Spider

In this blog post I will be analysing a short film called 'Spider', a dark film about a dispute between a couple which is resolved and then their process of making up is abruptly ended when the woman is hit by a car. You can watch this short film at the bottom of this post. 
I will be analysing the sound, camera work, editing and mise-en-scene of this film. 

Starting with sound, in the first few minutes of the film, only diegetic sound is used when the couple is sitting in the car having a conversation, which has obviously followed a heated argument between the two people. You can hear character's dialogue and the sound of objects in the car such as the indicator when she signals to turn into the garage and the handbrake that she puts on when she comes to a stop at the garage. For the duration of this time, you can hear the typical background noise of a busy road, full of cars travelling in different directions. This use of only diegetic sound adds to the sense of realism, and you do feel as if you are sitting in the car with the couple. You are not left with the traditional non-diegetic background music. In the scene where the man throws the toy spider at the girl and she jumps into the road, being hit by the car, there is no non-diegetic sound for a while and the background noise continues, but the use of no non-diegetic sound adds to the harrowing silence in which the male character looks on to the road in shock at his partner. However, when he gets out of the car and begins to realise whats happening, non-diegetic music is played. This music is dark and harrowing, matching the situation that he is now in. In addition to this, as he walks towards the body of his partner, the screen goes black for a moment while the sound of an ambulance plays loud and clearly over the top, giving us time ourselves to recover from the shock of what just happened. This use of the ambulance sound just adds more panic to the situation, making it more intense, and therefore more engaging for the audience to watch. 

Moving onwards, I will look at the camera work in the film. At the beginning of the film when the two characters are talking, the camera is in the back of the car filming the couple. When one character talks, there is an over the shoulder close up shot of them as they speak. Equally, when each character waits to hear what the other person has to say, the same shot is used to show the reaction of the character. So filming from the back seat of the car allows the viewing audience to feel like they are there in the car, witnessing and hearing this couple as they talk. The use of the close up and over the shoulder shots allow the audience to see the expression of different emotions upon the faces of the two characters, and allows the viewing audience to share the same emotions. For example, when the woman says: "You always take it to far", we can see the face of the man who looks puzzled and we can see the expression of confusion on his face. This makes us ask questions such as: what is the woman talking about, or what did the man say to provoke this statement?

In terms of editing, I will look at the scene when the paramedics are attempting to revive the female character who was hit by the car. When this is going on, there are straight cuts between shots of the calm ambulance crew attempting to save the life of the injured woman and the man (who threw the spider) who is clearly in a distressed state. This order of shots between the man and the ambulance crew shows the contrast in emotions that are flooding the situation. To add to this, the transitions between shots occur rapidly, which adds to the intensity of the situation and mimics the fast rate at which the ambulance crew is working at to save the life of the injured woman.

When looking at mise-en-scene we must look at lighting, costumes, props and location. In terms of lighting, throughout the whole film, the lighting is high-key and this adds to the realism of the film as the film being shot outside in the sunlight during a busy day makes it real because it its a reconstruction of a life-like event, that could easily happen. In terms of costume, props and location, the film is just made more realistic because the costumes are normal costumes that you see everyday, the props are everyday things (e.g. flowers, chocolates and a card), and finally the location is a busy street side, which is very effective place to shoot this film because it makes it life-like.

Watch the this film below! WARNING: I don't recommend this if you are squeamish.