The plot of this short film is about a teenage boy who returns to the scene in which her ran over and killed a young boys mum. The teenage boy is driving and on his mobile phone at the same time, he accidentally drops his phone and tries to pick it up whilst continuing to drive and ends up loosing control of the wheel and spiralling out of control and driving onto the pathway and knocking over the mother. Distressed, the teenage boy jumps out of the car and begs the young boy for forgiveness, however, the young boy shakes his head, declining his apology and proceeds to break down and cry on his mothers body. Throughout the film, the teenage boy is reminiscing the day of the accident and having flashbacks. At the end of the film, the teenage boy returns to the accident scene and knocks on the door and the little boy opens it. He pleads for his forgiveness one final time and this time the young boy accepts his apology and the film finishes. This story has a similar plot to ours, it starts of very dramatic and a series of events unfold using flashbacks and although the final outcome of the film is still very sad, the ending leaves the audience feeling like there is hope and the situation will get better. Another similarity with both films is the theme of death. In both films, a person dies in a tragic car accident and the film is biased on the aftermath. Also, the audience is mislead throughout this film as throughout we get the impression that in fact the young boy was killed rather than the mother which provides a twist ending which is again, similar to ours. The audience is again mislead in our film as they get the impression that Lola and her friend is actually alive and it is not until the end where she reveals and find her body that we find out they are both actually dead.
A variety of shots have been used throughout the film but some stand out more than others. The close ups allow the audience to see the emotion and distress in the teenage boys face and also allow us to see his reaction when he has the flashbacks and relives the day of the accident. It also allows the audience to see the remorse and guilt he feels and we can see how traumatised he is. Close ups will also be effective to use in our film to show the confusion and anger in Lola's face when she thinks everyone is ignoring her. Another type of shot which is effective in the film is the point of view shots from the flashbacks. The point of view shots put into perspective what is was like being in that particular characters position and allows us to personally emphasise with them. We also will be using the point of view shots in the flashbacks of when Lola is hit by the car. This will allow the audience to understand what happened to Lola and will be quite effective because they will become aware of the situation the same time Lola does which will make them feel more involved. Handheld shots also add an element of mundane realism. Particularly in the car scene, the jerky, ragged effect makes the audience feel part of the scene rather than viewing it from a detached, frozen position. I think in our film, the handheld shot will be particularly effective from an inside view from the car which hits Lola to create a similar effect to the one in this film.
Some editing techniques which are quite striking is the blur effect used in the flashbacks. The use of the blur allows the audience to understand that the accident was being reminisced in the boys memory, the blur also tells the audience that it's quite a faint memory and by blurring out the surrounding gives us the impression that the boy can only remember the significant parts of that day. Again, I think that this particular editing technique will work quite well in our film when Lola's having a flashback to the day she was hit by the car. The point of view show where she momentarily sees the car before it hits her will have a blur effect making the car the main focus in that particular frame allowing the audience to understand that everything else is insignificant.
A non-diegetic track is played throughout. The piece of music is played on a piano and quite powerful and emotional. Although played continuously throughout, the sound level is turned down at crutial points of the film and can be heard faintly in the background. Other sounds such as diegetic sounds and sound effects are played over the non-diegetic track to ensure that a variety of sounds can be heard and create a more realistic effect. Sound effects such as the screeching of the car also helps to recreate the accident and make it look more realistic and is again something we will use in our film. The sound effects also help build up a climax, as the screeching of the car is quite alarming and makes us think that the impact that is going to have is very serious. A possible criticism of the sound used in this film would be that there is very little speech from the characters which could ultimately slightly disinterest the audience as they may not fully understand what's going on in the film. But overall, I think that the different sounds used in this film work really well together.
I think that some obvious themes in this film would be death, loss, remorse and tragedy. The theme of death allows the audience to personally empathies with the young boy. He's so young but he's already lost the most important person in his life. The theme of death and loss is so powerful as it can reach out to such a large target population because at some point or another a person will have lost someone close to them in their life. The theme of tragedy is a dramatic composition in which someone is dealing with a serious issue. A tragedy is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes in its audience an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in the viewing. The tragedy of the mothers death really makes a good storyline because it puts into perspective how important she was in the boys life and it also sends out an important message about how dangerous it is to use a mobile phone whist driving and really emphasizes the impact it can have.
The use of characters of different ages helps attract a larger target audience. From the video, I would assume that the target audience would be both male and female aged from about 12-50. My reasons for this is I think that young people would benefit from watching the film as they would be made more aware of the dangers of driving whilst using a mobile phone even from a young age. Also, I think that it is also aimed at an older audience as they may have children which they can educate themselves of the dangers. The young boy reaches out to a large audience due to his naivety and vulnerability which helps us to sympathize with him.
The setting in the film is mainly biased on the accident scene where the mother was killed. The film is set in the present time but the flashbacks allow the audience to see the trauma and grief that occurred there. The setting could be described as a juxtaposition as the flashbacks and present contrast with each other. The present tense is quite peaceful and quiet , however, the past is distressing and creates an unpleasant atmosphere. The accident scene is set in what appears to be a quiet neighborhood which could gives the audience the impression that this sort of accident could happen right on their doorstep.
The lighting is appears to be quite dull as a blue filter has been added to create a cold, lonely atmosphere. It isn't until the very end of the film when bright lighting is used. The lighting at the end of the film is used to signify that the boy has been forgiven and he finally accepts his apology. Although the situation is not resolved and the mother will never come back, the young boys forgiveness almost gives them both more freedom and allows them to move on with their lives and accept that fact she's no longer coming back.
The makeup used on the young boy make him look pale and unwell, which implies that he's not coping with his mothers death very well and it's had a huge impact on his life. I think the dark colours under both boys eyes imply the lack of sleep they've both had and shows us how emotionally torn they both are.
Overall I think that this short film is really good, and I can take inspiration and ideas from it which I can use in my film.
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