Amy Sharp- Pre Production Research "Phone Box" 2013

Phone Box - mvillasenor 2013

Virgin media shorts

'A man is threatened and must complete a task to save his daughter'

http://virginmediashorts.com/film/4756/phone-box#.VfvtlkZSW3Y

A foley of a phone ringing begins the short film. The camera focuses of a males feet running, accompanied by an intense soundtrack. The camera cuts quickly focusing on his legs and torso before cutting to a long shot of his whole body running down a street, this builds tension and is a common technique used to show someone either being chased or running in an intense situation. As the character runs towards the camera we see the distress in his facial expression before he runs to the telephone box the camera shows 3 shots when he goes to the phone. The first is from side on and shows him opening the door which quickly cuts to the second shot which is a high angled shot in the box to show him grabbing the phone rather than calmly picking it up and finally to the last shot which is a close up outside of the box focused on his face to show his reaction to the conversation. In three simple shots the director is able to show intensity in each action highlighting how every dramatic action is important to the characters emotions. The conversation in the telephone box informs the audience that if he keeps being late ‘your Aiko will start losing fingers’ the camera is face on in a close up so the facial expression of fear is shown clearly on his face. The camera follows each action the character makes so it places us in the scene and puts the audience in the prospectus of the male using pov shots and close ups to convey emotion.

The short film is set in either china or japan as the main character has cultural traits along with the language used, they have subtitles in English. There is a time change in the short which is ’40 minutes earlier’ to the first scene which goes against todorovs theory of narrative; it is a disruption of equilibrium first. This is a common technique used in action/adventure films; they use a chase or highly intense situation to open the film to intrigue the audience and do not give too much away in order to engage the audience’s attention. The next scene is the complete opposite of the one before, it is calm in a lobby with diegetic off screen music of a piano.  


The familiar man from before walks across in a medium close up before being called over by a white male who is smartly dressed in a suit, presumably an employee. Interestingly he speaks English but with an accent which is contrasting with the foreign language exchanged before. The main character is given a parcel and as before 3 shots are shown: each a close up of the male dramatically opening the package building tension. A close up reveals what is inside, it is a plushy toy which we can assume from the opening it belongs to Aiko. A foley of a phone ringing sounds as we see the toy followed by the voice from the telephone box. In a close up we once again see the facial expression of the character this shows how he has a close connection to Aiko and the toy is key to her personality/character. A quick cut to an extreme close up of the phone holder appears on screen. At this point we can assume we are back to present day as the character is out of breath and the conversation carries on from before. A low angled medium close up shows the character take out an object from underneath the telephone. It changes to a high angled shot in order to show a better view of the object which we can assume from the context and shape it is a gun, this is a semantic code in a thriller genre and also an action genre. As he looks over to see the man the antagonist describes the camera moves over too showing through the telephone box a male character, all the voice says about him is ‘you know what you have to do’.

Faded shots begin showing either the future or what he imagines it is unclear, the voice over of the antagonist plays through as the camera cross cuts between the character in the telephone box and in the faded shots where we assume he is going to kill the man. We see shots of everything that has happened including him raising the gun before it all merges into one building tension. It is suddenly cut off by returning to an extreme close up of the phone holder, as the phone is put down dramatically the sound is replaced by a foley of a gunshot. So the audience can only assume he killed the man.

The scene changes to a street where the character walks into shot on the phone. It is a females voice and the medium close up shows his confusion and distress, she then says ‘Aiko, daddys on the phone’ which shocks both him and the audience as it reveals she is safe and in no danger at all. He asks where her toy is and in reply the woman, presumably his wife, says ‘right here. She never lets it go’ the character stops walking straight away and the camera moves back showing the toy in his hand and his shocked facial expression. He drops it and the camera cuts to a close up of it on the ground as police sirens sound in the background.