Influencing policy (training slides from Fast Track Impact)
Short Film Analysis
1. Short Film Analysis Post – It Love The short film I have chosen to analyse is called “Post – It Love”, running approximately 3 minutes long. The film is about two shy office workers who like each other, and are expressing their love through well-mastered and clever post-it note images scattered around the office. Each of them takes turn to better their image until the finale when they both catch each other in the act and give each other a cheeky smile. 1276225-43180061456565444502276225508007450850508003276225984258456565508004276225698509456565-63505276225603251045656560325 Representation The short film has two main characters, a male and female. They are represented as being two people who are very shy but share a loving interest in each other, and this is shown using various different techniques. In scene 1 they are found photocopying some paper and as you can see they have both gone on different copier machines (scene 1) because they are too shy to talk to each other. When standing in front of the machines the shyness is once again represented because they both peer over the wall-section to glance at the other person simultaneously (scene 2) and quickly look down when they spot the other person staring at them. The girl is in a close up shot and you can see a small smile appearing as if to portray her happiness that the male was looking at her too. This has obviously proven to the girl that the male has indeed interest in her, but the shyness is once again conveyed when she leaves a piece of blue paper with a smiley face made out of post it notes (scene 3). This portrays the shyness because the girl had no confidence to speak to the male, and vice versa. After receiving the post it note smile the male rolls back on his chair and peers down the office to see the girl also looking at him (scene 4), within no time they both withdraw to their section because they once again spot each other looking. This shows nervousness between the pair because they show a lack of verbal communication and interaction. The male has now realized that the female has shown some affection for him so he wants to immediately show his to her but a step further, scene 5 shows the female lifting up her blinds and finding a bright yellow sun made out of post it notes stuck on her window. This once again portrays the shyness because the male too hasn’t had the courage to speak to the female but instead represents his love and interest in her by returning the idea only bettering it slightly. The girl perceives this as the male being interested in her and sits at her desk and cheekily ponders what to do next. This represents the interest they have in each other because she doesn’t want it to stop here; she wants it to keep going. The next scene (6) shows the male character sorting out his tie in the toilet; an anonymous character walks into the cubicle behind and shuts the door only to reveal the next step in the loving interest between the two characters. This time round it’s a thought bubble containing a pink heart, (made out of post it notes), placed perfectly where the male is standing. Once again representing the shyness because the female still hasn’t brought up enough courage to speak to the male instead leads him on with another picture. The heart represents her loving interest and cleverly tries to give a sign to the male that he may be thinking the same. Cleverly the male knows that the female uses the stock room frequently, so expertly in line with the light switch he masters a beautiful flower (scene 7) on the wall and with the “over the shoulder” shot it shows her holding the flowers. This represents the loving interest because he has responded to the heart with a bunch of flowers. At this point the female is very pleased and grabs many piles of post it notes to once again return a different image, scene 8 represents her shyness because she looks around wearily hoping that the male doesn’t see her because she wants to complete another image for him. Walking down the corridor, she stops (scene 9) and the camera zooms in to a close up and suddenly a huge expression of shock is shown, and scene 10 clearly explains why. The male has beaten her to the final post with a huge collage of their faces on the back wall of the office, and this concludes both the loving interest and shyness representation because after all these signs they both show that they like each other but both have trouble speaking to each other. Through images and leading each other on it has shown both characters that they both share a keen interest in each other, which is represented throughout the 3 minutes running time. The film finishes with the female in a close up shot expressing her happiness with a huge smile. Genre From watching this short film I believe the film to be in the genre of romance and comedy. In scene 1 they are both standing at the copier and do the exact same actions, copying, picking up more paper, filling machine and it’s quite comical to watch as they are both in sync. Scene 2 shows both genres at the same time, because first of all its humorous due to their shyness towards each other and how they quickly look down at the copier again, but this also shows hints of romance and love because both have noticed each other. As explained before the girl looks down and begins to smile so this is also a convention for the love genre. Scene 3 shows the post it note smile which once again represents the comical genre because it’s a cheeky little smile whilst simultaneously being a shy, cheeky way of showing your interest with this person. This interest interlinks with the love part because it shows signs of happiness towards this person, and the smile is personal to the male character. They roll back on their chairs (scene 4) and catch each other staring and it’s reasonably funny how the roll forwards quickly due to their shyness. Having now been presented with this little smile the male must wonder how to impress the female, and begins to think which links to the love because he is thinking of a way to impress her. Scene 5 shows his interest in her by posting the sun on the window, it’s very funny because that is where you would usually find the sun and has been positioned perfectly, and with help from the camera shot it enhances the scene and what the audience can see. The romantic/love genre is portrayed by the male repeating the female’s action only making it that slight bit better to grab her attention and make this interest known to her as well. In scene 6 the comical factor is once again conveyed because behind the cubicle door is the thought bubble and when shut it is positioned perfectly in the mirror and the male can see it, the audience can then observe that the positioning is clever as if to say the male is thinking this thought. The romantic factor is that the female has shown her affection to the male by placing the heart in the thought as if to say she’s thinking of him. And scene 7 proves that the male is doing likewise as he pastes the flowers onto the wall. It’s quite clever and witty because her hand, (camera shot aiding the scene), is directly in line with the flowers to show as if she is holding them. Desperate to make another image the female goes into the stock room and comes out with piles of post it notes which is viewed upon as comical because she looks determined. In scene 8 above just outside the stock room there is a white piece of paper on the wall, this reads “Stationary out of the stock room must only be used for work purposes only”, and the humorous factor is obvious as the female doesn’t intend to use it for any purpose for her work. The last two scenes shows the more romantic side because they catch each other in the act and she can see how much effort he puts in for her to notice him.