Research- Black or White- Gemma

 

 

Film Title: Black or White

Synopsis: Most people make this choice every day of their lives. Today she is about to make the choice, but which will she pick?

Genre: Comedy

Running time: 2.19

 

 

 

Media Language

• The camera work within the shot films works well with the narration. So the director has chosen to use limited camera angles and shot sizes to restrict what the audience can see.

• The establishing shot is a medium shot which shows a man who we presume to be in the setting of a steam room, a Shot Reverse Shot is used to show a second man also within a medium shot appearing to be in the same room.
   
• Medium close ups are used to allow the audience to see the characters facial expressions while they are insulting one another and being complimentary about themselves. This is also shown within the characters body language that when they are talking highly and confidently about themselves they seem relaxed whereas when the white character is getting insulted his body language becomes tense.
   
• The final camera shot is good, the medium long shot of a women character becomes present which shows the two main characters in an extreme long shot to the audience.
   
• The pace in the editing process is at a slow pace, the conversation is at a normal pace so the editing matches this to create a realistic feel of having a conversation with your friends in the steam room.
   
• The director doesn’t go past the 180 degree rule which is good as it allows the audience to follow what side of a character is the other one is on.
   
• The sound along with the editing is simple, nothing which would jump out to the audience unless they were looking for it. Such as the foley used to create the quiet dripping of water which happens when in a steam room.
   
• Also the men’s accent matches their revealed characters, for example the black characters voice is very masculine, strong and powerful whereas the white characters accent is common and ‘normal’.
   
• The men’s dialogue is interesting as it seems that they are talking about their characteristics such as being strong, hot and sophisticated.

Camera

Mise en scene

Editing

Sound

Narrative

• The narrative for this short film is very clever and I really like it. It is a linear narrative taking us as the audience from the beginning to end. Restricted narrative is used which I liked as it makes the audience think one particular thing is happening although it is revealed that it is a completely different process altogether.
   
• It appears to the audience that the characters are in a steam room as they don’t seem to be dressed and we can see the steam around them, although it is not until the final 13 seconds that the audience are revealed that the characters were representing tea and coffee throughout and the restricted narration is exposed.

 

Audience

• The Audience for Black or White I would say is for females between the ages of 18-35, the reason for this is that the story line is about the two men debating which one of them the female will pick, this process normally is between the ages of 18-30 which is why I would chose this gender and age range relevant to this short film.

 

• I accessed this short film on Virgin media shorts which is an online short films website so I wouldn’t have thought the ages above would look online to watch short films in their spare time.

 

Genre

• The genre of the short film is comedy, this can be spotted due to the fact an unexpected outcome is present which turns the whole film into something funny, this is a key convention of comedy films.