Tomas Mann McLeod + George Feast

The Black Hole short film analysis

The short film The Black Hole was uploaded on 31 October 2008 onto the YouTube channel
Future Shorts. The films meek run time of 2:49 contrast the amount of views it has gained;
15,623,677.
The pieces main protagonist is an anonymous male whose identity is
never revealed. He is represented as being a depressed office
worker at the start of the films run time. This representation is
constructed through the mise en scene of the shot which reveals an
office working attire and the diegetic sound of a sigh he utters as he
glumly stares at a photocopier. The representation of this character
changes as he discovers the object which
the short is named around The Black
Hole. This object completely changes his
representation until the short films sinister ending. This also
presents the products mos blatant underlying theme of Greed.
The settings of the product are
represented as a bland and grey
stereotypical office. This
representation by the use of bland grey and white colours
of the settings and the lack of vibrant colours or any
unique or seemingly personal belongings. This is shown
through the mise en scene of several establishing shots of
the film.
The target audience of the product would be white Caucasian males between 20-30 years of
age. I inferred this information from the business office attire of a shirt and tie the main
protagonist is working. This relates to the target audience of 20-30 year old males in the
socio economic groups of C1-B. This relates because it would resemble the attire of the
people that work in this same office based profession.
The main part of the film which creates meaning through the use of lighting and camera
angles is towards the end of the product. The
anonymous character discovers that the black
hole can create a portal that can allow him to
traverse different body parts through objects. He
uses this to take money out of a safe. As he
repeatedly delves his hand through the portal to
grab the money the camera is situated at an eye
level close up shot of the protagonists face.
Through the dark lighting and close up shot the
audience can see his distorted expressions vividly
and the sweat glistening on his brow and
Tomas Mann McLeod + George Feast
forehead.
This shot is continued when he constantly and desperately
proceeds to grasp the money out of the portal. This creates
meaning by highlighting his grotesque features and the
sweat situated on his face. This could resemble the
grotesque and morally wrong act he is committing; theft.
His greed and the power he possesses from utilising the
Black Hole has over taken his sense of morality and caused
him to do a deed revolved around greed which isnt
acceptable.
The ideology of the piece is blatant through the morally corrupt actions of the protagonist.
The themes and ideology of the piece creates enigma by asking the audience about the
responsibility of humans and how they handle great power. This is expressed by the
anonymous character using the Black Hole in various ways; to open a door, acquiring food
from a vending machine, grasping money from a vault. This power which he received from
the Black Hole causes him to become entangled in using it. Upon stealing large quantities of
money from a safe he attempts to climb inside and grab more. This results in the tape he
used to keep the paper stuck to the safe to blow away, imprisoning him in the safe. This also
shows how too much greed can lead to unwanted circumstances.
The genre of the piece is a parable which has an over-arching message of prohibiting greed.
The genre would also be a sci-fi due to the sci-fi elements included; The Black Hole. The
convention of including a moral message inside the parable has been included but
challenges the convention by implicitly suggesting it.













Tomas Mann McLeod + George Feast