The completed project

The short film

The film poster

The film review

Textual Analysis on 2:20

Title: 2:20
Director: Jason Wingard

Storyline

The time is 2:20, Dave is waiting for his girlfriend to meet him at a restaurant. While waiting, a mysterious women is walking by on the other side of the road but stops, stares and points at Dave. The women approaches Dave and gives him some glasses. Dave is curious to try them on so he slowly put the glasses. Looking through the glasses however, displays a time which indicates when a certain person will die. As Dave discovers more dates of people he is shaken by the power of these glasses. He leaves the restaurant and looks in the reflection of a car to know his date. However when he looks he notices that the date will occur in less than 30 seconds. Dave is shocked while the mysterious women walks by again. Dave turns around and stares at the women while she stares back. when the time runs out, there is a few milliseconds showing a bus almost hitting Dave but cuts to the credits before the impact happens.

Location

The short film is set in a street filled with kebab takeaways and other asian restaurants. 2:20 is set a night. This is to portray a mysterious presence in the area and is conventional time to potentially do possibly suspicious things. However despite being shot at night, the lighting is fairly bright due to the lights from buildings. This is to make it impossible to pull anything suspicious off because you would be easily seen.

An example of the bright light coming from buildings; making any undetected suspicion possible.

Characters

The first character introduced is Dave. He is dressed in blue jeans and a white shirt. The white shirt can convey a sense of innocence. The jeans also support this idea as the blue jeans can convey sense of calmness. Dave is also fairly young which can imply that he is not particularly a strong character.

A shot of Dave staring back at the women when realising his remaining seconds of life.

The other character introduced is the unnamed mysterious women. She is seen carrying a trolley around; which could create some suspicion of what she has inside the shopping. She is dressed very roughly which can convey that she has a dark background and can be stereotypically looked at negatively by not only the public, but the viewer also. When a shot of her face is shown she looks like she’s in her late 40s to mid 50s. As she is presented as the mysterious women, this can imply that she has had some years of experience doing suspicious actions.

A shot of the mysterious women stopping when he notices Dave sitting at a restaurant table.

Cinematography

There is an over the shoulder shot when the women is staring at Dave, where the shot is over Dave’s shoulder. This is to convey some sort of warning to the viewer that the women is going to do something that will affect Dave. There are several close ups on his face to display the shocked emotion he makes when he discovers the power of the glasses.

An over the shoulder shot of the women pointing at Dave; conveying that Dave is an important figure in some way that isn’t announced at this part of the short film.

Sound

Any musical score is played at a low volume throughout the short film. This is to make a distracting conveyance that the location is unconventional and uninteresting for anything to happen. The volume of the music is underpowered compared to the loud diegetic ambience on the street. This is done to imply that the scenario given is secretly hidden under the distraction of the busy street and the unimportant events around them. When Dave puts on the glasses, you can hear sci-fi computer scanning sounds coming from the glasses. This is to give the glasses its own genre characteristic. To the end of 2:20, the music coming from nearby restaurants become more and more louder. As this music is at a fast pace, this can convey that something intense is about to happen; which in the short film leads to Dave getting hit by a bus.

Editing

The main continuity editing technique shown in 2:20 was eyeline matches. These eyeline matches are used to get a better understanding of what the glasses can do through the eyes of the wearer. As Dave realises his time is running out there is a shot that focuses on Dave to re-adjusting focus to the women passing by in the back of the scene. This is to imply that he is not important anymore as the women will become the lone survivor in the short film. 2:20 only uses cuts throughout the film. Unlike fades which are used to imply that time has flown by, time in the short film is an important element in the film so every single second need to be seen to thoroughly display the remaining time Dave has left. The duration of the shots were somewhat long. This could imply that there was nothing adventurous or heroic that Dave could’ve done as the women knew it was going to happen. Thus the short film remained slow paced, acting like everything was just a normal situation.

The last remaining staring shots lasted 3-4 seconds long. This is after the discovery of Dave’s remaining time and the progressing volume of the music from restaurants; and yet the short film ends at a slow pace.

My thoughts

2:20 is a slow paced thriller which builds up a lot of tension towards the final remaining seconds. Sound and shot durations are distracting to the viewer and tries to make this short film more uninteresting than it should be. The only thing I can say though is that there were certain scenes where I think there could have been a lot more in; mainly Dave wearing the glasses.

 

Development of my own ideas

2:20 has a very dark ending that goes to show that my short film idea doesn’t have to end on a good, funny or cliffhanger ending.

Textual Analysis on The Poacher

Title: The Poacher
Director: Niko Pueringer (Corridor Digital)

Storyline

On October 1st 2013, the US government shutdown begins. 12 hours into the shutdown, a lone poacher trespasses into Yellowstone Park to hunt some deer for their antlers. Meanwhile at the Snake River ranger station, ranger Flynn goes heads to Yellowstone Park to check for any activity, while ex-ranger Troy leaves the station to drive home. As Flynn arrives at the park. He doesn’t notice any suspicious activity and is about to leave when suddenly he sees a deer idling in the distance. However as Flynn approaches the deer he is shot and left wounded on the ground. Meanwhile, Troy stops at one of the  locked gates to the park to ensure that nothing is wrong. He finds that the gate has been tampered with so it is permanently unlocked. As Troy turns around back to his car he spots a rifle bullet on the ground, which gives Troy the idea that a hunter is inside the park. He attempts to call Flynn about his findings but his phone remains in his car resulting in no pick-up. It is revealed that the poacher was the one that shot Flynn on accident. Flynn asks the poacher to call for help but the poacher attempts to kill Flynn getting rid of any evidence that he arrived. As the poacher is about to fire, Troy rushes to the scene to tells the poacher to drop his weapon. The 2 breakout in a gun battle while Flynn take cover behind a tree. Troy gives Flynn his phone so he can call for help but is nearly shot in the head by doing so. As the poacher aims his rifle again, he spots Troy’s hat down his scope; assuming his head is sticking out. The poacher fires however, Troy’s bodies does not appear to have fallen to show any blood bursts, meaning Troy’s hat was a distraction. Troy runs around the bushes to try and shoot the poacher at a closer position and at a different angle. Troy shoots the poacher leaving him wounded behind a tree. Troy points a gun at the poacher while the poacher begs not to kill him. Instead he leaves the poacher to lie there until help arrives. Troy walks back to Flynn where Flynn says how the original rangers guarding the park were “Trash” and that he was glad that he didn’t leave his job because of the shutdown.

 Location

The short film is set in Yellowstone National Park. The set is presented when the poacher enters the park however there is an extra sign saying “Park Closed”. The location now portrays the poacher as a possible antagonist as he is entering the park when it was closed. Setting the film in a well known park gives the idea that it’s quiet enough for people to pass by anything suspicious and big enough to pull off many sinister plans.

 

A small segment of how big Yellowstone National Park is.

Titles

The title’s presented in The Poacher are in serif font and are in white. Serif fonts are an old style type of font. In this short film, it is used to support the idea that the park is a historic landmark. The white colour is used to connote a sense of peace.

The establishing shot of the park with the title “The Poacher”

Characters

There is the antagonist, the poacher. He is firstly looked as a possible antagonist when he enters the park when closed; already conveying that he is onto something bad. He then goes and shoots a deer. This implies how potentially dangerous he is. Finally, he is confirmed the antagonist when he attempts to kill ranger Flynn. The poacher is dressed in jeans, a dark brown hunting jacket, a hat with a front cap, red chequered shirt, moderate facial hair and an unkept hair style. The clothes he wears are conventional dressing to a hunter’s look; while, the large amount of hear on his face is a conventional to a red neck facial look. A combination of these 2 looks create a typically dangerous american because red necks are stereotypically “wild” with firearms and his dangerous weapon abilities are supported with the hunter’s clothing.

A shot of the poacher before he aims his gun at Flynn.

The 2nd character is ranger Flynn. As he has not quit his job because of the shutdown, it already conveys that he is a hard working and determined ranger which at first portrays him as the potentially tough protagonist in the short film. However he is then portrayed as incompetent as he is easily distracted by a deer resulting in him getting shot. The idea of his incompetence is supported with his lacking physique build as a ranger is or any type of guard is supposed to typically have a very muscular build.

A shot of Flynn seconds before he is shot by the poacher.

The last character is Troy, Troy’s portrayal in The Poacher is the exact opposite of Flynn’s at around the same time stuff happens. As he quit his job because of the shutdown, he is portrayed as the less dedicated ranger in this short film. However, when he stops the poacher from killing Flynn he then becomes the saviour the more dedicated to protecting Flynn as well as the park. He is dressed very casually with light brown trousers, blue buttoned shirt with a red t-shirt underneath and a hat with a front cap. This is very deceiving for the viewer to decide how to portray him at the start of the short film because even though he is portrayed as less dedicated to his job, he becomes the hero at the end.

A shot of Troy after he leaves the poacher wounded by a tree.

 Cinematography

When the title of the film is presented, there is an establishing shot showing a vast segment of the park; this is just after the poacher enters the park. This is to present how easy it would be to not be seen by anyone. There is the typical low/high angled shots to display the dominance between the characters. The main use of these angled shots shown is the transition of power between different characters. For example, when ranger Flynn enters the park there are several low angle shots of him walking when he is shot the shots on Flynn move to high angled shots while the poacher has the low angled shots. When Troy eventually wounds the poacher, the poacher now has high angle shots while Troy has the low angle shots; displaying who has the most power at the end of the short film.

A low angle shot the Flynn entering the park.

A low angle shot of the poacher aiming his gun at Flynn.

A low angle shot of Troy as he points a gun at the poacher while he begs for mercy.

Sound

The main theme of The Poacher is quiet, calm but fast paced. This is to convey that even though the park is peaceful, there is a sense of danger about to happen. The first 2 gunshots are fired right after a deer moans. The deer moans are used to give a warning that something bad is about to happen. The deer moan was right before the deer himself was about to get shot and the second moan was right before Flynn was shot.

Editing

There is a shot of the poacher cocking the firing pin on his rifle in slow motion. This is to imply that this next shot will have an importance in this short film. That next shot was used to present the distraction through the poacher’s view.

There was a few eyeline matches, mainly used on the poacher because of the scope on his rifle, which makes a great uses of eyeline matches through the scope. The eyeline matches used in the scope were used to support the increase the sense of danger that Troy is in when battling the poacher.

A shot a Troy throwing his phone through the scope.

There are several match on actions to make the certain scenes continuous.

My thoughts

This is an action short film its strengths mainly focusing on editing and changes of power in characters supported by the use of the cinematography. However, I did notice certain continuity mistakes through the match on actions. Also the music’s tone does not change throughout the events, meaning it sounds the same throughout. Other than this, it is still a short film worth watching.

One example of a continuity mistakes was here when the poacher is cleaning his hands. When he drops the cloth, you can see that there is still parts of the cloth that have not been stained in blood; but in the next shot……

The whole cloth is completely covered in blood.

 Development of my own ideas

I may require my music to change in some way halfway through the short film so it intensifies a change in tone in the short film to prevent to short film feeling tedious in some way.

Textual Analysis on Spring Clean

Title: Spring Clean
Director: The Bakery (Ed Clifton, Ed Daggett and Micheal Stranney)

Storyline

Spring Clean tells the story of a man whose drab existence in his dreadful flat is about as exciting as the same dreary tie he wears to work every day. But one morning, eating his toast alone, he spills jam on that tie. He sprays certain chemicals over the stain; however, the tie suddenly disappears because of the spray. After spraying the jam jar to test if the disappearing effect is true, he then tries to clean up his house using the disappearing spray. There is a knock on the door from a politician asking for his vote in a nearby election. After find the politician irritating, the man spray him away. He sits down on the settee and writes a list of who he is going to spray away which included:

• Traffic wardens
• Chuggers
• Boss
• The ex
• Yapping dogs
• Slow walkers

He leaves his house to spray his targets. The arrives back at the house with no more of the disappearing liquid left. After a sigh of relief, he hears a noise coming from his closet. He opens the closet door to realise that everyone he sprayed is in the closet. An old man he sprayed gives him back his tie (The only object he was intending to spray) and the closet light goes out ending the short film.

Location

The short film is set only in the man’s house. The house is illuminated by very dull lighting to make the location look more grey. This is to reflect on the dull life the man probably has.

Characters

The protagonist is a working class male. At the start he is dressed in black trousers, white shirt and a blue tie. The lack of complexity in his colours can convey that his job seems really basic and uninteresting. When he leaves the house, he puts on a brown jacket which adds a bit of colour onto him. However, since the colour brown can connotes a sign of disgust or sickening, it now portrays the man as a sinister character.

The character in his black trousers, white shirt and blue tie.

The man with now an added jacket.

The other character in this short film is the politician. He is wearing a black suit with a blue tie. The black suit can portray that he is a sense of danger and is a potential target for the man. However his blue tie can connote that he is still just an innocent person.

 

Genre characteristics

Genre: Comedy

Spring Clean has all the elements of an action film, such as tense music, fast paced editing and a story similar to a mainstream, serious plot (The short film’s story resembles a man who is sick of his life and decides to eliminate certain people in his life in order for him to be happy). However, these elements are put into an unconventional setting and cast making the scenario look like a joke.

This is a shot of the man about to spray an object; focusing specifically on the spray. This shot is portray the spray like some sort of firearm.

The cast in Spring Clean doesn’t look like your conventional bad guys either.

Cinematography

When the man has discovered that the power in the spray is real and goes on to spray his whole kitchen, the shots of him now become high angle shots until the doorbell rings. This is to imply that he is unstoppable because he is the only attacker in this mini war between cleanliness and messiness.

A shot of the man spray from a low angle shot to display his dominance.

Also, when the politician is talking, there are certain extreme close ups of his mouth. This is to display the understanding of why the politician is a target because of his constantly moving mouth; implying that he is annoying.

The extreme close up of the politician’s mouth.

Sound

As more and more objects were disappearing from the spray, the sound effect of the spray is replaced with a laser gun sound effect. The now portrays the spray as a deadly weapon used to eliminate the man’s targets in the short film as the new sound effect misinterprets the purpose of the object. There is a silent but heavy thumping noise when the jam lands on his tie. This is to imply a sense of importance in the short film (As it’s the stain that helped him discover the disappearing spray) and a sense of danger (As the jam/tie is the spray’s first target).

The shot of the jam falling onto the tie.

When the politician is talking to the man, the pitch of the politician’s voice is lower in some shots. This represents the man as evil because of the sinister voice he now has from the lower pitch. This is the most effective on the small laugh he has before he is sprayed away.

Editing

At the start of the short film, the editing pace is slow. This is to imply that the man’s usual day is boring as the time does not fly by as fast. When he is vanishing objects with the spray, the pace starts to get much faster. This is to convey a sense of importance and the man has a very important mission to complete. The short film also jump cuts every time there is a sudden loud beat in the music. As the music is also at a fast tempo, this is to convey that the vanishing spray vanishes the time from doing the slower solutions.

My thoughts

Spring Clean attempts to be unique by giving an action feeling scenario to unconventional content; this results in a brilliantly produced comedy. The sound effects, music and editing pull the short film away from its original comedy genre turning this scenario into an action film perfectly.

Development of my own ideas

A lot of the short films I’ve watched (including this short film) have included a small hint of comedy in some scenes. Perhaps I may want to add some tiny bits of humour in some scenes in my short film.

Textual Analysis on Handuken

Title: Handuken
Director: Chris Chung

Storyline
Handuken is a short action comedy homage to Hong Kong cinema, featuring a very stylised fight sequence inspired by Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow movies. The narrative follows a Hong Kong police cop on his latest mission retrieving a fugitive who has fled to London. It takes place in an authentic Chinese restaurant where several bodyguards are playing mah-jong. The police cop protagonist arrives at the restaurant and is then attacked by the bodyguards. The fighting sequence consists of a set of hand gestures that generate some sort of force e.g. making a peace sign with your hand and punching with that hand gesture will produce a stabbing force.

The protagonist making a stabbing force with his hand gesture

After defeating all 4 bodyguards, the fugitive enters the room where he challenges the protagonist to a melodramatic yet powerful thumb war. The cop defeats the fugitive in a thumb war, resulting in the fugitive passing out. The cop then uses his mini handcuffs to lock the fugitive’s thumbs together to detain him and drags the fugitive out of the restaurant.

Characters
Firstly there is the Hong Kong police cop. When entering the restaurant, he’s wearing sunglasses and has a toothpick in his mouth and is never pulling any intense emotion on his face. This is to portray a cool personality from the cop and that he is confident that he can complete his mission.

Next is the elder bodyguard. His style of clothing is different to the rest of the bodyguards; the main differences are the jewellery round his neck which connotes a sense of wealth, the formal jacket which conveys that he takes this work seriously and the shirt underneath with a symbolist design which implies that he still uses traditional techniques for tasks. The casting choice of using one older bodyguard is interesting because it supports the idea that he has lots of experience and is possibly the most dangerous out of the bodyguards. However, this analysis of the casting choice is ironic as he is the first bodyguard to be defeated.

There is the other 3 bodyguards. All 3 characters are dressed informally which implies that they are more laid back than the elder. Their age then supports the idea that they are less experienced. You can also see one of the younger bodyguards has a dragon tattoo on the side of his neck. This conveys that he may have been raised from a triad gang.

The tattoo can be seen here on the bodyguard on the right; look at his neck.

Finally there is the antagonist; the fugitive. At first he is presented through many close ups on his face; this is used to display his suspicious emotion because as he is the antagonist, this will create an enigma code of what tricks he has up his sleeve. He is dressed more fashionably than the other cast; this implies that he is very wealthy.

Location

The short film was filmed in The Gilgamesh bar and lounge which looks similar to a very authentic Chinese restaurant. The look of the bar supports the realism of replicating Hong Kong cinema by trying to keep the sets looking cultural.

Titles

The main title is presented in a simple white font with the Cantonese name placed above it. The Cantonese name placed above the English font is again another convention to Hong Kong cinema as many Hong Kong cinemas display films in English or with English subtitles. However the title only appears for a brief moment and I’m very unsure why.

This image is displayed at a slightly increased brightness as it was really dark before the title faded away similar to some sort of powder blowing away in the wind.

Hard Boiled (1992) A perfect example of a film produced in Hong Kong. The title is presented with the Cantonese name above the English name; proving the title presentation to be a convention.

Genre Characteristics

Genre: Action/Comedy

The main characteristic of the genre was its fast hand to hand combat. This characteristic is related to the use of fast pace which is a convention in the action genre.

Melodramatic emotions are shown in this short film. Emotions like these will look like overreactions to things in certain scenarios. In this scenario, melodramatic emotions would look humorous as the short film’s pace and fighting conveys that this is a serious action film. Therefore, melodramatic emotions are a characteristic for comedy.

Cinematography

Low angle shots are used when displaying an upcoming attack. This is to indicate who has the upper hand in the battle or who might have. High angle shots are used to display who is about to receive an attack. This is to convey that they are in trouble and they do not have the upper hand.

Sound

There is little dialogue, however it is all spoken in Cantonese. The use of another language made the short film feel more authentic meaning it supports the idea of replicating Hong Kong cinema by speaking the language of origin.

Editing

A shot/reverse shot is used in the thumb war scene. This is used to display the emotions of the protagonist and the antagonist to convey a prediction of who will have the upper hand in the thumb war.

The protagonist remains calm; conveying a sense of confidence and determination

Whereas the antagonist is displaying a “tryhard” emotion; conveying a sense of struggle

 

 

 

 

 

There are several match on actions in the short film. These editing techniques are used to match the pace of action over more than 1 shot. Here they are used to create one continuous fighting scene.

Enigma codes

• What has this fugitive done in the past?
• What will happen to the fugitive after he is taken back to Hong Kong?
• What is the protagonist’s name?
• What type of fighting is this?
• What type of energy is made from the hand gestures?

My thoughts

The character’s made up hand gestures and fast body movements replicate a regular martial arts fight really well. Characters are represented conventionally to a classic cop film e.g. the cool protagonist. Overall, Handuken really does succeed in attempting to replicate Hong Kong cinema.

Elements found that I could include in my short film

With the hand movements generating some sort of force and the unconventional thumb war for the final battle, it would suggest that when making short films it doesn’t have to be the most realistic of stories or narratives.