Analysis of a film

Analysis of the film Echo

'ECHO' follows 17-year-old Caroline, as she receives a phone call delivering the tragic news that her dad has been involved in a motorbike accident. Her unexpected reaction reveals there is more to this call then first appears. She reacts badly to the news and seems to not be able to deal with it attracting people walking by. They ask to help by offering to buy her a taxi to the hospital to see her dad. After this scene, we then see her at her family home with her mother and brother and the atmosphere seems tense. There are clearly complications in the family as none of them get along. In the next scene, we see her in the same spot again on the phone crying due to receiving the same phone call again. However, her brother turns up at the spot and asks what she is doing. Through realization, the passerby who was trying to help starts cursing at her as he thinks she was doing it as a sick joke. This gives an open ending as the audience can decide weather she does this for her own sick pleasure or because it is a way of her grieving over her father who actually did die in an accident.

Our film is similar to this plot as it both uses the drama genre. Both families have been effected due to a death of a family member. In our film, the mother and father have problems and argue due to Lola's death contrasting to Echo in which the mother, brother and daughter have problems and no longer get along. It is also similar as both families show ways in which they grieve.

Due to this being about a young girls reaction towards death, there are many close up shots throughout. This is to show the girls facial expression and show how she is feeling. They are particularly shown in the scenes of her crying to convey her reactions and feelings of what she is hearing on the phone. We will also use lots of close up shots in our film in scenes that the parents, boyfriend or Lola will be showing a lot of emotion. This will get across to our audience the emotions they should be feelings.In scenes that involve the brother and sister, such as on the bus home, there are many two shots of them sat next to each other. This is to show the drama and contrasts between them both and tells the audience they both don't get along. This is something we could do in our film between the mother and father to show the drama that Lola's death has caused. This will add to the arguments they had as it almost separates them on screen as well as in the plot. There is also over the shoulder shots used in scenes when the young girl is faking her emotions to members of the public and getting help from them. This is to show the concerned expressions on the public's faces to indicate to the audience that they genuinely believe the young girls story. This is important for the film makers to get across to show that the audience how easily the girls are deceiving them. Our film will also use over the shoulder shots between Lola and Hannah when they are having conversations to show there facial expressions and show who is speaking. An extreme close up shot is used on the lighter. This is to emphasis the lighter, making a connection between the character and the object. The lighter connotes danger as it creates fire and is used for smoking which automatically brings the assumption that the female character may also be dangerous. This is confirmed when later on in the film we see she is deceiving members of the public for money. Shallow focus is used in the scene when the young girl is on the sofa and the mother is stood at the door. This may be to block out the mother whilst the film is concentrated around the young girl. It may also be to show the complications in the family as she doesn't want to speak to her mother therefore as the focus doesn't lie on her, it makes her seem blocked out. This will be used in our film, when wanting to focus on a particular object or person we will put the focus on them. Establishing shots are also used through the short film. This is to show the audience where the setting is. It is also used with the young girl in the middle of the shot making her seem small amongst the world. This also adds the effect of how everyday life is still going on around her whilst hers is seemingly crashing down which adds effect on the breakdown she is having. We will use an establishing shot in our film to show the setting in the film.
The editing consists on many long shots during scenes in which she is emotional. This is to give the audience plenty of time to relate to her emotions and find out what has happened during the phone call. It also adds more tension as it leaves the audience waiting instead of being short and snappy. Within our film, we also may use long shots within emotional scenes to add more tension. There are also some short shots during when the young girl gets caught for effect. The shorts cut shorter and shorter building to add tension until the moment she gets caught out. We may also do this in our film to bring tension and excitement. 
The scenes consist of ambient sound of the street to give realism to the scenes. This gives realism as whilst she is being emotional, we can hear every day noises of the streets around her to remind us she is doing this is public where everyone can see her. It also gives more effect to her own diagetic sound of her dialogue as she is crying/being emotional which is a contrast to the everyday life around her. In our film, there are scenes where Lola and Hannah are in the hospital therefore we will have ambient noises of the hospital to make it seem more real. There were also diagetic sounds of music in the background during tense scenes to add tension. We may also do this in our film to make certain scenes stand out more to the audience. 
The lighting within scenes between the family and scenes of her on the street juxtapose each other. When the girl is seen on the street, the lighting is lighter whilst when she is with her family at home the lighting is dark. The light may represent her at her happiest when she is out deceiving members of the public. Contrasting to this, the dark may represent the problems the family has and how depressed she is when she is home. We may use light in our film to get across different atmospheres to the audience so they can relate more to our film. The young girls costume is something that typical teenagers would wear from school. This adds realism to the scene as young girls may feel they can relate to the character as they will wear similar things to her. We will get our actors to wear costumes that are typical for young girls as our characters are similar. This will make the audience relate to my film and the characters within it.