Black Hole - By Joe Blissett

‘The Black Hole’

The scene begins with the diegetic sound of what sounds like a printer printing or scanning documents in what the audience assumes to be in an office. This is then immediately backed up by the mid-shot of an office worker standing in an office, with the conventional props in the background helping to display this; props such as: desks, chairs, and computers. This can also be connoted by the characters costume; a simple white shirt with tie, typically associated with an office worker. However we can immediately determine his class, as his appearance suggests that he may not perhaps be one of the main figures at work, as again his costume looks scruffy and untidy, as well as his facial expression which suggests he may perhaps not like his current job and feels somewhat exploited by the higher up members of the business. 
 Notice that at this stage, it appears that the lighting of the shot is somewhat dim and grey, again is implying the monotony of his job. Selections of various cuts are then used to show the character’s movements and actions of selecting the printer option on the scanner. The printer responds in a high pitch bleep which continues to sound each time he presses it, and so he decides the kick the printer, in which then, the printer decides to print. Once the image of the black circle emerges, we can tell that this was not what he wanted to be printed from the facial expressions shown. The following shot is then a low angle mid shot looking up at our character, in which the audience then recognises is the point of view from the ‘black hole’ from the piece of paper. By doing this it creates a supernatural feeling to it, displaying the idea of the unreal or strange. This can then be inferred furthermore from the non-diegetic sound of the ‘hole’ when the character puts his hand near to it. Once the character places the plastic cup down onto the side of the printer (where the piece of paper is), he obviously expects the cup to just sit there, however his facial expressions show him to be quite shocked once he discovers that his cup has mysteriously disappeared inside the ‘black hole’.

A long shot then shows the character experimenting with the piece of paper by going up to a vending machine (prop) and placing it up against the glass. He then reaches inside the machine and grabs a chocolate bar, and to his amazement, it actually worked. A close up then shows his facial expression as being rather smug with himself. His attention then turns to what appears to be his manager’s office, which is made out to be moderately important and almost sacred to the other office workers, and this is shown from the way a camera zoom is used to highlight the manager’s office door. He then approaches this door (with varying camera shots showing this) and unlocks it using the sheet of paper, before entering the room and going straight towards the safe located directly in front of him. During these several moments, the continuous sounds of printers going off in the background help bring the audience back to reality in terms of making it seem almost realistic. The character then places the ‘black hole’ onto the safe wall, before cautiously looking around to make sure it’s safe, before rummaging inside the safe. A sense of greed is recognised from the audience from the characters facial expressions and reaction to pulling out this lump of money, and by the way he continues to pull out all of the money apart from one lump that appears to be just out of reach for the character and so he clampers in. In all his determination to get inside the safe, he accidently appears to jolt the ‘black hole’ which is attached to the safe, releasing it from the side and making it fall to the ground, trapping him inside the safe. A sense of irony is seen from this film as greed basically overrules his feeling of mystery, which ultimately gets him stuck in a now difficult situation.