Analysing a Short Film

I will be analysing a 5 minute film to study possible cinematography, mise-en-scene, sound, editing, characters, storyline/narrative, genre, and titles elements we can bring to our film. I found a particularly good website called "Short Bay" featuring short films for all over the world, both high end budget for advertising purposes such as Mercedes and low end independent films. Each film varies in length and genre. To refine my search, I selected the "5 Mins" tag as our film will be restricted to five minutes and browsed the various comedy, drama and romantic films.

I choose to analyse a short film directed by Guy Richie called "Star". The film has two main characters, the Driver played by Clive Owens and the Star played by Madonna. There are also less important characters such as the Stars Manager, her entourage, another driver and the paparazzi. The film starts with non-linear narrative, as the Driver describes the Star. There are cuts to the Star as she performs simple tasks like cleaning her sunglasses. It concentrates on two of the Five Codes in Narrative from Roland Barthes theory, semic and symbolic code. It indicates the film will revolve around the Star, and concentrates on opposite, man v.s. woman, and to an extent, good v.s. evil.

The film has an expensive feel to it, as the male characters are all dressed in suits and ties. The Star is dressed entirely in leather and wears black sunglasses, and her jacket says "Superstar" across the back. It's a clique of a classic diva. I was interested in the symbolic code used, as we will also use the code for man v.s. women.

The film is classed as comedy, and our film will also feature a subtle humour, although classed more as a Rom-Com (mixture of romantic themes with comedy). The genre is clear as the characters have slightly outrageous behaviour and are particularly flamboyant. The Star is at first portrayed as a diva and is very serious, but as the film continues they make a foul out of her as the Driver escorts her in a crazy fashion, and she bounces around in the back seat. She also smear lipstick across her face, tarnishing her stylish demeanour, and in the end, spills coffee on her crotch making it seem like she has wet herself. They also use editing such as slow motion for comedic effect. It shows that comedy comes in different forms. We can treat our characters almost as clowns and create personalities for them. Our lead male will be making mistakes throughout the film so he need to be comical in his actions and speech. We can also use editing for comical effect.

The titles don't blend into the film and I wouldn't say the music matches, it gives the impression the film will be eerie or mysterious when it is neither. It features a simple text which transitions of the screen with a dissolve. It shows a photo of the Driver, and ends by fading to black. The film then fades onto screen. I will study another title sequence more appropriate for our production. I don't think this sequence has much relevance to the film. My idea for our title sequence will include editing features from in our film, e.g. images/time rewinding

Power is shown through camera angles. At first, we see a shot at low angle of the Star as she walks in slow motion showing her status. By the end, the Star is on the floor in a ball and there is another shot at low angle, this time of the paparazzi looking down on her, showing her as vulnerable. There is a variety of shots used, in particular medium shots in the car and close ups of the Star. In many of the medium shots, the Star is framed centre screen showing her as the key element. We can use this because Jack see's Emma as very important to impress. The film could focus on her, possibly even with Jack's point of view.

The use of music in the film adds comedy. There is rock music playing ("Song 2" - Blur) in the car chasing scene. The music cuts as the car performs a large jump and plays a classical song famous for dramatic scenes ("The Ride of the Valkyries" - Richard Wagner). The footage plays in slow motion as the characters pull shocked faces. As the car lands again the rock song kicks back in. It has a comedy effect because it makes the actions exaggerated. We could use music to exaggerate actions, such as when Jack spills Red wine on a cream carpet, by playing overly dramatic music.

The film features jump cuts from the Driver to the Star in different locations. We know the Driver is describing the Star because his voice continues to voice over, even when he isn't on the screen. We can use this method on our film at the beginning as we also have a voice over of Jack describing his first encounter with Emma. As I mentioned previously, in the car jump, the footage is slowed down. We can use speed editing in our production to highlight events, such as dropping items.