Pre-Production Research-Film4: 'Spring Clean' by thebakery, Virgin Media

'Spring Clean' is a comedy that tells the story of a man whose drab existence in his dreadful flat is about as exciting as the same dreary tie he wears to work every day. But one morning, eating his toast alone, he spills jam on that tie. Little does he know but that lump of sticky preserve is about to change is life forever

The opening shot uses shallow depth of field as light pours into the mid shot as the man opens the fridge. The focus is on the man as he looks with a tired facial expression at the jam that's out of focus. This is accompanied by ordinary and boring non-diegetic music  which suggests that this is his every day routine. In terms of Todorov's model theory, this sets up the Equilibrium phase as everything is normal.

A focus pull is used in the same shot to focus on the jam as he picks it up, the shot is then plunged into darkness again when he shuts the fridge door which is when the title appears. The camera then cuts to a close up of a spider crawling on a platform which conveys that his home is very dirty and messy, perhaps suggesting he lives alone and doesn't have a partner due to the excessive amount of grime and cob webs. Another cut is made to a mid shot of the man standing up surrounded by low key lighting, this creates a dull and dreary atmosphere, making his home seem even more bland and colourless. Due to the slight light coming from the window, a silhouette effect sort of outlines his body. His costume consists of a formal suit which conveys that he's a businessman getting ready for work. It's made clear that he was waiting for his toast to pop up as the camera cuts to a close up of a piece of toast appearing from the toaster, which is accompanied by the diegetic sound of a toaster. The camera then quickly cuts to an extreme close up of the man scraping out some jam from the jar and spreading it on a piece of toast. Focus pull is used once again to take our focus from the jam jar, to the piece of toast.

Another cut is made to a medium close up of the man biting into the toast which creates a crunching diegetic sound. The dull non-diegetic music is accompanied by a quick tense non-diegetic sound as a blob of jam lands on his tie, this is demonstrated by a close up of this happening. The camera cuts back to the close up of his face as he huffs with an irritated facial expression at the inconvenience of the jam landing on his tie. This creates the Disruption phase in terms of Todorov's model theory, as this is what causes the normality to be dramatically altered.

The camera cuts to the previous mid shot where his body is ever so slightly silhouetted as a match on action is used to show him opening a door in an extreme close up of his hand grasping the handle. The camera then cuts to a dark shot with him entering the frame and going into a room and the camera then cuts to a close up of him grabbing a bottle of spray next to a brush, off a dusty shelf. This acts as the Confrontation phase in terms of Todorov's model theory as he's attempting to fix the disruption. This room looks like some sort of utility room perhaps, due to the brick walls and the low key lighting. Another quick cut is made to the man placing the spray on the side and wiping the jam off of his tie with a bit of tissue. The dull non-diegetic music still being sustained. As he picks up the spray and sprays the tie, the non-diegetic music comes to an abrupt stop as the tie strangely disappears. A quick cut is made to an extreme close up of his eyes as they look shocked and confused, this is accompanied by tense non-digetic music that creates enigma in terms of Barthes theory of enigma codes, as the audience begin to question and become eager to know what's so special about this spray. A close up of the side board is cut to, in order to establish that the tie has fully disappeared. The camera then cuts to a slightly distorted low angle shot that puts the man in a higher position as he looks intensely at the bottle of spray with a dumbfounded facial expression. The low angle that the audience are put in, conveys that the spray has given him power as he seems superior compared to the position of the audience. Focus pull is used to draw attention to the spray as he examines it which again emphasises it's power. The camera cuts back to the close up of the side board and quickly back to the low angle shot of the man as he sprays the bottle again, which is accompanied by a diegetic spray sound and the sustained tense non-diegetic music. The camera cuts quickly back to the side board as the spray makes the tissue vanish which is accompanied by a sharp non-diegetic sound which emphasises the disappearance. This is closely followed by a cut back to the low angle shot of the man still with a dumbfounded facial expression as he sprays a plant and this is demonstrated by a cut to a close up of the plant as it also vanishes  with the same sharp non-digetic sound.

The camera then cuts to a close up of his face as he concentrates intensely on spraying a pizza box which is demonstrated by a cut to the end of the spray to another cut of the pizza box actually vanishing. It's clear that he's beginning to abuse this power as the camera shows him frantically spraying random objects around his flat. This is demonstrated by several cuts to the objects and back to the man holding the spray. Every time the bottle is sprayed, a zapping non-diegetic sound emerges to amplify the power of the spray and the frantic spraying. As he does this, his facial expression remains as exhilarated. Also, the camera remains at a low angle to emphasise his superiority and control whilst his in possession of this magic spray. This creates the Resolution phase in reference to Todorov's theory, as everything that's an issue begins to be solved.

A mid shot of dirty dishes emphasises his abuse of the spray as dish by dish begins to disappear in time with non-diegetic sounds that exaggerate their disappearance. This is also accompanied by non-diegetic music that creates pace and rhythm to his actions.

Suddenly, an extreme long shot is used as the diegetic sound of a doorbell enters the shot, which causes the camera to quickly pan in towards him as if he's coming back into reality and out of his crazy spraying rampage, using a close up of his face which displays a serious facial expression as if he's annoyed that he's been interrupted. The way in which he frantically sprayed in a rampage makes him seem like a villain in terms of Propp's theory of Folk Tale. The camera cuts to a distorted shot of a man looking into the lens. They have used a blocking technique in order to create the circular frame to mimic the spy hole in the front door, this is also conveyed by the distorted shape of his face as it becomes rounder the closer he is. His facial expression looks determined to talk to the man.

The camera cuts to an extreme close up of him looking through the spy hole which actually makes the previous shot a point of view shot, as we are seeing the gentleman outside through the hole in which the man is looking through. An over the shoulder shot is used as the door is opened to reveal the ginger man looking at him with a stern facial expression. Shot reverse shot is then used to clarify the conversation between them as the man sustains his stern facial expression whilst the other man proceeds to talk. An extreme close up is used to display the mouth of the man talking, which is accompanied by distorted non-diegetic music. A close up shows the ginger man taking the spray from behind his back slowly, which conveys to the audience that he's going to attempt to make the man disappear by spraying him. The camera cuts a mid shot of the spray in his hand which is quickly panned in on to emphasise the power and danger it has to the man at the door. Another extreme close up is used to display the man's mouth as he laughs, however a slow motion effect is used to make him seem slightly evil, which suggests that the ginger man wants him gone. Another extreme close up is used to display the ginger man's eye which doesn't blink, this demonstrates the seriousness of him. A diegetic zapping sound occurs as the camera cuts to a mid shot of him shutting the door and walking away, the diegetic zapping sound suggests that he made the man vanish. This reinforces the comedy genre as the comedy of simply making someone disappear just because he finds them annoying highlights the ridiculousness and absurdness which is often a fixed characteristic in a comedy genre according to Rick Altman who believed all genre's had particular conventions.

The camera then cuts to a mid shot of the man quickly sitting down on his sofa and launching a bunch of magazines on the floor to clear the table. His eager facial expression makes us wonder what he's planning on doing next. This shot is accompanied by the non-diegetic music that was previously used when he was frantically making things disappear, and the non-diegetic music created pace and anticipation. As he smacks a note pad on the table and begins writing, text starts emerging on the screen saying different things like "traffic wardens", "boss", "the ex", as this occurs, his facial expression changes from eager to thoughtful. These bits of text reveal to us that he's writing down all the things that he wants to make disappear. Once again this reinforces the comedy genre as the absurdness of his actions create a comical atmosphere and again apply to those fixed characteristics within this genre, stated by Rick Altman. Several short cuts are made whilst he's doing this to emphasise the amount of thought he's putting into this list, which adds to the comical atmosphere.

The camera cuts to a mid shot of him eagerly running out of the door, and the same shot reveals him returning. The amount of time he spent out is conveyed by the short snappy cuts that zoom in and out from the door. As he returns his facial expression seems relieved but tired, which is shown in a close up. This conveys that he's been doing a lot of spraying.

The camera then cuts to a long shot which allows the audience to see the empty spray bottle, which reinforces the idea that he had done a lot of spraying. As the camera cuts back to the close up of his relieved facial expression, an off-screen diegetic sound of a dog bark accompanies the shot, which transforms his relieved facial expression to a concerned and confused facial expression. Shallow depth of field is used in a cut to an extreme close up of his feet going down some steps, which is closely followed by a low key lighting mid shot of him crouching on the bottom step with the spray in front of him as if it were a weapon. This creates a comical image as he thinks he can defend himself with a bottle of spray. The camera cuts to a long shot of him going over to his utility room door and opening it which is demonstrated by an extreme close up of him turning the handle and slowly opening the door. An over the shoulder shot is used to display his findings inside the room as it's revealed that everything he made disappear has comically re-appeared in his utility room. Their facial expressions all look awkward as they look at him. This is the most comical part of the sequence as we laugh at the stupidity of the man for thinking that he had got rid of all these things when they are actually right under his nose in his own flat. To add to the comedy, an old man hands him back his tie which was the reason why this all started and to make the whole atmosphere even more awkward, they've made sure that there's an absence of diegesis. The sequence finishes by using an extreme close up of a bulb that blows up; plunging them into darkness and creating the New Equilibrium in terms of Todorov's theory. The ending also allows a chronological Linear structure as we gain closure on what happens to the people he had supposedly made disappear.

This short film created a comical atmosphere and my favourite scene is when he sits down and writes down all the things in which he wants to make disappear, such as his ex and traffic wardens. This was made more comical through the clever editing that was used; as he wrote things down, they appeared on screen in a text format to make it clear to the audience exactly what he was writing. I also liked the way the text was synchronised with the non-diegetic music, this technique allowed the text to have a dramatic entrance. I like the idea of the text format informing the audience of what he was writing and if needed, I'd like to use this in our short film.

Spring Clean tells the story of a man whose drab existence in his dreadful flat is about as exciting as the same dreary tie he wears to work every day. But one morning, eating his toast alone, he spills jam on that tie. Little does he know but that lump of sticky preserve is about to change his life forever - See more at: http://virginmediashorts.com/film/5175/spring-clean#.VfvoMUZSW3Z