3 short films with different genres

“Mop”- comedy short film.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhn6AnCOtMI

This short dark comedy film shows us a night cleaner who unintentionally kills someone and he must
therefore hide the body without anybody noticing. Dark comedy is a type of comic style that makes
light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo. We can understand that the genre of the
film is a comedy. This is due to the fact that comedy has four micro aspects that are used in the
making of it. The first clip of the film is a montage of the city which helps the audience gain a wider
understanding of where it is set. This is conventional to a comedy film as they are exaggerating
something that would be very unlikely to happen in real life. A comedy film that is also set like this is
Mr Bean.

The film meets Todorov theory, as this has an equilibrium that disrupts the normal every day which
is the death of the agent, from slipping over the wet floor, then the problem is resolved as the body
is removed, but then we are given another scene to find a new equilibrium, which is a new dead
agent. The reason people usually watch comedies is to be entertained. This is because they want to
relax and try to separate themselves from reality. Therefore, the target audience for this film would
be teenagers as most teens have a stressful day at school and watching a comedy would cheer them
up due to the effects of the film making them laugh, this will change the mood.

Editing:

This clip begins with a montage of the city, which helps show the audience where it is set, which is in
the city. Through the use montages, it links to the conventions of the comedy genre as it is usually
fast paced unlike the majority of other genres. This helps to add to the humour part of the genre.
The speed of the film varies throughout. This is because we see fast shots at the beginning to help
show where the film has been set. However, there are also slower clips used throughout. Such as,
when the agent slipped and died. This is conventional as it over-emphasises such an unlikely death
and situation. We had a close up of his face and then slow-paced camera movement to show us
what he is thinking. The variety of different cuts in the video, help us to understand the pain and
struggle that he is going through from trying to remove the dead body. This links to the conventions
of the comedy genre as it is over- emphasising the cleaners struggle and how misfortunate the
cleaner is (schadenfreude). In the film, there is also a shot-reverse shot. This is when the cleaner is
poking the dead body with his mop. Here, it shows the mop poking the dead body and then the
cleaner’s reaction. Using this shot, helps show the emotion and the reaction of the cleaner when the
body does not move or respond. Another editing technique that is used is cross-cutting. We see this
edit used when the cleaner has just cleaned up the mess and hidden the dead body as another dead
body is left on the floor he has just cleaned for when he enters the hallway again. This humours the
audience as you then start to feel sorry for the cleaner and the tragic events that keep occurring.
However, it also creates humour for the audience by the manner he treats the situation and how he
manages to hide the dead body without nobody seeing in the office block. This is a convention to the
genre as it is seen in other films such as the hangover.

Mise-en-scene
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The use of iconography has been used in the first 30 seconds. For example, the mop, which is then
labelled as a murder weapon as the agents slips on the wet floor and dies. This helps us to realise
that it is a comedy film as the use of a mop helping commit a murder is unrealistic as it is not a
dangerous weapon. So, the use of it as the “weapon” shows off a funny side to it. This makes the
audience laugh as he mops the floor and before he can put down the wet sign, someone falls over it
and dies. Costume makes the status of the characters easily identifiable; the “victim” is wearing a
suit indicating he works in the office block whereas, the “murderer” is wearing overalls and a t-shirt
which clearly indicates he is domestic staff. This is borne out further when we see two more
characters both wearing office attire. This is conventional as many comedies are set in relatable
locations where there are limited locations used e.g. friends. The use of an office chair to transport
the body from the building to the car further indicates the premises to be business premises.
Furthermore, the cleaner also places a pair of sunglasses on the victim to conceal his lifeless status
which is pointless given it is dark outside. This is conventional to the comedy genre as it all adds to
the comedic value without it being realistic. Several examples of this can be seen in the movie
“Bean”.

Cinematography:

During the film, cinematography has been used many times to help show the different emotions that
the worker goes through. For example, close ups, and bird eye view shots to show off a different
angle of the event, which also helps bring a funny element to it as we see the body being dragged off
the screen and makes it more humorous for the audience, and helps the audience believe that he is
really dead as the body is dragged away from the screen looking unresponsive and motionless. Close
up shots were used to help the audience see the emotion and facial expressions of the worker as he
has just committed manslaughter, adding to the hilarity. The close ups have also been used as the
audience want to see his reactions and expressions, but we do not need to see what he really says as
dialogue is absent from the short film. This helps bring a funny element to the film as it meets the
conventions of comedy by having no dialogue, yet encouraging the audience to feel his desperation
at what was essentially not his fault. The use of the high angle shot was used to add a more serious
and dramatic approach as we are looking down at the characters, which is effective as High-angle
shots can make the focus seem defenceless or helpless, which he is because he is dead. We can
often see this type of comedy in films such as Laurel and Hardy.

Sound:

In the film, most of the sound is diegetic. For example, the squeezing of the water from the mop into
the bucket, the mopping of the floor and the victim slipping and landing with a thud on the ground.
These are sounds that are all due to the setting and atmosphere he is in, as is the echo of the music
coming from his earphones; The use of this helps making it amusing, as there is no dialogue and it is
all about the facial expressions, actions and the environmental sounds such as the noise form when
he drags the body place to place, the ping of the lift and the sound from when he unlocks his car. As
he struggles to put the body into the car, we hear non-diegetic sound as something clearly blocks the
boot from closing as we hear a squelch meaning he has to reposition the body. The volume of the
squelch is also comedic as it is over- exaggerated sound and clear to picture what has just happened
even though we do not see it. This is conventional to the comedy style as there is a catalogue of
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issues going wrong from one to another. This helps us to understand the awkwardness and mess of
the situation. An example of this gallows comedy would be “death at a funeral”.

Ancestors- sci-fi short film.

Ancestors is set 500 years from now and appears to be prophetic tale of how the humans have
“ruined” earth, numerous countries in the forthcoming and an explorer going to see his ancestral
world to find out what happened to all the humans on Earth, which is shown in the film of many
shots of the earth looking dead and dry. . We can tell that the genre of this film is a sci fi film. This is
because it uses the four micro aspects of a sci fi film and has different conventions that are used to
help support the genre. For this film, the target audience would once again be teenagers, as the
whole subject of the film is space, and space seems to amuse teenagers the most and many teens
show interest in the topic. People who tend to watch sci fi films, tend to be interested in science, the
theories of space and space in general.

The film fits Todorov's theory as there are interruptions to the equilibrium. This was when he found
the bone in the ground, then the attempt to repair the damage by putting the bone back into the
ground as the bone belonged 3 year old girl.

Sound:

Sound has been used to help show the genre of the film as there is the use of non- diegetic sound.
This includes the voiceovers that were added into the film over the movements he is performing.
These are a conventional point of sci-fi as the plots can be quite complicated at times. A voice over
can express to the audience what is happening. The sound of the wind blowing has also been added.
The environment has been used to help us as an audience that the earth is “dead” as the sound of
the explorer walking over the dead grass and leaves shows that the earth is very dry and soulless
thanks to its ancestors. The film also has a linear narrative as the film shows one point in time.
However, most of the actual video is non- linear as the shots are moved from one location to
another to help emphasise the point he is making. The dialogue is mainly of a slow- tempo and very
controlled, which is again conventional for sci-fi. An example of this in another film would be Star
Trek.

Cinematography:

In the film, there has been a wide range of shots used, in particular the wide shot. This is to show the
audience that the environment we live in is slowly falling apart due to our human actions. The film is
about how the Ancestors ruined earth and we can see that they have by the use of long shots to
show the dead ground and the dehydrated trees. They have also made a sandstorm to help show
that the effects the humans have had on earth is huge. This helps to make the audience feel
sympathy towards the explorer, as instead of seeing the amazing features of the planet, he has seen
a slowly dying earth. With the use of close-ups, we can see his emotions about the problem. For
example, when he is wondering the ground. A tracking has also been used as he explores various
parts of the earth. This helps us identify the poor condition of the area he finds himself in. Close up
shots have also been used to highlight the use of various environmental equipment he has in his
costume when taking readings of toxic levels. The use of body warn computer equipment is
conventional for sci-fi as it is futuristic e.g. the tv show “V”.

Editing:
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Editing has been used in this short film in several ways to help the audience understand the futuristic
nature of the content. An example of this would be the use of a voiceover at the start of the film to
tell us where he is and when. This is conventional to the sci-fi genre as it is often used to tell the
audience what is happening and make content clear to them. The use of editing in a fake sandstorm,
helps us to understand that the earth’s conditions are slowly changing and getting worse as there
are starting to be many storms. This helps emphasise the genre as you would expect to see a
sandstorm in a sci-fi and helps show the effect of a change in climate. Cross-cutting has been used
throughout the film showing the character exploring the deserted land and then reporting on it from
his spaceship (reporter style). This is not as conventional for the genre as it appears to adopt a
documentary style format rather than a sci-fi story.

Mise en scene:

In the film, there was a wide range of props that were used. Such as, the spaceships and the tools
that was used on board the ship. This helped us to see that the genre is clearly sci fi, through the
space technology and being on board a space ship, which is in associations with the sci-fi genre. This
has been used so that the audience can recognise a clear genre and understand that the film is a sci
fi based film, we know this due to all the conventions being used. Also, the costume of a space suit
links to the genre as we would rarely see someone travelling in a spacesuit other than going to space
to help protect you. Usually sci-fi films are set in space. However, this one only shows space in the
opening seconds of the film, due to the rest being on earth. The sci-fi nature is that it is set 500 years
from now on an “earth” that is not recognisable to its inhabitants today. This creates intrigue and
interest from the audience as we want to believe this to be fiction rather than a prophecy. A sci-fi
film to link to this is “cocoon” where earth is the main setting/location, although the story is sci-fi
nature.

Dropped- short action film

Dropped is a short action film that involves lots of fighting and lots of mystery. To start with we get a
brief introduction to one of the main characters (a male) who is alone in a car. This is conventional to
an action film as the main character is usually played by male lead, which links to the stereotype that
men are more dominant and powerful than women.

The film does not fit with Todorov’s theory as it does not start with an equilibrium and starts straight
at the recognition. We understand this as we can clearly see a disorder has occurred. However, it
then skips the next steps and goes straight to the equilibrium. This shows that it has not decided to
follow the usual pattern of an action film and start the film off with a plot twist. For example, this is
shown in the film Skyfall. Instead, this gives a representation of all characters and gives the audience
time to give an opinion on each character.

Cinematography: The first camera angle that is shot in the film is a close up. The use of a close up
helps to show the emotion of the character and to emphasise what has just happened and to see
what the actor is thinking. This is also to cause tension and to intensify the dramatic scene, this
makes the audience feel the urge to carry on watching as the film starts at the end and then leads
into a flashback. This can be a convention of some action films. For example, saving private Ryan.
Another shot that is used in this film is a wide shot. Tis is to help the audience gain a better
understanding of the environment the actor is in, who the actor is with and can also show how much
power the character has got depending on other factors. One other shot that was used was a low
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angle shot. The reason this shot is used is to psychologically give the subject power and strength due
to you looking up and towards them.

Mise en scene: The use of iconography is also used the prop of a phone. This makes it apparent to
the audience that it is an action film as it leaves a mystery as to who is texting and calling this certain
man who we still don’t know about and why he is in this situation. Without this, we could still guess
it is an action film as it starts with the man sitting in his car with all cuts on his face. We know this is a
part of mise en scene because it comes under make up. This is conventional to the genre as it
emphasises the fighting scenes as it helps show that it has been a brawl. However, the genre of the
film may be confused as he is driving through woodlands on his own and we are not sure what is
going to happen. Some audience could think it is a horror film.

Sound: The use of non-diegetic sound has been used in the film as well to create tension and
suspiciousness. This helps to add to the narrative and to help explain the storyline. The non-diegetic
sound that was added was mysterious music. We understand this as the pitch was very low and the
tempo was slow. However, the tempo did start to increase. This helps to suggest that something is
about to happen because the volume slowly gets louder and helps the suspense grow. This then
leads to the narrative being restricted as we are not sure in what is going to happen in the next
scene and keeps the audience guessing. This is conventional to an action film as the narrative is
never clear to the audience and there is always a growing mystery throughout an action film. This is
evident in other action films such as mission impossible and avengers. Diegetic sound is also in the
film as we see the characters speaking to each other. To make it conventional to an action film,
when they are speaking to each other, they speak to each other with a calm and controlled manor.
There is also non-diegetic sound added when the phone goes off. This is done to help emphasise and
exaggerate the prop of a phone. This convention of the genre is also seen in other action films such
as lethal weapon.

Editing: They have decided to use quick short takes to emphasise the fight scene and to make it
more dramatic. This also helps to show how skilled they are with martial arts and they compete at a
high intensity. This is conventional to action films as we also see it in many other action films, such as
Rush hour and karate kid. This is done to help dramatise the fighting scene and make it entertaining
for the audience to watch it. Cross cutting is also used to establish action occurring at the same time,
and usually in the same place. In a cross-cut. The camera will switch from one action scene to
another, which suggests synchronisation of both actions however may not always be the case. Long
takes are also used in the short film to help authenticate the fight sequences because it helps track a
fight scene for a long amount of time without having to cut, which helps the fight scene look more
realistic and impressive. We know this is a convention of the genre as we see this in other action
films such as Kingsmen.