Short Film Analysis - Filled In

FILLED IN

MISE EN SCENE

It is clear from the first shot of the short film that the main character is a traffic warden because of his costume, he is wearing a stereotypical outfit for his line of profession, a hi-vis jacket with black trousers, shoes and hat. He also has 3 'Warden Of The Year' badges on his jacket which tells us he takes his job very seriously and he is very proud. His costume tells the audience straight away what his job is.

The setting is very reminiscent of where a traffic warden would be working, on a street walking along in a town and looking to give out tickets to every car in sight.

His Facial expressions again tell of his enjoyment of his job, upon handing out a ticket to an old ladies' mobility scooter, after a foot race to get there first, he pulls a cheeky smug grin clearly proud of himself for carrying out his job even at the expense of others.

The Lighting is very bright and sunny at the beginning of the short film whilst the character is enjoying his job, the sun glistens off his hat and badges whilst he parades down the street, this tells us of the happiness he is feeling, the only scene where the slightest bit of darkness creeps in is when he is unfortunately being buried after giving a parking ticket to a hearse whilst at a funeral signalling the end of his life.

CAMERA

The opening shot of the short film is an establishing Longshot, This allows the audience to gain an understanding of where the film is set and the environment the character works in. The following shot is an upwards pan allowing the audience to see his outfit of which he is very proud, the fact that it is an upwards pan suggests that he feels above everyone else, this is again the case later on when he speaks to the elderly lady through a high angled p.o.v shot which appears to look down on her. The film is made up of a lot of medium shots, this serves the purpose of not only showing the main characters body language but also to show some of his surroundings which in most cases are parked cars with tickets on their windscreens. Close ups are used to good effect also, the only close ups in the film are of different people's reactions to receiving a parking ticket such as the elderly lady and the funeral director, they serve the purpose of showing the emotion on the people's faces which in most cases in this film is a mix of anguish, perplexity and grit.

EDITING

Throughout the short film the only type of transitions used are cuts, this could be to represent the busy lifestyle and job of the main character the traffic warden due to the speed of the cuts used. The main titling 'filled in' is displayed in a bright luminous green font this is clever as in matches with the wardens' jacket he is wearing.  

SOUND

There is a non diegetic sound track to the short film, at first the music is very jokey, its sounds bright and happy and has a repetitive tune, this links very much to the genre of the short film, a comedy. This soundtrack later changes into a funeral tune which links to the ending of the film, the warden being buried alive. There is a sound bridge from when the warden is hit round the head with a shovel to the next scene where he is being buried.

REPRESENTATION

Power, the warden demonstrates a severe abusal of power, he is in a position of authority being a traffic warden and takes his power/authority to the next level, for example upon meeting the old lady she asks nicely if she is allowed to park her mobility scooter in a certain place, he says no and the lady replies by saying she will now move it however the warden is not satisfied with this and proceeds to give her a ticket anyway.

AUDIENCE

I believe the target audience for this short film would be for people aged 17 upwards, this is because from the age of 17 your are legally allowed to drive a car therefore there is a risk your could get a ticket/fine from a traffic warden therefore relating to the film.

NARRATIVE
This film uses a closed structure narrative meaning there is a resolution and ends satisfactory, the audience is no doubt what happened, this is known as closure. 'Filled in' uses restricted narration as we only know as much as the characters, there is no other information known. Using the theory of Bordwell and Thompson, the plot ends with the warden in the coffin. This film doesn't apply to Todorovs 5 stages of narrative.

GENRE
The film Genre is a comedy, there are several syntactic codes used to establish this, one being the punch line 'Sorry, the paperwork is all ready filled in'. Punch lines are usually associated with comedies as it gives the audience something to take away from the film and remember it by as it makes others laugh.