Short Film Analysis - Family Ties

This is a short American film called Family Ties. It is just over three minutes long. It was written and directed by a man called Craig Oullette. One of the things I liked about this film that its story is simple and basic.

The story focuses on a woman who wakes up bound and gagged in a trunk. It is her ex-husband's trunk.
One thing that makes the story simple is that it has a straight forward beginning, middle and end.

The beginning: A woman wakes up bound and gagged in the trunk of her ex-husband's car. The husband opens the trunk and removes her gag. They a brief conversation afterwhich, the husband gags her again and drives away with her squirming in the trunk.

Middle: The Woman continues struggling in the trunk. The car stops at a red light. She hears a woman speaking on her phone. Her hands are tied behind her back. She manages to open the trunk. The husband realises. The light turns green and he drives off causing the lid to slam shut knocking her unconcious.

End: The Woman regains concioussness. She finds herself tied to a chair in a house. She sees her teenage daughter bound and gagged. They both scream as the husband walks in wielding a knife.

Here are some regarding the technical aspects of the film:

Cinematography: The film begins with a close-up of the woman's eyes as she wakes up. This allows us to see the fear in eyes. When the husband opens the trunk to speak with her the camera looks up at him and down at her. This shows that he has dominance over her - literally dominance because she is tied up. When the husband puts the bag inside the trunk the camera pans to reveal a knife has slipt out. This tells us that the knife is important. She later uses the knife to try and cut her binds.

Editing: The Woman appears more than any other character. This shows us that she is the most important character in the film.

Lighting: There is some very good use of lighting in this film. The Woman is locked inside the trunk of car. It is dark inside the trunk. The darkness can be used to symbolise her fear, sadness and lack of hope as a result of being kidnapped. There a few moments where a red light appears inside the trunk. In my opinion the red light represents her imminent danger.

Music: Most of the music in the film is suspenseful and is used to represent the situation this poor woman is in. When she tries to open the trunk to warn the pedestrian fast-paced music plays to represent her struggle and desperation to warn the pedestrian. It also gets the audience's attention and makes them wander whether this will escape or not.