Initial Research into Short Films - Brando-ing

This short film entails of two young men who appear to be sharing 'banter' whilst stuck on a roof..

Genre:

From watching 'Brando-ing' the audience can assume that this film belongs to the genre of comedy. 

Rick Altman's theory states that film genres have typical visual codes that convey meaning to the viewer - otherwise known as a semantic code. This film shows typical visual codes to demonstrate comedy:

• the facial expressions of the two characters demonstrate the comical values the two males share; 
• their costume - both characters are shown by a long shot to allow us to see their clothes. They're both wearing brightly coloured and patterned shorts which appears to be 'different' and quite bold..

There are also syntactic codes within 'Brando-ing' which work together with the above semantic codes to portray the genre:

The relationship between the two characters demonstrates comedy through their dialogue:

when one character explains what he hates, the other responds with: "yeah you're pretty disgusting" and then back to: "shut up". 

Their bickering and banter builds up a sense of comedy as they're two grown men stuck on top of a roof but are still arguing with each other. 

close up to show his frustration

The close ups and his tone of voice help to imply that the character is becoming fed up with his mate.

The theme and context is another syntactic code demonstrating comedy; whilst being stuck on a roof top, they're merely quarreling, instead of thinking about how to get out of the situation. 

Narrative: 

The structure of this film is linear meaning that we can apply  Todorov's theory, however it does not include each stage due to it being a short film. 

Long shot showing the location

The film begins with the stage of disequilibrium or disruption having already previously occurred. I believe the fact that these two characters are in an unusual location (shown by the opening long shot and medium close ups showing the back drop) implies the aftermath of the disruption as they now have to resolve the situation and return to normality. This stage is called the confrontation as they are trying to work out how to get down. The diegetic sound of traffic and the background show that they are outside and also high up, suggesting a roof top. 

This is also an enigma code (these were proposed by Roland Barthes) as the audience are left with the question as to why they are out there in the first place. 

The audience are only shown a small snippet of events (the plot, according to Bordwell & Thompson) so therefore more enigma is built as questions are raised as to why and where they are. 
You could argue that there is a binary opposition (Claude Levi-Strauss) going on between the two characters, as one appears to be getting fed up with the other and they disagree on a lot. 

Audience:
I think this films demographic mainly consists of males aged between 18-30. This is because the two main characters are males who I believe look around this age group (due to the facial hair, build, and tone of voice) and therefore would be more relatable to a similar audience. 

Also, I think the plot would target that demographic as it is stereotypical of boys to be the gender that are in trouble or causing it as opposed to female. 
The comical jokes and 'banter' that they share is quite immature. Women are stereotypically seen as the gender that are more classy and perhaps only a minority would relate and find this film amusing. 

Medium close up showing the location

In terms of social class I think that the audience would be middle class (BC2) as the background of the location shows buildings which appear to be flats or small apartments which demonstrates the wealth of the area. 
 



There is not much diegetic sound of the city i.e. loud cars, sirens, crossings etc so you could assume that they are not located in the inner city but perhaps only the suburbs or the rural/urban fringe which is cheaper to live on, suggesting their income and class. Also, middle class represents the biggest percentage of the total population so 'Brando-ing' would be reaching a much wider audience and therefore would make more income from it.