Frank Glancy 10802 NEA Evaluation

A short film is defined by the Oscar’s as a film that is shorter than feature length which means having
a running time of 40 minutes or less. This means that a short film does not have the time to establish
numerous characters and their backstories in the way a feature length film does which is why the
micro-elements of film and dialogue play such an important job, as they must take on this role in a
much shorter space of time. For example, in ‘Tight Jeans’ mise en scene is vital in giving the audience
an understanding of what the characters are like. This is shown through the costume which includes
fashionable shoes and rings which show us that these characters are stylish and gives us a rough
insight into how old they are. I attempted to recreate these subtle clues in the costume for my main
character Lloyd. I chose to show Lloyd sporting an untucked shirt as well as casual trainers along with
his suit which is not something someone would usually pair together when going to a job interview.
This delicately shows the audience Lloyd is somewhat immature, not taking this job interview as
seriously as he should be and clues the spectator into roughly what age he is.

‘The interview’ follows Lloyd (Henry Sherrington) in his attempt to get to a job interview which he
hopes will turn his life around. He quickly gets ready, leaves his parents’ house and begins to walk to
the train station. However, upon arriving he realises he does not have his wallet on him and has
been pickpocketed on his way there. He decides he can only make it on time by running and through
a montage we see him travel madly through London trying to get to this interview, which he
eventually does. ‘The Interview’ concludes with Lloyd entering an office from a waiting room in a
somewhat anti-climactic finish to an intense trek to get there. The main portion of this film is quite
frantic contrasting the calm tone of ‘Arrival’. I decided upon watching the film that I did not want
mine to rely as heavily on dialogue as ‘Arrival’ did and instead wanted to make it exciting, less
serious and have the film more heavily constructed by the editing.

Genre can be defined as the stylistic or thematic category for a film based on similarities in its
narrative elements, aesthetic approach, or subject matter. Rick Altman split these similarities into
semantic elements, which he defined as, “a list of common traits, attitudes and sets” and syntactic
elements which place more emphasis on the “structures into which the building blocks are
arranged”. My short film loosely fits the semantic and syntactic elements of a down-on-his-luck
comedy/adventure film. Majority of the comedy is drawn from Lloyd, the situation he is in and his
actions. An example being a quick shot of him taking a bite out of the toast we just saw him step on
when getting out of bed moments before.
Frank Glancy 10802 NEA Evaluation

Aesthetic in filmographic terms can be defined as “the way a film’s visual and aural features are used
to create essentially non-narrative dimensions of the film”. My films intended aesthetic was a
naturalistic one as this is a story set in the real world and occurring to an everyman archetype. This
includes naturalistic lighting which shows the setting of the short film as well. This is similar to the
aesthetic of ‘Tight Jeans’ which is reminiscent of the set it takes place in which is London. This means
that the majority of shots are greyish, gritty and realistic which enforces the idea that the story
taking place is one that is occurring on just another day and nothing out of the ordinary.

In terms of narrative I followed Syd Field’s paradigm wherein he stated that stories are constructed
of 3 acts. The first being the setup, followed by the confrontation which usually takes place at
around the midpoint and concluding with the resolution. To create the set up and to establish my
first plot point I used a voiceover in which Lloyd reads out a note his mother she left him, in her
voice, which keys the audience into how important this interview is for him while also creating an
element of comedy. Secondly, the confrontation which I chose to display through flashback is when
he realises he has been pickpocketed. Lastly, the resolution in my film is when Lloyd makes it to the
interview on time. I decided to end my film with a Barthes inspired open ending which is evident by
the fact that there is no way for the audience to tell if Lloyd did well in the interview or if he
managed to turn his life around. This sense of ambiguity was inspired by ‘Echo’, the lack of concrete
resolution it gives and the margin it gives to the audience for them to decide what they think
happened to the character. I enjoyed this use which is why I wanted to replicate it somewhat in my
film.

In a moment of disequilibrium (following Todorov’s theory) I decided to implement the use of fast
paced editing to increase the intensity of the scene. In my short film I feel as though the use of this
increased editing pace clues the audience into the fact that time is running out for Lloyd, I was
inspired to do this in a similar fashion to ‘The Fly’ wherein the increased editing pace is used to
display the rising panic and anxiety the getaway driver is feeling. Furthermore, I decided to employ
the micro-element of sound along with the fast paced editing to help enforce the increase of tension
in the moments leading up to the restoration of equilibrium. I chose to compose a score beginning
with the sound of an alarm clock going off which is the same noise Lloyd begins his day to.
Moreover, I felt that this also added to the theme of time in my film which is evident through
multiple shots of clocks and timings being displayed throughout.
Frank Glancy 10802 NEA Evaluation

The score then continues with the introduction of a beat, thumping kick drums, a synth melody and
booming synth chords working to express the lack of time and the rising of pressure of whether
Lloyd is going to make it to the interview or not. The score then ends by abandoning the alarm
beeping, the drums and the synth notes leaving only a deep synth chord synchronised to Lloyd
extneding his arms in an expression of victory, thereby signalling the end of the montage and the
end the moment of disequilibrium.

Despite having a relatively conventional narrative I chose two techniques in which I felt I could
progress my story forward and make it more stimulating. The first of these techniques was the use
of montage. I used this method twice in my film with both times being used to display a passage of
time and events. This was crucial as I still wanted to express these proceedings, but due to the
constraints of the time limit, I could not do so in a way I typically would have. I drew inspiration from
Edgar Wright and his quick-cut montage sequences to move the plot forward and show mundane
tasks in a fun and engaging way. 

The other technique I chose to

use was flashback. Once again, I
felt as though this was suitable
in moving the plot forward while
also creating a more engaging
watch for the audience. This was loosely inspired by ‘The Ellington Kid’ which is told in the majority
as a flashback. I was originally intrigued by the idea of doing something similar but concluded that it
would benefit my film and my ideas more if I only used it briefly. This choice resulted in a pleasant
contrast with the conventional narrative which made the flashback stand out more.

I made the decision to align my audience with Lloyd throughout the entirety of the film. I did this in
the hope that by the conclusion the audience would be rooting for Lloyd despite him being the
slovenly man he is. Evidence of the audience being aligned with Lloyd comes from when he is
pickpocketed, as the camera tracks him, paying no attention the person bumping into him similar to
how Lloyd is only focused on himself in that moment. Furthermore, the audience only realises he has
been pickpocketed when he does once again aligning the spectator with Lloyd.

In conclusion, I constructed my film as a fast-paced, appealing comedy/adventure that invites the

audience to enjoy it without being asked to seek profounder encoded meaning within it. However, I
Frank Glancy 10802 NEA Evaluation

still attempted to grant the audience some sense of autonomy to decide what happens to the
protagonist, hopefully making it more notable and memorable.

Word count: 1472