5 Minute short Film analysis

This 5 Minute short film is called, 'Just Another Day'. I decided to analyse this 5 minute short film, because of the directors wide range of camera angles and how they portray the story of the short film. However, the main reason why I have chosen to analyse this short film is because of the continuous voice-over throughout the short film. Our group's short film will contain sections of voice-overs, so to analyse a current short film with a voice-over will give me ideas of language features and the symbolism between the voice-over and the visual features of each shot. This analysis will give me some ideas and techniques which our group could incorporate in to our 5 minute short film. 

The opening of the film starts with the film title which is faded in and out between and black screen. This immediatly shows the audience the name of the film.

The first shot of the short film shows a male who has just awoken from a sleep. He is rubbing his eyes indicating he is tired and is also wearing his suit from the day before. This shows that he is a busy worker who clearly doesn't have time to change into and out of comfier clothes to sleep in. This shot is a medium-long-shot, showing his torso and face.

This shot shows the male character sitting up in bed, and putting his glasses on his face which were situated on his bedside table. This shot also introduces the an actors name. This shot is displayed as a medium-close-up, which allows the audience to see the characters face. 

This close-up-shot shows the character putting on his shoes, he's obviously getting ready for work because of his professional looking atire and because he is in a rush to get ready. 

This medium-long-shot shows the character getting ready by putting his suit jacket on. In this frame another actor is being introduced to the audience.

This close-up-shot shows the character shuffling some envelopes of what is shown to be mail. This shows that the characters likes to be organised and keep his details tidy so they can be time efficiently read. This shot shows a change of location from his bedroom in to the kitchen. In this frame the producers name is displayed to the audience.

This medium-long-shot shows the character to get a mug out of a cupboard which lets the audience think he is going to have some breakfast and a warm drink before work; representing a normal day. From this frame, a voice-over is used throughout the film. The voice over builds up the characters profile to the audience, giving the audience more and more information, which appears to be about the character on screen.

This shot is a medium shotThe voice-over goes on to say... "My name is Jake Burkall. As i'm sure you've been able to tell, I have a major problem." ...This intrigues the audience and makes them wonder what his problem is and wonders what has been shown of the character to make the audience think that the character has a problem. This creates confusion which is solved towards the end of the short film...

This over-the-shoulder shot shows the character getting out of his car, which shows that the character has left his house and travelled to a different location. The voice-over talks about how he's the best at his job and how being the best at his job isn't such a positive thing, then at this point the voice-over says... "Ok, ok, I've left you hanging long enough" ...This personalises the short film, showing how the voice-over is interacting with the audience, by assuming that the audience demands to know his problem.

This long-shot shows the character walking in to a shopping mall. This is because the outside of the shopping mall and the entrance to the shop is clearly displayed in the film which sets the location for the audiences purpose. 

This long-shot shows the character walking down an isle in the shop. At this moment when the women is shown in the background the voice-over says... "I am a hitman." ...The timing of this shot is clever, because it makes the the audience think that the main character is walking towards the woman to kill her, because of the hitman element of the story.

This is a extreme-close-up-shot of the characters hands typing on a Computer's Keyboard. The voice-over at this point says... "I kill people for pay, I need to make sure everything goes smoothly." ...From the voice-over this shot suggests to the audience that he is doing his research or writing a profile for his next hit target.

On this over-the-shoulder-shot, the character is shown to be  scratching the back of his ear and brushing his hands through his hair, symbolising that his job his hard work and that it is making him stressed. On this shot the voice-over says... "And it can take months before I can finally know the person's schedule like the back of my hand." ...This links in with the symbolism of the shot, how he is being shown to demonstrate behaviours which can be related to stress. The shot also shows the back of his hand which links with the simile in the voice-over... "back of my hand"

This is a medium-long-shot of the character washing his hands in his kitchen.  Which shows he is back at his residence. He has no tie around the collar of his shirt which shows that he has come home from work or wherever he has been.  The voice-over before this shot says... "I can get between, oh, $10,000 and $100,000 to kill." Which is linked to the visual symbolism of the shot of how he is cleansing his hands of bacteria, which symbolises he wants to cleanse his life from the murders he has committed from being a hitman.

This close-up-shot of the mans waist shows his reaching in to the fridge to grab a drink and then closes the fridge door.

When the fridge door closes, this fade-out to black shot is shown. The shot symbolises a time lapse to the morning as shown in the next shot.

This is a close-up-shot of the man putting on his tie, who has obviously awoken from a sleep. This is because of the previous fade-out to black shot, and the change in colour of his tie which he put on from the following morning.

This Long-shot shows the established main character walking back in to the same shop as he did the previous day. This shows that his routine in the morning is that he goes to this shop. This suggests to the audience that the main character might not be the same character as the voice over. This is because the voice over earlier, explained how he needs to know his targets routine like the back of his hand. However, the main characters voice has not yet been shown to the audience.

This Long-shot of the main character walking down an isle in the shopping market, resembles the same shot from the previous day when he was in the shop. The voice over at this time says, "It's the biggest day of my life, or should i say, the biggest kill of my life".

This is a Medium-Long shot of the character buying something from the store. He pays the worker then quickly runs out of the shop as if he's in a rush or is spooked by something.

The last frame then fades out to a black screen. 

This Medium-shot has faded in from the black frame and shows the main character in his car driving.  This suggests that a lapse in time has happened from the shop scene to this scene. From this scene the voice over stops.

The Medium-Long shot shows the main character slamming the door of his car shut. This is because his car has mysteriously broken down.

This Close-up shot shows the main character kicking the wheel of his car, which suggests to the audience that this car has broken down and will not start.

The main character has been left without a working vehicle to get to his destination. He decides to take a walk through a pathway which leads across a field. He does this in attempt to cool down his anger or to walk the rest of his journey. This is a Long-Shot which is used to show the man walking away from the vehicle.

This is a long-shot which shows the main character crouching on the edge of a lake. And then a mysterious character  appears .

The mysterious character rather smugly put his hand inside his coat, which represents that he's going to pull out a gun. At this point, it is clear to the audience that this mysterious character was the hitman who was talking in the voice over throughout the short film.

This over-the-shoulder shot shows the mysterious character approaching the  main character. 

This over-the-shoulder shot shows the mysterious character startling the main character  by saying "Hello, Daniel".  The main character suddenly span around.

This close-up of the side of the mysterious characters head shows him dip down to the right as if he is shooting a pistol towards the main character. A loud gun shot sounds at this point. This technique is very effective, because the audience has to use their own imagination of what the mysterious character is doing.

This is a medium shot showing the main character standing next to the lake with a confused look on his face .

The medium shot dolly's forward towards the main character whilst spiralling. This represents  the bullet in the gun spiral towards the victim main character.

This is an extreme long-shot. At this point the mysterious character is made very clear that he is certainly the hitman. He's stood over the body of the main character who has dropped to the floor after obviously being shot.

This medium shot shows the hit man character walking away from the body of the main character. The hitman character has his hand inside his coat, showing that he is putting the pistol back into a holster. 

A close-up shot appears of the victim laid on the ground. The shot then zooms in and becomes an extreme-close-up shot. 

This and the following two frames show places where the man should be, but nobody is there which shows that the main character died. This is a medium shot of the main characters bed with nobody in it and perfectly tidy. This represents the main characters death.

This is a medium-shot of the mans kitchen which is relatively the same shot used earlier on the short film when the main character is getting something to eat and drink before he left his house. This represents the main characters death.

This is a long shot showing an isle of the shopping centre where the main character used to visit each morning. He is not their which also represents his death.

Title Sequence

"Conceptually, the sequence was constructed around the idea of "the whore in the house of prayer" by intermingling contradictory images of sex, violence and religion and displaying them from the point of view of "a supernatural, predatory creature observing human beings from the shadows ..." Ideas of redemption and forgiveness are also explored, and thus the sequence progresses from morning to night and culminates in a baptism.

The title sequence also features images and themes of death and rebirth; the circle of life. A Venus fly-trap can be seen engulfing a frog while a rotting fox’s head is sped up to reveal maggots feeding off of the corpse. Rebirth is also recognized through an image of a woman being “washed clean” from her sins in a lake as well as a Reverend blessing and possibly performing an exorcism on a member of his congregation.

Most of the footage used in the sequence was filmed on location. Crew members took a four-day trip to Louisiana to film and also shot at a Chicago church and on a stage and in a bar in Seattle. In editing the opening, individual frames were also splattered with drops of blood. The sequence's transitions were constructed differently, though; they were made with a Polaroid transfer technique. The last frame of one shot and the first frame of another were taken as a single Polaroid photo, which was then divided between emulsion and backing. The emulsion was then filmed being further separated by chemicals and those shots of this separation were placed back into the final edit." - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Blood#cite_note-Doing_baptisms-14

Each shot within the title sequence portrays a