Short film analysis - Slinky

Slinky which is a short film with a duration of 3 minutes is directed by the two individual characters. The storyline is rather bizarre, there is two males; Eddie and Jeremy who are old school friends. Eddie is confronted by one Jeremy who seems to not have grown up since school, at first Jeremy is shown as immature and silly but at the end there is a plot twist. When I looked at the codes and conventions of short films is a recent blog post a lot of the things that I found were included in this short film, the length, the size of cast and the specific editing to show the story easier. I will be analysing this short film in terms of camerawork, editing, sound and miss en scene. At the end after I have looked at the film a few times I will draw upon my thought and opinions about this short film as when I watched it in school it was quite confusing.

Camerawork

• Panning shot from sky to Eddie on the bench to show how the film is sophisticated as it takes effort to do that for a short film, also it goes with the job of Eddie which is very sophisticated as well.
• Establishing shot to allow the viewer to see that park which is associated with children, the behaviour that both the men are showing is very childlike.
• Over the shoulder shot of when Jeremy is walking past Eddie until he sees him so this allows the audience to allow the audience to see Jeremy first and therefore know that they will soon interact to start the short film.
• Low angle of Eddie which represents the inner immaturity of Eddie.
• Close up of Jeremy to show how he is an annoying character and his childish behaviour.

Editing

• Quick cuts from character to character to show how they are irritating and complies with the codes and conventions of short films.
• shot-reverse-shot between the men to show how they are having a conversation
• The beginning title and end credits add more dimension to the short film

Sound

• Ambient sound of the birds shows how its a typical day at the park 
• Sound bridge over the title at the beginning without this it would be less childlike
• Sound bridge over the end when Eddie laughs at the end of the clip whilst he is playing with the slinky
• Dialogue between the characters, Jeremy has a high pitched voice at the beginning which is childlike like his behaviour whereas Eddie has a more controlled voice however at the end it goes high pitch when he unleashes his inner child.
• Diegetic sound during to show how it is on a site specific location

Mise- en scene

• The two costumes are very different which portrays the different characteristics of the characters with Eddie in a smart suit and Jeremy in a bobble hat and scruffy clothes. They also show how they are of different class and status as well.
• The light bulb connotes an idea which is not obviously happening with Jeremy as he still believes he is a child.
• The lunch box on the bench is normally what a child has so foreshadows what happens at the end with Eddie as he turns childish.
• The space hopper is a childish toy and the director put this prop in specifically because it is obvious that he does not carry this around with him at all times.
• Whereas the newspaper that Eddie has is sophisticated and goes with the suit and job that he has.
• The slinky at the end is the main prop as it is the title of the short film so therefore comes into it
• It has natural lighting also to show how it is childlike

Conclusion

Overall, this was not my favourite short film out of the films I have watched, the plot was silly and there was no point to the short film. It was not my cup of tea and the twist at the end I thought did not work as well as the director thought it would. In my opinion I think that they had the idea that it was about adults have got an inner childlike behaviour in them and although they try to hide it they all need to release it, even though adults now have sophisticated jobs and children for themselves when interacting with other school friends they act as though they did before. The camerawork was good to establish the two different characters were however the editing was not as good as it could of been but that could of been because they only had a small budget for the short film. The only reason I laughed at this was because it was very silly and I didn't believe what I was watching was actually a short film. The dialogue was very repetitive but it did go with the concept of the short film. All in all I will not be making my short film like this as I didn't really like it and I believe I could come up with a better concept.