A Favour-Research-Gemma

 

Media Language

The opening scene of the short films shows an out of focus shot of a window with the title A Favour on it through post production editing.

The following scene shows parallel editing throughout of two families at breakfast, both families are of different ethnicities but the morning routine appears to be very similar. The lighting in the scenes are light and appear to be natural lighting, this gives the sense of positivity as well as the diegetic ambient sound of birds.  A Nuclear family is represented in both family types and conjugal roles which is used a lot in media and the audience are familiar to this stereotypical ‘Normal’ family setting where the men work(breadwinner) and the women is the main child carer and housewife. The close up of family members faces draw attention to key points and pans are used to show conversations within the family. The pace of the parallel scenes are fast which represents the business of a family breakfast.

So far the audience have no reason to be suspicious of either character. It’s not until the car park setting where the audience may start to have their opinions. The antagonist asks the protagonist to call his mobile phone as he has lost it.  The protagonist asks for number for him to dial. The number read out stands out as soon as it is read due to the amount of zeros it includes whereas a ‘normal’ UK number wouldn’t contain that many. The protagonist seems to have realised due to his facial expression and body language changing although he continues to call the number.  Once the phone has rang for a couple of seconds the antagonist quickly dismisses the conversation saying thank you then speeds off in his car again the protagonist seems shocked which his body language suggests.

The next shot shows a long line of traffic going into town by the looks of it and the man sitting in his car waiting. Diegetic sounds of sirens and traffic are heard loudly off screen. Close ups are used to show the protagonists facial expressions and a POV is used to lead the audience to follow the man’s hand to his car radio to turn up the sound, we hear a diegetic women’s voice explaining that there are many casualties it’s a major innocent in the financial district. An eye line match is used to follow a police helicopter above the traffic when the man’s facial expressions drop and he starts to realise he has been set up via his head movement from looking down to looking out in front of him moving slowly and it a big close up where the camera zooms into his eyes while the radio diegetic voice reveals that the device was possibly detonated remotely. The man’s final positioning moves from him being in the sunlight to his eyes being in the dark shadows this connotes fear. A sound bridge continues the news reporters off screen report and the credits begin which makes the short film end abruptly shocking the audience.

Representation

I like the piece as it is challenging stereotypes of ethnicity’s which has been present since terrorist attacks around the world including 9/11 and the London bombings. The way it challenges stereotypes is by showing that other ethnicity’s even those within their born country can show traces of terrorism towards their country. The director chose this particular piece to show to the audience not to be stereotypical and judge people due to other people or from views that are raised from a small minority.

The audience once watching the short film will wonder what came of the man as the police would have tracked down his phone number to his phone and charge him with the bombing which would be a wrong justice as he was tricked into setting off the bomb.

Audience

I believe the audience would be targeted at ages from 15-40 as I feel 15 year olds would be aware of what happens and who stereotypically is to blame for instances that occur so by seeing this would allow them to think more deeply into what happens and not to jump to conclusion and follow other people’s views. I feel this short film being targeted up to the age of 40 is possible as this age range can be influential on those younger than them and have an effect on the way people think about stereotypes portrayed in the media.

 

Narrative

The narrative of the short film is linear as it is showing scenes which are happening at the same time

Todorovs theory can be applied although due to the case of a short film I don’t think all 5 stages can be applied to the piece.

1.Equilibrium – This is at the beginning of the film when both families are having breakfast and nothing is yet ‘bad’

2.Disruption – Depending how it is looked at this could be as soon as the protagonist dials the number which sets off the bomb as that’s when the disruption has actually happened or the alternative could be when the audience find out about a bomb being set off.

3.Confrontation – this could be when the protagonist realises what he has done and that he was tricked into setting of the bomb although nothing is attempted to deal with the problem as the short film finishes.