2:20 | Grand Prize Winner Virgin Media Shorts 2011 (Ella)

In this short film, a man is given a worn out pair of glasses by an old woman while he waits at an Indian restaurant for a girl. He puts them on and finds out that he can tell how long someone has left to live. He discovers when he is going to die by looking in a car window. The film ends just milliseconds before he is hit by a bus.

Media Language

This film was posted on 'Virgin Media Shorts', their rules state that all films entered must be 2 minutes and 20 seconds long or less. This film has cleverly used these guidelines to inspire their film.

The film begins with a man (the protagonist) looking at his phone to see a message from Amy, it reads: "On the bus, be there in a minute ☺ xxx". Through the use of the logograms (x's) in this text the audience can presume that the girl he is texting is either his girlfriend or a date. A close up with a very shallow depth of field is used, so a blurred effect is achieved in the background implying a busy street/night in the town. Also, a non-diegetic soundtrack of Indian music could suggest he is in an Indian restaurant, especially as the colour in the frame is colourful and bright which is often associated with Indian culture.

The next shot is an extreme close up of a trolley in motion. The camera tracks the trolley at low height but remains eye-level and not angled. The camera shakes a little to add a more chaotic approach to the shot and to mirror the shaky movement of the trolley its self. At this moment enigma could be created as the audience do not yet know who is behind the trolley and its relevance to the film.

We then see a canted angle shot. The canted angle helps to connote a disrupted mood and changes the atmosphere. It makes the woman and trolley seem different and unsettling to the audience. Restricted narration which creates enigma also adds to this effect. In addition the shot appears to have a slight 'fish eye' effect to add distortion.

The non-diegetic soundtrack here then is heard again however the music has changed: it is now a series of muffled shouts which could foreshadow danger, whilst the diegetic sound remains to be the loud clanging of the trolley moving which is again unsettling.

The woman also stops and stares whilst she is walking with her eyes fixated on something. This causes the audience to question what she is looking at and why.

The woman’s costume is dull, scruffy, old and not very presentable. She wears a coat with a hood despite it not raining and presumably not cold as the man is sitting outside in a shirt. The trolley she wheels around is also unusual as you are not allowed to take trolleys out of the premises of the supermarket. These factors suggest that she is poor and her look and prop (trolley) is stereotypical of a 'tramp'.

This last shot of this first section is an over the shoulder shot, the main image has been focused with the use of slit framing. This is where the woman is standing across the road standing looking dead into the camera. However the out of focus figure on the left of the frame is assumed to be the male protagonist. This links both characters together, and now creates enigma as new questions arise in the audiences minds. Why she has stopped so suddenly to look at the man?

Audience

The reason why most directors create short films, is to show larger companies their work and to try and appeal to that company and get signed. Therefore ultimately the audience for most short films is simply bigger organisations.

Despite this, for leisure watchers, I believe the target audience would be majority people aged 16-30. The age range is relatively large as I believe both teenagers and adults would be intrigued by the glasses, and the cinematography of the film as well as the build-up to the death. The target age also has to include adults because these are the people who the directors are aiming their work to as well. 

Furthermore as 'Virgin Media Shorts' is mostly available online for free it means that people who can access a computer will be able to view it. This means that lower classes and teens (due to their internet use) are more likely to view this film.

Both males and females can relate and enjoy the short film as it is not a gender biased topic.

Narrative

I believe that the narrative structure of this short film is similar to 'A Favour' as it is linear also, however in addition it follows Todorov's Theory of Classic Narrative stages 1-3:

Equilibrium: This is when the man is looking at his phone and waiting for his assumed date.  Nothing negative, or any foreshadowing events have happened yet. 

Disruption: This could be when the lady with the trolley comes into shot, the camerawork here is used to create an unsettling feeling and therefore creates a change in tone.

Confrontation:Only the last few seconds of this short film are of this stage: as the man only realises that he is going to die here. This is obviously when he recognises the 'disruption', but the second part of this stage (alike 'A Favour') is not included to create a more dramatic ending.