Short Film Task - Analyse of Awake.

Awake - Short Film. Directed by Danny Blackstock, Created by Glen Cheng, Melinda Ng and Stephanie Bourgeois. Starring Cameron James Phillips. 2013.

I have chosen to look at this short film as i hope to produce a short film of a similar theme/ genre that is a Thriller or possibly a combination of it and something else such as Horror or Comedy.

This narrative structure of this piece is linear as there are no flashbacks or scenes that take place in the pass of.
Synopsise of Film.

This Short film captures the life of a young man (in his early twenties) being the only one left on   world though we are not told of this however it is implied. The Film goes through his daily routine as the only one left in the world showing us how he deals with the boredom and what is feelings are on the matter such as missing friends and family members, he particularly mentions not knowing what happened to his grandfather before he got sick while looking into his room and seeing a cane leaning against a night stand. The Character also mentions the strange things that are happening to him mentioning the first day he attempted to drive however his car was filled with water. The film then goes on to show us how he spends his time trying out new hobbies to keep himself occupied, while he narrates his feelings.

Towards the end he begins to notice strange things happening to him more frequently, and how he begins to believe he is no longer alone, questioning his sanity. The final scene of this short film, shows the main character arriving home and noticing a door left open to which he follows. The room reveals a figure however we cannot see their face as the camera angle is an over the shoulder shot of the new character holding a cane, upon sight the main character of the short film calls out 'Grandpa?' showing us his grandfather has returned.

The last shot of the Short Film is a shot of a full page newspaper story to which we can see a photo of our main character and his car being pulled out of a river with the heading "Young man found dead in his car after crashing into the Fraser river" to which we can assume that he is not the only person left on earth but is in an alternate world different to the living one as he is dead along with his grandfather who is presumed dead also.

Use of Camera in Awake.




Mise-En-Scene:

• Location:  There are 3 locations used within this short film, the first begin the house in which the main character lives, and is also the most used location within the short film. Here we see him going through his daily routine such as waking up, eating breakfast, keeping busy and then finally sleeping. The second Location used within this short film is the street in which he lives. on a few times throughout this short film we see the street, whether the main character is looking through his window observing the emptiness or stepping out (particular the scenes with the gnome and car) And the final location is the beach where he is skimming Peebles as part of the hobbies he is talking about in the narration.

• Costume: The items of clothing in this short film are causal clothing for a young adult man, there are not anyone kinds in the short film as it only consists of one character.

• Props: There are a number of props used in this short film, though most importantly are the gnome the main character picks up off of the street and continuos to use the gnome as a sign of friendship throughout as he is alone. The second, is the characters car that at first we see is filled with water which confuses the main character however later on we know that, that is the same car he crashed into the river in. And Finally, the cane that belongs to his Grandfather. We first see this cane in his Grandfathers room leaning against the nightstand however then makes another appearance at the end when the main character finds his Grandfather back in his room.

Sound:

Target Audience:

The target audience of this piece would be those aged 18 - 30 years old, as the age of the actor within the short film is roughly the same or a similar age and those who are fans of either Sci fi, horror or the thriller genre as this short film falls under all of these categories.

What Ideas could you use in your own short film?

For my own short film i could base it on a similar theme as this short film as it is is classed as a thriller genre film and this is the kind i particularly want to do as i am interested in this genre. From this short film i could use the idea of a paradox or big twist to cause confusion and to keep the audience interested.