Task 1 - Short Film Appreciation

The short film entitled: 'Two Men' is based on a man who is a bystander on the side of the road as he watches and analyses his surroundings, in particular 'Two Men' running, for an oblivious reason. In which he analyses their potential reason for running. in the film the audience captures the men running as his thoughts and feelings are narrated as he contemplates the different possibilities of the story beforehand.

 

I picked this film as it captured my attention through the use of the narrative as the bystanders thoughts and come alive as he expresses he thoughts and feelings about the 'Two Men' running expressing his thoughts and feelings to the audience, therefore giving us an insight into what is going on in his mind. Another way in which this particular short film had captured my attention is due to the use of subtitles, although this can put a burden on a film, in my opinion I felt that this excelled during the film as I found it helpful and insightful in which it created the film as the bystander was the main agent of the film in order for the short film to come together. As the bystander has a complex accent the subtitles help to make a clear distinction for me, understanding wise. The short, sweet sentences helped me to get an insight into how the bystander feels. And literally watches the world go by as it gives it a refreshing and authentic feel. This is the main element in which particularly stands out for me. Other elements which stand out for me are the use of words whereby the bystander incorporates his own language into the short film. I feel that the elements that I have discussed are the elements in which drew me in to the short film.

 

In my opinion, I feel that the shirt film 'Two Men' had a lot of quirky elements to it, such as the use of sound. At the beginning of the film it is used to set the scene. As the audience can hear natural sounds such as, tin cans rolling in the wind, bees buzzing ad crickets cricketing. This therefore suggesting that it is in a natural surrounding giving the feel to the film whereby diegetic sounds are used. Another quirky feature is the use of camera whereby, majority of the shots taken are establishing shots or tracking shots. In order to bring the short film together as the audience could see the over view of what was happening. I feel that this particular feature allowed the audience to discover the meaning behind what the bystander was studying and putting the audience in the place of the bystander whereby we could be involved. The messages and values of the short film definitely had a quirky element to it as the bystander is the focal point of the short film over all whereby he narrated the short film, pondering on what the two men were running for, from this the representations of characters could be made. This meaning that the audience would need to decide what representations would need to be made. For example the two men running as the bystander himself and us, the audience were not aware of what had happened. As told by the bystander. The bystander himself comes across to me as a wise old man, whom watches the go by, making judgements about things most people would not care about and just ignore.