The best
medicine- Short film (Virgin Media Shorts)
Plot:
This
short film is about a female who is finding it difficult to go on dates as she
cannot find someone who is willing to accept her flaw- a weird laughter.
An establishing shot is used to present the
artificial setting along with the music of violin; it creates a sense of
fantasy and adds a mythical element to it. Immediately the shot changes to a
female who enters a shop seeking advice, the representation of the protagonist,
is a typical female in a modern world trying to be accepted, the use of potions
and somebody who is older and wiser links back to the conventions of a fairytale.
A 180 degree camera shot is used when the 2
women are talking very briefly. The sound gets louder and shaper when the
female opens the box to connote it’s importance. The mode of address varies
among the two, the younger female has a rather annoyed/lost of hope tone to her
voice, whereas the other female has a reassuring yet tempting manipulative tone
to her voice, this is important as they both bring 2 different personas and
feelings to the short film.
After the fade there is a change in the non-diegetic
background music, a panning shot is used to set the scene of the bedroom, a
nice big room with a stylish dressing table where the protagonist gets ready.
The close up shot of the potion along with the focal zoom on the potion brings
the importance of the potion to the main character as she levels it with her
eyes making the audience realize that she really wants it to work- for there to
be magic in the potion which will help her find love. The slow violin gives a
certain hint that the date will not go very well, as each date goes by and the
potion along with the laughter of the protagonist change, the repeated and
continuous shots of the protagonist doing the same thing everyday for her date
and ending up disappointed each time, these shots are used to connote a
cyclical and no change in her luck, which creates empathy as an audience for
the protagonist. Each day the character is wearing different stylish clothing
represents the persona that comes with putting on the clothing, except for the
last date where she doesn’t have time to dress up and forgets the potion. At
this point a zoom is used to signify how forgetting the potion relies heavily
on how her date will go. Synchronized diegetic sound is used to bring the story
back to reality. Despite the fact that the character is not wearing any makeup/nice
attire and has a weird laughter she finds the person she was seeking because
that person was willing to accept her for whom she is and her flaw- (weird
laugher) without using the potion she was happy and found her match.
By analysing a film from a different genre made clear to me how the use of sound, specifically is used and manipulated to create a different atmosphere. One important factor that stuck to me is the fact that the shot variations a very similar to horror films- both horror and non-horror films use the same shots but due to post production of manipulating the lighting and shots pieced together are what distinguish a horror film from a non-horror film. Therefore, when filming my own short film in order to ensure that I am portraying the horror genre correctly I will use low-key lighting, short shot durations, zooming into specific shots.
By analysing a film from a different genre made clear to me how the use of sound, specifically is used and manipulated to create a different atmosphere. One important factor that stuck to me is the fact that the shot variations a very similar to horror films- both horror and non-horror films use the same shots but due to post production of manipulating the lighting and shots pieced together are what distinguish a horror film from a non-horror film. Therefore, when filming my own short film in order to ensure that I am portraying the horror genre correctly I will use low-key lighting, short shot durations, zooming into specific shots.
