A Favour - Holly Stone

A favor

MRANG

The short film "A Favor" uses cross-cutting to swap between two very different families who have different life-styles. Generally one of these families are stereotyped regularly - the Muslim family. The influences of Social Media and the actions to-which Muslims have acted upon before have affected societies global view on who they are. 

Muslim protagonist above

White working-class businessman and protagonist above

The beginning shots of the opening scenes are of both the families in this short film. Both of the fathers/husbands of the families are the protagonists of the film, parallel/cross-cutting is used to change between both families as they prepare for their day. - this is the equilibrium. We can see that the man on to the left is a Muslim as his costume (Misc en scene) clearly show this. The man we see below the first image would be a stereotype of an average working man of the working class. His outfit and house suggest his class and his function in society.  Both families are of different ethnics and would both typically be stereotyped differently. 













As the families prepare for their day, there are multiple camera close-ups, two-shots and camera pans in order to include the audience, a spectator viewing. The audience may begin to feel like they are part of this preparation and some may even relate to this as part of their every-day routine. 

Above we can see that our Muslim family are of a working class too. The housing behind the protagonist appears stereotypically as a possible rented accommodation/ council housing. 

Above is a two-shot of both the protagonists in this short film. Judging by their costume and their cars (materials/props/ Misc en scene) both men are of a working-class category. This shot could be purposely used in order to show equality between both protagonists. The use of binary oppositions is shown here (Claude Levistrauss theory). The Muslim protagonist proceeds to help the other man by calling his phone in order to find out where it is, the camera focuses directly on his mobile. The close-up on the mobile may be a foreshadow for what happens next?

As our white protagonist drives away, we shown a close-up on his side-face. His facial expression appears to show some possible signs of content/mischief. He also looks as though he is showing a little guilt. His suspicious facial expressions may be an alarm to the audience, especially if they link it to the phone call.

As the white protagonist speeds away, our other protagonist looks slightly confused as to why he sped away at high speed like that. His suspicious facial expressions and the high-speeding car suggests  that he could be running from something. The long-shot shows the Muslims body-language as he appears confused as to whats happening.

A direct cut brings us to a birds eye view of a traffic jam. The diegetic sounds of emergency services and sirens builds a sound bridge through the next few shots. we cut to a specific car belonging to our Muslim protagonist who is stuck in the traffic jam.

Our Muslim protagonists facial expression shows he is concerned as to what is causing this disruption and how he is curious to find out what is happening.  

We cut to a eye-line match of the radio as our protagonist turns it on. The radio woman informs our protagonist of a bomb detonation which was detonated externally - which completes the foreshadow we saw earlier.

Narration: The key narrative is that the audience just have to follow every shot without any voice-over or narration whatsoever. This builds suspense and falls under Todorovs theory.

The Muslim man was set-up, hes now guilty of setting off a bomb which he didn't know about. This short film shows how stereotypes are used often, but truthfully the stereotypes contradicts itself, as anybody could be a terrorist or could be plotting something which will effect on a large scale. 

I believe some of the methods used in this short-film could be inspiration for my short-film ideas for our group practical. The use of binary oppositions and stereotypes appears to make short-films more interesting - like reverse role play.