Initial Research into Short Films - 2:20 - Ettie Greenwood

2:20 - Jason Wingard

Synopsis: In this short film, a man is given an old pair of glasses by an old women while hae waits for his date to turn up at an Indian restaurant. He puts them on and finds out that he can tell when everyone will die, he then gets suspicious and finds out when he is going to die by looking in a mirror. The film end just milliseconds before he gets squashed my a bus.

However as this film was posted on 'Virgin Media Shorts', their rules denote that all films entered must be 2 minutes and 20 seconds long or less. So this film has cleverly used the guidelines of the website to help evolve their film.

Media Language (The first section only):
I have chosen to analyse the first part of the short film because a sense of un-normality is formed, especially through the use of camerawork.

The film starts off with a man (the protagonist) looking at his phone to see a message from Amy, it reads: "On the bus, be there in a minute xxx". Through the use of the logograms (x's) in this text the audience may assume that the girl he is texting is either his girlfriend or date. The camerawork used here is a close up with a very shallow depth of field, so a bokeh effect is achieved in the background which may be a visual delight for the audience. Also, the non-diegetic sound here is a soundtrack of Indian sounding music: this could imply that he is in an Indian restaurant, especially as the colour denoted in the frame is bright and colourful which is often associated with Indian culture.

The restaurant where the man waits

Text message from Amy

ECU of the trolley

The next shot then denotes an extreme close up of a trolley in motion. The camera follows it at a very low height but remains level and not at an angle. The camera also shakes a little to add a more chaotic approach to the shot and to mirror the shaky movement of the trolley its self. At this moment enigma could be created as the audience do not yet know who is behind the trolley and its relation to the man.

The canted angle shot

This shot comes soon after and one of the most visible characteristics of it is the slanted angle - a canted shot - The canted angle helps to connote a disrupted mood as the audience try to figure out what it different and unsettling about the woman and the trolley (enigma and restricted narration). The shot also seems to have a slight 'fish eye' effect to add distortion.

The non-diegetic soundtrack here then is heard again but the music has changed: it is now a series of muffled shouts which could foreshadow danger, whilst the diegetic sound still remains to be the loud clanging of the trolley moving.

Zoom in of the woman walking

The woman also looks at a certain point whilst she is walking and her eyes remain fixated throughout. This caused the audience to question what she is looking at and why.

The womans costume is very bland and not very presentable, she wears her hood up also even when it is not raining. The trolley she wheels around (prop) is also unusual as in most supermarkets you are not allowed to take trolleys out of the premises. These factors could then suggest that she is poor and the stereotypical value for a person of her type would be a 'tramp'.

This last shot of the section is an over the shoulder shot, where the main image has been focused through the use of slit framing. This is where the woman denotes to be standstill looking at the camera. However the out of focus figure on the left of the frame is thought to be the man. This links both characters together, and now creates new questions in the audiences minds, of why she has stopped so suddenly to look at the man.


Audience:
The reason why most directors create short films, is to show larger companies their work and to try and get signed to that company, so ultimately the audience for most short films is bigger companies.

However for leisure watchers, I think the target audience would be:

• People aged 12-35 - The age range is quite large I think because I feel that children would feel intrigued by the glasses, but then adults would like the way that the film was filmed and the build up to the death. The target age also has to include adults because these are the people who the directors are aiming their work to aswell. (demographic)
• Classes A-C2 - As 'Virgin Media Shorts' is mostly available online, and in some cinemas, the people who watch the short film would have to have a disposable income where they can afford a laptop/cinema ticket and would have enough leisure time to look at these. (demographic)
• Both males and females - I think this is because is not a gender biased topic therefore both genders can relate and enjoy the short film.(demographic)
• People who enjoy using social media - As short films are often shared on different social media platforms and this is part of their viral marketing. Therefore this would justify why the target audience is fairly young as these are the people who are most likely to use social media sites e.g. Twitter and Facebook. (psychographic)

Narrative:
I feel that the narrative structure of this short film is similar to 'A Favour' as it is as well linear, but it also follows Todorov's Theory of Classic Narrative stages 1-3:

1. Equilibrium - This is when the man is looking at his phone and waiting for his assumed date.  Nothing negative, or any foreshadowing events have happened yet.
2. Disruption  - This could be when the lady with the trolley comes into shot, the camerawork here is used to create an unsettling feeling and therefore creates a change in tone.



Last few second of the film - Confrontation

3. Confrontation - Only the last few seconds of this short film are of this stage: as the man only realises that he is going to die here. This is obviously when he recognises the 'disruption', but the second part of this stage (alike 'A Favour') is not included to create a more dramatic ending.

 Barthes - Action and Enigma Codes

Enigma codes:Cause a mystery and raise questions in the audiences minds; this makes them more active viewers.

Enigma codes that exist in '2:20' are:

• The woman with the trolley - This is an unusual thing to see in what seems like so far in the film as it disrupts the sense of realism. This will cause the reader to question 'who the women is?' and 'why is she filmed in a particular way that makes her seem troublesome?'.

• The glasses - The glasses that have been put on the man table may raise questions to 'why are they there?'. This then adds more questions into the audiences minds.

Action codes: Tells the audience that an action will take place; enables the audience to engage actively by predicting a plot.

Action codes that exist in '2.20' are:

The man thinking, the same time as the

 audience

• The crescendo-ing music: The music slowly crescendos and more suspense is added as the man looks around at people in the glasses. This tells the audience that a major action is about to occur in the piece. (its orchestral with hints of the Indian style music at the start.)
• The man looking at others: As the man finds out others mortality dates, the audience think whether the man will try and find out his as well. The man is also thinking this, which shows that the film is successful in the spectator positioning as the audience have the same thought as the man, and thereofe are being active viewers.

 My Thoughts:
I really liked this film as it was something different and it cleverly used the 2;20 allowance rule to create a story line for the short film. I also like the way that the film builded suspense throughout to add enigma before realising in the last few seconds that the the man was going to die. This allowed the audience to sympathise with the protagonist as they would be finding out more information about the glasses at the same time of the character.

I also liked the way the short film was filmed: The shallow depth of field and how it created the bokeh effect really interested me, and also the way that the trolley was filmed (especially the ECU of the trolley wheel). Therefore I may look into using similar techniques when creating our short film by focusing on smaller aspects in the film as well.