Alone - Holly Stone

ALONE

Narriative, Genre, Media Language and Misc en Scene

The beginning of the short film alone is set in an office. The man who we presume is a protagonist for this short-film is dressed in smart clothing (Misc en Scene) and may suggest that he is on a working/middle class job. Close-ups and low-angle shots progress the beginning in order to generate the setting. Diegetic-sound is heard from the clicking of the mouse and typing on the keyboard, once again building a rather "normal" workplace enviorment setting. Narriation is not needed at this time.

From the image above, we see he has a smart posture, dressed for a workplace and his facial expressions in the progressing shots may show he is tired but also busy.

He receives a phone-call with an upset/scared women calling him. The first thing she says is "everyones dying, they're just dropping." The phonecall begins to build upon a semantic code of fear/death. It also sets the genre as a possible thriller/action movie. His facial expression shows his clear confusion. Multiple close-ups are used to show his reaction and possibly alarm the audience.

Above is a close-up of his facial expressions showing confusion and

concentration as he listens to this unknown woman on the phone.

Above we can see his facial expression in a ECU (extreme close up) 

as the woman begs him to come home. She calls him "baby" which suggests she

may be his girlfriend. His eyebrow expressions also show fear in his face (a micro-expression).

Our protagonist then shoots up out of bed, suggesting he had a nightmare. His breathing and body-language shows he is in a state of shock and panic (Misc en Scene).  The film continues with an omniscient narrator explaining how he has had this dream/nightmare before. The voice of the narrator is our main protagonist, also suggesting this is a first-person narrative. Non-diegetic calmer music plays in the background as he explains about his dream while preparing himself for work.

Above is our protagonist as he wakes up from his nightmare. 

He then begins to recap on how things use to be easier for him. He talks about how losing someone doesn't seem real until its a reality itself, possibly to gain the sympathy of the audience. Below are the multiple-different setting shots taken as he re-caps on what he use to do in his youth.

He explains how he use to  drive endlessly for hours, Close-ups

show this clearly above.

A OSS-tracking shot shows how he use to relax while walking across a bridge.

He continues to narrate the story omnisciently as he describes how he has continuous flashbacks and how he misses his loved ones. It appears that he is too busy to do anything in his life, he explains how much easier it would be if he had his car running, and how much easier it would be if he wasn't walking all the time. The shots below show the progression of time as he walks down a road. 

Above is the first transition shot, taken as a long-shot, we can see the setting around him. 

He appears to have a lot of wealth as the area he lives in is very country-side like, which often is expensive to pay for. Once again representing how he may be in a  middle class range.

A simple cut shows our protagonist closer to the camera, a quick cut of time.

The camera beings to track him (dolly shot)  from a long-shot, natural sunlight highlighting his innocence.

The Non-diegetic music in the background make the scene appear calm. The mood has changed from the beginning, or a change in the genre (David Buckingham's theory). Initially the genre was a potential thriller, but now it appears more like a drama.

 Our protagonist continues to narrate the story as if we are hearing his thoughts. The Somerset street sign appears significant to him. He explains how he went left the other day and now he is going to go right - a possible foreshadow for future events in the film. He enters a house, from the items and the setting it appears to be very abandoned and mis-treated as a home. Shots below suggest this.

A crane shot looks up the house, of which has overgrown woodland around it, suggesting its isolation.

A panning shot tilts down onto alcohol bottles on the floor, again showing neglect of the home.

A non-diegetic piano continues to play throughout scenes, building a sound bridge, our protagonist begins to explore the house. He appears to be stealing foot and other items from the home, without any real distinct reason as to why. As the narriation continues, he discovers something in the below shot; 

A survival kit. A close-up shows us the contents of the bag/kit. Our protagonist begins to explain how before he would of thought someone was crazy to have one, but now its compulsory and helpful to him. This could possibly suggest a global catastrophe? The calm music has now changed to a silent alarming sound, changing the genre of the film once more to a thriller. This could be a warning to the audience.

The use of a gun prop (misc en scene) reinforces the idea of the audience being alarmed. Guns are for self-defense, what could he be defending himself from?

With the use of a long-shot and editing, we see time pass as our protagonist collects more items for his survival kit. A non-diegetic technological beep suggests he is being filmed literally. 

The use of pathetic fallacy, dark-lighting, a OSS shot and a diegetic lightning sound in the background suggests that something is about to happen to our protagonist. He could be in danger.

He starts explaining how he is the only one left in the world, when all of a sudden, a light turns on in a nearby house. Shallow depth of field shot amplify the light, suggesting a possible hope for our protagonist. At the same time, this builds suspense.The music changes to a non-diegetic track which sounds alarming and also adds to the warning signs around our protagonist.

The short film ends on a cliff-hanger, effective as being part of the audience, I would want to find out what happens. The title of the short film adds to what happens during the film , and the over all genre. But it is also contradicted at the end, for if our protagonist is alone - why did the house light turn on? The target audience would most likely be between the ages of 14-35, purely because of the suspense maybe being too much for children. The changing genre makes this film a Hybrid.

Overall I find this film a great inspiration for our short film task, the use of an omniscient narrator and editing to show time passing appears to work effectively to keep the audience watching.