The short film I chose to analyse, I found on the Schweppes film festival website. It is called signs and is about two people in an office who communicate, and fall in love by making signs and showing them to each other through their office windows.

Shot Description Speech Length1 Arial, medium close up

shot of man lying in bed.

Music 8 seconds

2 A wide shot of the man getting out of his bed

Music 6 seconds

3 A close up of the man in the mirror.

Music 4 seconds

4 Wide shot of the man in his kitchen eating

breakfast

Music 4 seconds

5. Long shot of the man of the bus.

Music 4 seconds

6. Arial close up of man on escalator

Music 3 seconds

7. Medium close up of woman of escalator

Music 2 seconds

8. Arial shot of man on escalator

Music 3 seconds

9. Establishing shot of office

Music 4 seconds

10. Zooming close up of papers photocopying,

and then zooming close up into man’s

face.

Music 6 seconds – 3 on each zoom.

Scene one:I think this scene sets the mood, rather than setting the scene because the actual scenery moves on quickly, however the mood stays for a fair while. Scene one includes a close up and a wide shot, both of which could be used to set mood, for example, the close up makes it easier for us to identify emotion, because we can see facial expressions closer up. Whereas a wide shot allows us to identify body language, for example in “Signs” the man slouches out of bed and looks generally like he is tired and can’t be bothered.

The next part is in the man’s bathroom, and is basically just a close up of the man looking at himself in the mirror, this again allows the audience to identify the emotion behind the man’s expression, however the background music also contributes to this. I.e. as the man is staring into the mirror, his expression tells us he is not happy, but the music playing pushes the audience into the definite direction of sadness on the man’s behalf.

The last room of his house we see, is his kitchen in which the man is sitting eating his breakfast. I think the wide shot helps us distinguish that he is alone, which is clearly an important part of the story. Even though it is a long shot, we can still see his facial expressions show a distinct sadness.

Scene two: This scene starts with the man on the bus, we can see he is travelling to work because he is wearing a suit. The starting shot is a long shot, this helps us see that everyone else on the bus is in couples, while he sits alone – again a significant part in the story. Facial expression is important again, because he still has the same sad look he had when he was in his house. It doesn’t seem to change for the first few scenes.

The next part of this scene is where the man has exited the bus and is walking the rest of the way to his office. The shot used is a another long shot, to again show he is alone while everyone else is in couples – a good way of showing us his feelings without him saying them out loud.

The final part of this scene is literally the final part of his journey to work; he is going up the escalator to his office. The shot is from above but at a diagonal level, so we can concentrate solely on his facial expressions. The shot quickly switches to a woman coming down the escalator on the other side, and the man looks up at her, quickly looking away in embarrassment – the camera follows this action, meaning we can again distinguish exactly what is going on without the use of words.

Scene 3: The man goes into his office, there is an establishing shot, to set the scene and then he goes and sits down at his desk. There is a close up at this point, again to show emotion. As the day progresses, we see him doing boring jobs and again his facial expressions stays very similar to how it was that morning.

We see him next on his lunch break – in which he looks at several women who walk past, portraying a certain longing for a woman on his behalf, we know its not a certain woman who he wants and this particular point because he seems to be looking at more than one woman in the same lovingly way, as if he just wants the feel of a relationship.

scene 4: This is when the man is back at home, there is quite a few long shots, which I think are showing that he is alone literally, as well as feeling emotionally alone. There is small dialogue around this area, where his parents have left him a voicemail. As it typically goes, his family mention and reference lots of relationship related conversation, i.e. mentioning friends and a girlfriend, when clearly he has neither.

After this scene the scenes begin to get repetitive – the man sees a woman across in a different office and they begin to write notes to each other, eventually falling in love. Everyday the man wakes up, the expression on his face changes, and we can see he is feeling happier about going to work because he knows he has something to look forward to. The music begins to speed up slightly, and the length of the repetitive shots get shorter, I think this is to represent his rushing to work to see his lady friend.

As always there is a short crisis, in which he thinks he has lost her, because he sees someone else moving into her office, however she has just had a promotion and lets him know she is just in the

office above her old one. They meet in the street and we know they are going to get together even though it isn’t shown. The repetitive shotes represent the man’s day t day life, and how it gets better once he meets someone – the story is mainly focused around the man, and it is also very typically structured, i.e.- Lonely Man away from home, not liking the city.- Meets a girl- Small crisis- All ends happily