Upgrade - short film (Virgin Media Shorts)
Synoposis:
A
male who mistreats his wife and is shown an advert for which he can improve as
a husband, one part of the husband gets trapped into the TV whilst the other
comes out of the TV and lives the perfect husband the wife has always wanted.
The short film begins with non diegetic
sound from the TV in the background, the music in the advert is loud and clear
and the main focus as the camera shot pulls up from the TV setting the scene of
a standard man sitting watching TV. The posture of the man seems as though he
is comfortable and in his zone. The low angle shot places the protagonist at a
higher angle and the bottle of drinks at the bottom; the cut away shot to the
pile of clothes unmade shows that he is pondering upon his chores which he has
not doe this comes in hand with the TV advert of being a ‘good husband’. Ambient sound of the air and cars is noticed when
the character goes to pick up the new TV from outside, this creates realism and
draws the audience to think about what they should perhaps do in a situation
like that.
After the arrival of the TV, the sound
begins to shift from low-level ambient sound to sharp sinister music to denote
that the TV is iconic for his misery. Moreover, the shots are placed in a chronological
order as the lights flash on and off, the blinds, then the bird in the clock
tweets this is then repeated as the lights turn back on perhaps to build a
sense of excitement and heighten the experience for the viewer in general.
One of the extreme close up shots where the
protagonist turns his head and then the shot changes to the hammer and then to
the character inside the TV as he defends himself is a clever way to amerce the
audience as the audience know that some sort of violence will take place but
they have to actively think for themselves- what and how it will go down. There
is a reoccurring point in the film where the TV screen goes fuzzy as does the
audience’s screens to show a change in positioning/character because the
original character is now trapped in the TV and the man in the TV comes out. An
interesting way the director shows this is through a close up of the man’s hand
on his tie, in which the audience will straight away notice and the attire is a
key difference in both characters. Low key lighting was used throughout the
film until the part where the man in suit changes roles with the man in the TV,
as the ‘upgrade’ in the TV takes place as does the lifestyle of the man
therefore high key lighting is used after this change to make an indirect
comment on the positive change.
After this point the ambient sounds and
knock on the TV screen become hollow and have a low level in which the audience
can barely make out what is happening which provides a certain edge to the
film. The use of panning was used intelligently in the last section of the
film, the shot pans IN to the man in suit and his now partner showing the unity
and appreciation the woman feels as she hugs him, as the frame tightens so does
the physical proximity between the man and the female which induces that
feeling of love. Where as when the shot pans OUT from the TV of the original
character who is banging on the TV screen to be heard makes him little and as
the frame loses it makes him more and more insignificant as he becomes
something small in a wide amount of space.
