moderate to slow pace. The basic narrative is a shy boy meets girl and falls in love. There is no real narrative/arc. The characters are unable to express emotions and therefore express them through post-it note pictures. The location is a bland office with bright post-its as props. The camera work can be described as static and it is kept extremely simple. The music dominates the film and is childish in a way, making it sound like an advert.

Bitch.



The genre of the film 'Bitch' is a comedy. The narrative of the film is a boy shopping. The casting uses Levi-Strauss's approach of binary opposites. The film also uses Todorov's theory of narrative. The beginning is the single man shopping, the middle is the woman showing the photo of her son and the end is the realisation of what the woman has done. It is the suspense of disbelief which holds the audience. The woman gets away with doing something that would never happen in everyday life. The camera shows an over the shoulder dialogue sequence with close ups and shallow depth of field. The framing is using a wide angle. The film's credits reinforce the film's genre and are done in a receipt style supporting the storyline.