Short film Analysis

Short Film analysis - Suburbia

 The opening scene is in a florists and one of the first shots is in shallow focus on a light bulb, followed by the title of the film ‘Suburbia’. The title rolls in while during the scene. The shots either side of the title show a luxury, expensive shop with the range of focus on the items within the florists and it being clean and innocent.

A long shot of  Joel (the main character) and his partner in the second scene outside of the florists. The scene around is quiet despite the audio of gun shots heard. The main character is wearing casual clothing as if he was on a day out, he walks through the quiet neighbourhood which is clean and quiet, a complete contrast to the gunshots heard earlier on in the film.

This scene is after the gunshots have been heard and people are running from the scene.  Joel is also running away from the scene and is out of breath very quickly suggesting he is shocked, scared and paranoid of further destruction as for him hiding behind a motorbike. A mobile phone is in use to ring the police, with the year being 1990 the mobile suggests the man is wealthy as this was an expensive item at the time.  

Joel hears more gunshots the sounds indicate someone has been shot due to the screaming. Joel works his way down the street, a medium long shot shows him stop look and then run, this shows he is shocked and in disbelief of the situation that someone has been badly wounded. The shot also focuses on a woman’s handbag implying that the victim is a woman.

The ambulance arrived and close ups of Joel’s face and he starts to repeat what he said to the paramedics due to the woman dying in his arms, he looks to find where his partner is and she appears just after the medics when Joel is disorirentated from the shock of the woman dying in his arms.The shallow focus on Joel suggests that the audience is in his head as he is shocked and focused on the event that just happened instead of the relief that his partner is shouting him and she has not been injured.