Pre-Production Research-Film2: 'Musca' by Stefan Parker, 2014 Vimeo

'Musca' is a short film full of tension and suspense with a few comic elements, which shows glints of a dark comedy genre. It suggests that when people die, they become flies, this is established when a fly attempts to communicate with a man in a diner.

The first long shot of a diner establishes the setting and sets the scene as the camera slowly pans into it as a car drives past, which is accompanied by the diegetic sound of talking and traffic; setting a rural town area. The camera then cuts to a mid shot inside the diner, displaying a young man drinking a cup of tea and reading a book and a cook in the background preparing something. This sets up the Equilibrium in terms of Todorov's model due to the way everything seems perfectly normal.

The man's costume consists of a formal plain white shirt with the sleeves rolled up which makes it slightly informal as well. This suggests that he's perhaps a business man having breakfast before work. His facial expression remains deep in thought as he reads his book.

The cook in the background appears to be preparing something, wearing a costume that consists of an apron and a white top underneath, which is the standard costume for a cook.

This mid shot allows the audience to observe that there's no one else in the diner apart from these two characters.

The camera then cuts to a match on action of the cook placing a roll on the counter with a stern facial expression. A diegetic buzzing sound of a fly is heard as a fly begins buzzing around the roll and shallow depth of field is used to emphasise the movement of the fly around the roll, but to also capture the irritated facial expression of the cook who is out of focus in the background. He shoos the fly away with a swatting motion and continues with what he was doing, with the diegetic buzzing sound remaining. The camera cuts back to the  previous mid shot of the young man reading and the camera gradually pans in on him. Diegetic sound of police sirens are heard suggesting trouble and justice, perhaps conveying that this is a fairly troublesome area.

The camera cuts to a close up of the young man's phone which is accompanied by the diegetic sound of a text message displaying a news alert saying: "MAN FOUND DROWNED IN RIVER NAMED AS JOHN BROWN". The camera then makes cuts from close ups of the phone to close ups of the man which displays his facial expression as recognisable of the announcement but then another close up is used to show him swiping the alert away as if it were nothing.

The mid shot of him sitting down reading is repeated again, apart from this time, the diegetic buzzing sound of the fly returns and he looks up slightly irritated as he notices the fly buzzing around him. This is accompanied by slight tense non-diegetic music that creates enigma in terms of Barthes theory of Enigma codes as we become eager to know why this fly appears to be meaningful. The way in which his eyes follow the flight path of the fly creates slight comedy due to the stupidity of following it so intensely. In terms of Neale's theory of repetition, this constant repetition of these comic moments make up the formula for the comic side of the genre.

An extreme close up is used to display the fly on his book and the shot seems slightly magnified, which conveys that the man is focusing very hard on the fly. A cut is made to a mid shot of the man with a confused facial expression as he attempts to brush the fly away. Once again he begins closely watching the fly as it buzzes around him with a curious facial expression; this is the Disruption phase in terms of Todorov's model theory, as the fly begins to disturb the normality. The camera uses another magnified extreme close up to display the fly back on the book but on different words which are "help me". The camera cuts to another close up of the man's confused facial expression as he studies the fly and brushes it away again which applies to the comedy within the sequence as the constant brushing away of the fly emphasises the annoyance of the man.

His facial expression remains confused as the camera cuts back to the extreme close up of the sentence that the fly landed on which says "help me". This suggests that he's trying to work out something as if the fly is trying to communicate with him. A cut is made to a close up of the man shaking his head as if he's telling himself not to be so silly as to think a fly could communicate. The same shot of him watching the fly intensely returns and the genre of comedy returns again due to the ridiculous angle and movement of his eyes and head as he scans around to follow the fly which lands back onto his book above the sentence: "Don't be scared". A side view close up of the man allows the audience to see that he's reading the sentence out loud with the same confused facial expression and with the fly still on the page. Another close up is used to show the fly jumping onto the end of his nose which creates comedy as it's as if the fly is trying to mock him. However, instead of swatting the fly away, he merely sits there and let's the fly sit on his nose, the way in which he frowns communicates that he's muddled and doesn't know what's going on.

The camera continues to show extreme close ups of the fly sitting on his book above different sentences such as "I'm real", the side view close up shows the man leaning forward and comically whispering "hello?" as if the fly is going to reply to him. This is comic because he looks crazy and stupid attempting to have a conversation with an insect and then tilting his head to listen out for a reply.

The camera cuts to a long shot of the cook in the far end of the kitchen fiddling about with something and seems to be completely unaware of the man's weird actions. A mid shot is used to show the man turning around to ensure that he isn't being watched in order to avoid being thought of as crazy, during this he also lets out a tiny laugh as if he's in disbelief.

The extreme close up of the fly on the book returns as it scuttles over to the word "write" which the man repeats as if understanding the fly as he begins to fumble around for a pen and paper.

A series of cuts are made from extreme close ups of the fly on the book, to close ups of the man writing, this conveys that the man is writing down the words that the fly is sitting above and communicating with it. This sets up the Confrontation phase in terms of Todorov's model theory, due to the way he's attempting to deal with the fly and work out what's happening. The series of cuts quickens the pace and creates tension which applies to the dark side to the comedy due to the way the atmosphere is made tense and uneasy. The camera then pans slowly towards separate extreme close ups of words in the book such as "John" and "Brown", this captures that the man is realising something crucial as he studies the result of his writing and realises that the fly is in fact John Brown who was the person that drowned. Along with the extreme close ups of "John" and "Brown", a sinister non-diegetic sharp sound accompanies the two names which suggests some sort of truth is unravelling. Also at this point, the tense non-diegetic music begins building up to build more suspense as the realisation commences. The diegetic sound of a text message is used again to repeat the news alert of John Brown having drowned in a river. As this happens, a mid shot of the man shows him reading it out loud with a confused facial expression and attempting to talk to the fly, but this is abruptly interrupted by the quick  cut to a close up of a roll of newspaper that suddenly emerges and squishes the fly, which is accompanied by a loud diegetic smacking sound. This acts as the Resolution phase in terms of Todorov's model theory, as the fly is no longer alive and can no longer communicate with the man meaning that order is restored. This breaks the tension and adds to the dark side of the comedy due to the brutal killing of the fly and in terms of Altman's theory of conventions, this counts as a fixed characteristic that creates the darkness to the comedy which designs the dark comedy genre. The camera cuts back to the man who has a shocked facial expression. It's confirmed that the cook was the killer of the fly as the camera cuts to a mid shot of him putting the roll on the table and walking away. A cut is made to an extreme close up of the fly completely disembodied on the serviette in which he wrote on, this provides a brutal image which adds to the dark side of the genre and again acts as a fixed characteristic in terms of Altman's theory of conventions. It also adds to the comical side of the genre due to the time spent of the man trying his hardest to work out the situation only for the whole thing to be quickly ended by a simple roll of newspaper. The same mid shot returns of the man sitting at his table and the cook in the background, the camera gradually pans out creating a disheartened atmosphere which mirrors the disheartened facial expression of the man as he stares down sympathetically at the disembodied fly.

The camera cuts to a side view mid shot of the man stepping into the street from the diner with a concerned facial expression as he gazes downwards at his phone in full concentration. Shallow depth of field is used to draw focus upon him. As he exits the frame, the camera cuts to a long shot of him walking into the road and coming to a stop which is when a van suddenly emerges and hits him with the diegetic sound of breaks squeaking in an attempt to stop that's closely followed by the diegetic sound of a car alarm and people yelling in panic. The camera then pans up to create a worms eye view shot showing another fly buzzing around frantically, accompanied by a diegetic buzzing sound. This is the New Equilibrium in terms of Todorov's model theory. The tense non-diegetic music returns to create a sinister ending and to convey that the fly is the man that's died and come back as a fly just like 'John Brown' did. This creates a chronological Linear narrative as we gain closure and realise the plot, but it also creates a circular narrative as we end up outside the diner, which is where the sequence started.

 
I liked the imagination in this short film that suggested that when you die you become a fly and the comic moments of the male character ridiculously following the fly and frantically moving his head and eyes to capture it's every movement. I'd like to incorporate elements of comedy into our short film to sustain the entertainment, just like this short film did. The ending was very sudden and unexpected which is another aspect I thought was gripping and engaging, unexpected endings leave the audience feeling shocked and surprised which are two emotions I'd like to generate by making a part of our shot film unexpected.