Response to 'The Fly' by Olly Williams

In 2014, Olly Williams released ‘The Fly’, a short film following a getaway driver waiting outside a bank robbery for his accomplices. We watch for six minutes as the protagonist becomes progressively more stressed as he sits in the getaway car, with his actions eventually resulting in the police arriving at the scene as his accomplices leave the bank.

The tone of this piece is dark comedy, which paired with a gritty and realistic setting acting, and excellent comedic timing makes for a hilarious if slightly uncomfortable viewing experience.
The creative use of camera angles, including an extreme close-up of the protagonist's eyes, and a bird's eye view shot of the car, keeps the viewer interested in the action and and sticks to the typical snappy editing of a comedy, potentially inspired by directors such as Edgar Wright (Baby Driver, Shaun of the Dead).
Williams also uses purely diegetic sound, adding to the realistic tone of this short and therefore drawing the viewer further into the action, adding to the 'dark' of the comedy by building tension throughout the sequence
Overall, I feel that this short film was successful in what it set out to do, and is an interesting piece to contrast with 'Blue Song' which I have previously analysed and 'Baby Driver', another 'getaway driver' piece.

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Response to 'The Arrival' by Daniel Montanarini

In 2016, Daniel Montanarini directed a short film called 'Arrival' which follows a pregnant woman's inner monologue as she waits in a cafe to tell the man this news. She debates in her head whether or not to keep it, eventually coming to a decision at the end of the film, just before the man arrives. This film is, overall, theatrical. It consists entirely of the expressions of the woman (Anna) and her inner monologue conveyed with a voice-over. It is like the cafe is her stage, as everything from the spotlight on the lead actress to the over-the-top expressions to the well blocked extras in the background exudes drama. Montanarini's camerawork is effective. He uses a simple zoom-in as the scene progresses, building to the climax of the film which is a train going past the window as Anna reaches her decision (whether this is literal or metaphorical or both seems ambiguous). I think all of these features achieve what Montanarini was trying to which, as he said in an...

Narrative Structures in Film

In this blog post, I will be discussing research I have carried out surrounding narrative structures in film, specific theorists relating to this, and structures within short films specifically. Three-Act Structure The Three-Act Structure is an old principal used in all types of story telling. Essentially it means the story has a beginning, middle and end, though these are usually called: Setup Confrontation Resolution Theorist #1- Todorov Todorov identified traditional narrative theory by studying classic fairy tales and stories; he discovered that narratives move forward in chronological order with a clear beginning, middle and end, and suggested that characters are changed in someway at the end of the narrative. He called this a linear narrative . Linear Narrative Steps: The narrative begins with an equilibrium An action or character disrupts this equilibrium A quest to restore the equilibrium begins The narrative continues to a climax A resolution occurs an...

Response to 'Echo' by Lewis Arnold

In 2011, Lewis Arnold directed a short film called 'Echo'. It follows Caroline, a 17 year old girl, who gets a phone call informing her that her dad has been in an accident. However, as the film continues we learn that, though this event did happen, Caroline was pretending to get the call again to con people in the street into giving her money. The film is an interesting exploration of grief and the ways people deal with it, but the most interesting element, I feel, is the narrative structure. In an interview I watched, Arnold explains that the film was written in three parts; three phone calls, the first using long takes to be the most objective, and allows the audience to take the place of pedestrians on the street so that the scene remains ambiguous, to leave the viewer wondering what exactly is happening. Then, when the second phone call takes place, the audience enters the scene from the point of view of Caroline's younger brother. This makes it clear that no...

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