Concepts:
-Media Language
-Representation
-Audience
-Narrative
-Genre
The film begins with straight angled long shot of a staircase setting, showing a female character from behind her. This setting suggests that this is character is young in age and doesn't have a high class and status reputation.
This is then supported when she is walking at a fast pace through a dull, narrow hall way. This establishing shot also presents the title of the film in bold, red, capital letters. The fact that they've used a red colouring could imply there is danger and pain to come in the narrative or the opposite and it's a love story.The camera then cuts sharply to an eye leveled side angled shot of the female as she leans against a wooden door which has a piece of paper on it with a name written on it, strongly suggesting this is student accommodation.
In addition to this, she then walks in on two other teenagers in bed together, in a low angled close up shot, which implies to the audience that he's her boyfriend due to her shocked and upset facial expression in the close up. Overall this scene represents the boy as a bad person and a cheater and the audience are feeling sympathetic towards the female and anger to the other girl in bed with him.
The girl is then shown in a close up, eye level shot on her phone as and diegetically quotes "he did, exactly what you said he would" and later confirms to her friend that he did cheat on her. This is showing the girl to be extremely upset in that her friend was right and her low expectation of him was true, leading to the idea that this is going to be a complicated narrative, leaving the audience unsure if they will finish with closure.
The character then goes on to have on screen diegetic dialogue of "I have to take care of this" and "it has to happen today", which creates a sense of enigma as the audience are completely unaware of what this is she needs to "take care of" and is leaving a whole in the narrative. In addition, the audiences suspense soon dissapears when the close up eye level shot of a computer screen appears with a website names "planned parenthood", suggesting she is pregnant and that was what she was previously discussing, which could represent herself as un-responsible. The assumption of the female being pregnant is further emphasized in a wide angled long shot in a clinic/doctor setting. Throughout this shot there is a high pitched non diegetic soundtrack which creates a dramatic feel the the scene.
A non diegetic backing soundtrack begins to play with a soft piano sound as the camera tracks the girl onto her bed as she appears to be very fragile and upset, due to her body language, creating a sad scene. This medium shot allows us to see the decoration of her bedroom which has a range of posters and pictures in, conforming to the idea of her being a teenager.
Then a slow cut to an extreme close up displays her facial expression which appears to be very saddened and distraught after the events of the narrative.
As her ex boyfriend is then shown in a side angled medium shot, his facial expression and weak body language appears to be showing his as very confused and concerned about her. This is supported by his stern tone in his voice as they have diegetic dialogue.
As they are speaking on the phone she quotes "I saw you with another girl Mark, how could you do this to us", presented in a close up, eye level shot with an upset tone of voice, clearly breaking her heart. However he is then quickly shown in another close up as he has dialogue saying "how many times do I have to tell you, I wasn't even home". The audience will now be questioning whether he is being truthful because of his confused expressions and persistence. The fact that he is placed in a working, office environment, dressed in a smart shirt and tie, represents him as being a busy person, further supports his case and the idea of him being at work all day.
His persistence continues when he tells her "The only person who was here was my brother, he's staying this weekend with his girlfriend, you must have seen them", with the continuation of the off screen piano soundtrack and a hurt facial expression. In addition to this, there is a sound bridge of his dialogue when there is parallel cutting to a long shot to the girl as she realises what has really happened. She then becomes very uneasy as she then remembers she has aborted their baby, due to the fact that she thought they weren't staying together as he was cheating, however the new equilibrium reveals that he wasn't, yet she can't take back what she has already done and what she thought the resolution was.
This short film conforms to Ronald Barthes narrative theory as the audience are unaware at the beginning of the film of issue the protagonists is dealing with, creating enigma. In addition to this, it also conforms to Todorov's 5 stages theory. The beginning of the film holds a short equilibrium stage, however this quickly goes into the disruption stage when she finds her boyfriend with another girl, following into the confrontation stage when she ends their relationship over text. The resolution then occurs when she is sat in the clinic environment as she deals with something that is holding her and her ex together. In her opinion she is resolving the problem. The film then end with the new equilibrium stage when she is having an screen diegetic conversation with her ex on her phone and as they argue he reveals that it would have been his brother she'd seen with the girl. However she now has a much bigger problem as she has just terminated her pregnancy, that her boyfriend appears to not have wanted.
Overall I think that this short film represents the 5 stages of Todorov's theory which I am also aiming to do in my film, therefore this film has been very useful to see how it can be done in a short amount of time. I also thought the use of settings was very believable and realistic and simple, yet effective for the audience to see.
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