Short Films textual analysis

Short film analysis.

Lovefield. . This is the first shot of the short film and as well as being an establishing shot its also the title. The title then disintegrates and the cameras slowly lowers and tracks thorough the cornfield. These are all medium shots and the positioning and movement of the camera crates meaning as the camera slowly creeps up the sign to show a black crow sitting on the top. The connotative meaning of a black crow is death and this gives the audience the impression that the film is a horror.

A lot of extreme close ups are used in this film not to portray characters facial expressions but to show aspects of the mise en scene like props. One of the close up shots is of a mobile phone and you can here the digetic sound of a phone constantly beeping because it can’t reach a line, which implies a feeling of desperation. The next extreme close up is of a blood spattered rag and this appears instantly after you see someone’s hand grab the straw as if they were in pain and then you hear screaming which not only confirms the person is in pain but that the audience think that this is a horror. The camera then pans towards the left and you see a person’s foot clenching with pain and you can see and hear from the digetic sound of someone screaming that they are struggling.

This is shot also has narrow depth of field shot, this has been done to make the audience focus on the bloody hand and the aggressive clutch around a knife. As this is a silent film, the digetic and non digetic sound of this shot is really important to reinforce the red herring. This shot does not strictly follow Todorvs theory of the Rule of thirds, as half of the shot on the left is the back of Suspected murders hear and the right side of the shot is of An open field which suggests to the audience that escape Would be difficult and its a very isolated place. This shot is a narrow depth of field shot showing the main character and the crow. This shot shows the link between the two and I think that the crow is the main focus point of the shot to accentuate the meaning of a crow which is death.

The sequence above shows shot reverse shot. The reason for this is to create a tense atmosphere for the audience as the camera shows close ups of the characters face to show his reaction and expression to the crow that is taunting him. The three screen grabs above show aspects of the mise en scene e.g. costumes. The costumes are one of the main factors when trying to represent your character correctly and from the shots shown above this character is portrayed as maybe violent from the blood on his hands in the first shot, intimidating from the second shot from the tattoo’s which are actually misleading as they represent someone balanced and loving as he has scales and below “mom” with a heart. The final image is a recognisable character from quite a few horror films, the middle age, sweaty long haired hill billy.

The lighting helps to understand the atmosphere and characters feelings. The lighting in this short film does show feelings etc… For example the first image is at the very beginning of the film and from the grey dull clouds you as the audience can tell that the narrative is going to be dark, whereas the second image is at the end of the film an where the audience see the red herring and you can tell the lighting is a lot brighter creating a warmer atmosphere.

Overall this a another great film which creates a twist just like mine my film also starts dark, it doesn't turn good but it shows an emotional side which I am going to use music and camera angles to create this effect