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Thursday, 23 September 2010

Similar Short Film Analysis - The Black Hole

This is a short film taken from the website :http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/



Synopsis: a sleep deprived worker discovers a black hole
Genre: Comedy
Although this film is from a different genre to that of ours, I feel that it uses similar effects and shots of those we plan on using in our film. 'The Black Hole' is written and directed by Olly Williams and Phil Samson, it is a 3 minute short film which was created for the London Short Film Festival and won the Virgin Media Shorts Award 2008. This short film is a dark comedy and centers around the themes of greed and invisibility.
The temperal order of this narrative is linear, and the temperal duration is as follows:
Story Duration- Years, the main character seems to be bored with his job and this therefore suggests that he has been working there for sometime.
Plot Duration- 30-60 minutes+
Screen Duration- 3 minutes

Analysis:
The film opens with a pin-hole effect, which then moves us into the main setting of the film.
The opening shot is similar to a shot we are planning for our film, the pan right helps establish the scene and introduce the main character. Also the the titles that fade out through this pan would look really effective in our film. The shot helps show the audience that the film is set in a sort of office as the props match the setting, you can see desks and computers and the main character is also wearing a shirt and tie. Another way the audience can establish that we're in on office is with the sound, you can here the diegetic sounds of a photocopier.
The third shot (see above), helps establish the character, we can see that his top button is undone, his hair is messy and his expression seems bored and tired. This allows the audience to sympathize with the character, they are able to relate to him as they too may have felt like he does at one point, furthermore they will enjoy the film more as they will feel connected to the character.
The next shot used in this short film is an eye-line match, the main character who stereotypically is male, is stood at the photocopier heard earlier, he is trying to photocopy something as we see him angrily push the button to copy.

The use of a low angle shot used here is effective at proving the characters importance, the low angle makes him appear larger and more dominant- which is a stereotypical trait of men is films. Men are mainly portrayed to be strong and dominant characters.
These shots (see below) are the main reason I chose to analyse this film, these shots are very similar to some shots we are planning on using in our film. Our main character Ruby Fox is going to be turned invisible and so we want to maker her, or parts of her disappear on screen. Here the main character can be seen putting his hand in the black hole, a garbage Matt has most likely been used to layer shots in order to create this effect.
The film also uses several close-up and medium-shots of the protagonist, again this allows the audience to sympathize with the character and relate to him. It also allows the viewers to understand how the character is feeling during different parts of the film, his emotions can be understood from the shots shown below.
I feel that we should use close-ups and medium shots of our characters expression in our production, I feel that it would make our piece for effective as it would allow the audience to relate to and feel connected to the character.

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