Task 1 - Short Movie Analysis

Analysis of opening 30 seconds of ‘Eight’ by Stephen Daldry, 1998

Stephen Daldry’s heart-breaking story of a young boy dealing with the passing of his father begins very simply with a panning shot of an empty beach on an overcast day, this very simple opening may create a certain sadness and foreshadowing of something sad to come but due to the brightly coloured ball we see towards the end of the shot, the mood shifts and a more happy childish feeling is created. The shot lasts for around 15 seconds allowing the setting and the diegetic sounds of the ocean and the swaying of the grass combined with a slow violin piece in a minor key creating a sad monotone feel. The peaceful scene is then interrupted by a child’s foot kicking the ball in the air and we get a second long bird’s eye view of the ball hurl towards the camera and the child’s face watching it as it flies into the air. This shot though it is a second long smashes through the monotone feel and creates a soft gentle childlike feel. Just before the ball is blasted into the air we get a piece of narration saying “I reckon my dads an astronaut”, this childish remark from our young protagonist first makes us smile with the childish remark obviously an idea from the child’s vivid imagination.  But when you think back on what the child said it becomes very sad as the child doesn’t know what his father does suggesting either loss of life or a broken home. This brings us back down to earth but diegetic sound then appears from Jonathon, yelling over the calming sound of the ocean “My name is Jonathon and I am eight”, this short line completely turns the feel of the short film around again as it perfectly encapsulates the invisibility a young child feels. This rollercoaster from childlike fun to monotone sadness I think is a very hard and powerful think to achieve in 30 seconds of film and this short film does it perfectly.

Analysis of the first 30 seconds of The Gasman 1998 directed by Lynn Ramsay

The  film is about a daughter slowly putting together a dark secret her father isn’t trying to hide. The film opens with a close up shot of a pair of shoes being polished with depth of focus being used with a blurry picture of a woman running around this goes on for around 15 seconds. The opening shot always sets the tone of the piece which would be quite sad and downhearted but combined with the radio creating some diegetic music we hear ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’, telling us it’s Christmas creating all these feelings. This clever opening shot cleverly only shows us the bottom part of two characters bodies  creating this wonder and intrigue into what the two characters look like and there roles in this story. The shot the cuts to an over head shot of a child playing with a metal racing car suggesting the era is roughly 1990s through the car and the rest of the items in the apartment. The boy fuels up his car with sugar. This bird’s eye view leaves us to wonder what the child looks like. This clever use of putting us in angles where we can’t view the characters almost distances us from them. This shot lasts a similar amount of time with the same diegetic music but we hear what may be the mothers voice yell over the top of the radio saying “come on get ready”. This was said in a Northern accent setting our location perfectly.