Short Films Analyis

-

 The Gunfighter (Kissack 2014)

Short film notes

  • Parallel non-diegetic music
  • Cow boys
  • Panning camera
  • Narrator - diegetic - the characters can hear and react to the narrator
  • Spot light on the cowboy - centre of attention - he’s the one we ‘should be listening to’
  • Comedy
  • The characters can hear the narrator and react to everything he’s saying
  • Music turns from non-diegetic to diegetic as the characters start commenting on the ‘ominous’ music
  • Tackle important issues??
  • Lots of comic relief through the tense actions 
  • Plays around with the usual formula by turning it on its head
  • Narrators accent changed from very western to quite central American
  • mise - en - scene is still conventional to the western aesthetic

Swimmer (Ramsay 2012)


Short film notes

  • Music during credits builds up tension in watcher
  • Black and white underwater shot builds tension? - lighting
  • Old/vintage music
  • found starts to muffle as more eerie music fades in
  • built up tension snaps when the children start attacking
  • constant cuts back and forth and mixed sounds almost disassociates you
  • music gets louder and louder till it just stops
  • Gets dragged underwater (dead bodies float?)
  • Film noir
  • No dialogue - emphasis in the diegetic/Non-diegetic/parallel/contrapuntal
  • more emphasis on landscape and surroundings
  • Emotional release and journey of someones emotions whilst being in water
  • Interpretation 

The Grandmother


Short Film notes

  • Loud sound effects
  • The sounds are so unfamiliar 
  • Weird colours (black and white or really under saturated colours) only one saturated colour at a time
  • High pitched ringing constantly in the background
  • Constant monotone sounds
  • Aggression 
  • Cant recognise anything
  • Very dark lighting - maybe no lighting - you can’t see anything
  • Abusive family? - sexually abuse?
  • Planting an egg he got from a bag of seeds in dirt thats on a bed - recreation of life?
  • Watches and plays with this tree as if it were lets say a younger sibling
  • Repetitive abusive actions
  • Tree gives birth to human? - old woman? (grandma)
  • Constant state of confusion?
  • Tress dies and crumbles after old woman (grandma) is born
  • Grandma and the boy start poking each other as if playing the game
  • Camera goes into POV of the grandma whilst poking 
  • Grandma and boy kiss on the lips and stuff starts falling from the sky
  • Zooms in on boys face
  • Eerie strange music
  • Strange visuals puts you in a state of confusion
  • Seed is planted?
  • Plant starts watering another plant
  • Plant eats the plant it just grew?
  • Grandma starts shaking and twitching on the bed
  • Grandma whistles for the boy as she’s choking as a call for help
  • Extreme close up of grandma choking
  • Extreme close up of the boys response to the choking
  • The continuous whistling of the grandma is uncomfortable to hear
  • Grandma starts glitching round the room as whistling continues
  • Boy runs to parents for help for the grandma, but the dad doesn’t move and the mum is laughing
  • Dad starts shaking the boy
  • You can never tell where they are due to the content darkness, you can only see a few props at a time - such as a bed, chair and side table in the bedrooms, and a messy table and chairs in the <kitchen>?
  • Unbalanced camera angles of the grandma struggling makes you dizzy and uneasy 
  • Whistling suddenly stops and you hear a small thump - messily angled close up of the boy
  • Black and white graveyard scene
  • Grandma is seen sitting in a chair in the graveyard?
  • Hand held camera throughout entirety 
  • Grandma falls back dead int he chair
  • Boy starts screaming and waving his arms about - screaming almost doesn’t sound like human noises (distorted sound)
  • Boy falls into darkness
  • Zoom in on boys face as he gets home and lays on bed
  • Extreme close up on boys face
  • Rolls around rapidly
  • Ending shot of what seems to be the boy laying completely still, sprawled out on the bed

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alices’ Restaurant - Arthur Penn (1969)

-
Alices’ Restaurant -  Arthur Penn (1969) Entrenched into hippy culture and sitting outside of society norms around this time Kind of a choppy narrative, not really sure whether its a flash back or present. Confusing to know where you are in the movie  Key Characters Arlo Guthrie - also co-screenplay writer Alice Ray True Events Based on Arlo’s own attempts to avoid being drafted into the Vietnam war He visits his friend Alice - having been asked to leave college Thanksgiving He and a friend dump rubbish and are arrested He comes before the law for this Themes and Penn’s ‘authorship’ ‘quintessentially’ counter - cultural - rebellion Youth - new generation ‘hippy’ culture Anti-Vietnam Old vs Young Arthur Penn - Auteur  Arthur Penn tends to use the younger generation as actors Uses true stories to tell a message Linear narrative style Movie Summary Arlo goes to Alices restaurant to avoid being drafted in the war after being kicked out of college. He dumps...
Read more

Secrets and Lies sequence analysis

-
  Secrets and Lies sequence analysis Roxanne and Cynthia in the living room This scene in the film gives you a really strong idea of what British realism in film is all about. From the actions and dialogue and also mise-en-scene. The elements of film form also connect with Mike Leigh as an auteur. For starters, the conversation between Cynthia and Roxanne is never interrupted by any jump cuts as it is all captured in one long shot. This is very common throughout the movie as the director Mike Leigh is known for using very long shots in order to really put you in the scene without any jump cuts to break your concentration. However, you know this long shot won’t last very long as throughout the movie, Cynthia and Roxanne have quite a dysfunctional relationship and never really have any long conversations before Roxanne runs off or breaks the conversation. This dysfunctional relationship between the two can be associated with the aspects of British realism in film. This scene has ...
Read more

Captain Fantastic

-
  Captain Fantastic Is the family inside or outside society? Watering schedule and fitness training - in ‘tune’ with the natural world Key Elements Mise-en-scene, photos on the bus: Leslie and Ben and Ben and son Older world - the old fashioned sewing machine Boning knife - Zaja (wearing wolves hat) Zaja has pictures of the Pol Pot dictator on her wall By the fire: reading ‘middlemarch - Victorian classics’ Night shots: aesthetic, ambience, family being together (earlier wide shot of family in a circle before fitness training) Sound and Music Diegetic music - family ‘in tune/harmony’ - each contributing by playing an instrument around the fire Rhythm- represent their togetherness Affirmation of their unity Bo’s guitar Zellian (more rebellious and angry) beating the drum Zaja - Harmonica Being individual and being a family Sound is created spontaneously and through improvisation Some Ideas Conflict - within the family and inner conflict (Ben + Bo and th...
Read more