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Thursday, 13 September 2012

RUN! - 2012 Short film Analysis Tom Swift


The film I looked at was called “Run”. I think the initial idea is very good, and keeps the viewer(s) immersed in the scene very well, with the sounds, the lighting, the setting and also the shots used. The film starts off with facts about women being assaulted and how long the average police response time is. This then initiates a timer of 36 seconds (average assault on a women) this instantly gets you into the short film without any characters even being introduced to us as viewers.

The woman (main character) appears to just be out for a jog, goes to a part to warm up, and gets assaulted.

The scene then switches to in a woods, the camera is in first person view and has a distorted effect, as if she has just woken up. We then see a mid-shot of both the woman and the assaulter, were he says “Run” which significantly is the only word said throughout the entire film, which I think adds a good effect as it shows the danger she is in. Next is a series of shots which show her trying to escape from the assaulter, but failing. She then manages to hide behind a tree, and jump out and kills the attacker with his own weapon. She then makes her way to the road were a car stops for her, a man gets out and says “are you ok?” however the sound is faded out, which signifies the fear and shock that the woman is in after turning from a victim to the attacker. The man then re-appears and the screen fades to black, only hearing the sound effect of the woman being hit by an axe.

The next little scene is very effective, it shows another woman running through the same park as at the beginning, linking the two together, she then stops at the same park and warms up, and the music and video all fade to black.

There are a few long shots at the beginning to let us know the scene, to help us vision more outside the view of the camera, and as the music escalates, the shots get more and more interesting, closing in on the woman and not letting us as the audience see exactly what is going on around the woman, this is a very good trick with editing, because it lets us wonder when the assault will take place, without revealing it to us. If on the other hand it happened on a long shot, we would see the attacker and the shock would be minimal in comparison to a close up shot of the woman.

There is also another interesting shot when the woman wakes up from being knocked out, she is laid down and the man is knelt above her, showing the power of the character and who is more dominant. However there is also another shot later on were this is switched, when the woman knocks the man down, she stands above him and hits him with the axe, in this shot, she is looking down on him and she is the more dominant character. Then again later on, after the man has got out of the car, the assaulter is filmed with a low angle, high tilt shot, were it makes him look the most dominant.

The lighting used in the film is simple outdoor lighting, however I think that it did have an impact, letting us know that this would still happen during the day, were it would be the least expected time for someone to be assaulted.

I think that the use of sound is very effective in the short film, throughout the entirety; there is an upbeat soundtrack, which makes us as the audience fear for this character that we don’t even know. There are also some good sound effects like when she sits up and there is a shot of the man sat in front of her, there is a high pitched screeching sound, which I think is effective as it makes us jump and again, fear for the girl in the film.

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