The film ‘Double Take’ by Stappard has themes of crime in Britain in the form of daylight robbery and conveys a message of ‘what goes around comes around’. The narrative structure of the film could be arguable however I would say it is linear however there are ‘flashbacks’ in the form of the thief viewing himself being filmed earlier in the day and ends as ‘open-ended’ as the audience is left to think what might of happened. The film starts with a shifty looking character looking around and has a very brief cut-in at the start to display the title ‘Double Take’. The film is very gritty which matches the theme and the setting is a dull town in an urban environment . The cinematography comprises of kinetic camera movement and we get the feeling that someone could be watching the protagonist and features close ups on important objects, such as the yard with the thrown-away bags, which the audience remember when the film finishes as the close-up makes them an important observation. When the protagonist gets home he plays the tape on the camera which he stole and the audience now sees a ‘flashback’ in the form of a first person view of the camera recording the protagonist and following him home. The audience are reminded that they’re watching the same thing as the protagonist as there is a border and a ‘REC’ icon showing the camera being played back. The film ends on a twist as the camera ‘flashback’ enters the thief’s house and walks upstairs and at this point the tape ends. The protagonists realises that someone’s upstairs and grabs a bat and runs upstairs, this is where the theme of the film ‘what goes around comes around’ comes into play as the protagonist becomes the victim. We then see a shot of man wearing leather gloves running with tape and the audience can make their own mind up with what happens next. The film cuts to the titles which are play over a score.
The film ‘Veronique’ directed by Patrik Bergh has a ‘coming of age’ theme showing a young boy with a over-active imagination fantasize about a girl and it displays emotional restraint. The narrative structure of the film is linear, as the audience see the boy take the bus each day, this is always in ‘chronological order’ and the day being titled at the bottom of the screen. The narrative of the film is a restrictive, subjective narrative as we see everything from the boys point of view and nobody else’s which is why its restrictive. The film is presented in a circular 3-part narrative, at the end of the film, we are back to square 1 as nothing has changed for the boy, he will still be riding the same bus everyday. One interesting feature in this film is that the 3-part circular narrative is back up by the ‘weather’ which starts of as heavy rain but progresses onto being sunny when the girl boards the bus daily, however it ends as we started with heavy rain, this is called prophetic fallacy. The weather can also represent being a British film, the weather very much presents British weather as very mixed as it can be raining one minute and be sunny the next.The style of the film is a ‘rom-com’ which and as the girl is French, a French score kicks in when she boards the bus which is very quirky and bumbling and as opposed to other short films, it is not gritty. There is a contrast between the image and the dialogue as there is a voice over of the boy which presents his thoughts to the audience. The film cuts to the titles when the boy realises that she will never return however he feels like he will always love her, a quirky score kicks in.
In conclusion to my research of short films, I have noticed that there are many conventions that appear in them. Short films tend to normally focus on one main character, this allows the character to develop and the audience can follow them easily. Short films rely on a gripping storyline or and interesting character rather than special effects and tend to have cliff-hangers or twists to keep things interesting. The short films I have viewed haven’t been over edited as things are best kept to the minimum and serve the purpose of them which is to entertain the audience and show what the director can do. The themes of short films vary greatly however the narrative structures are usually linear and open-ended as this allows for a better twist. One thing I have noticed in short films are that that themes are very realistic, for example Double Take covered daylight theft while Veronique covered personal fantasy in romance. These are common themes and happen daily while comparing to main-stream films we don’t see assassination plots involving nuclear weapons or superheroes smashing through tall buildings, short films stick to being realistic.
By Filip Hazel
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