Analysing Short Films: 'THIS IS IT' - Alex

'This Is It' (Dir. Alexander Engel, 2014)

'This Is It' is a short film, filmed from multiple-perspectives and known for it's various jump cuts/short clips. Although this short is considerably shorter than the film we will eventually make, I feel as though it is important to look up different styles of short films to know what makes one more successful than the other. Although I cannot see our group directly taking any editing inspiration from it, the director's style is very unique and interesting from an outsider's perspective.

The short opens with no titles, no character introductions, but just a black screen with the sound of footsteps. We are then shown a high angle, looking down a flight of stairs at two college students with bags/boxes of their belongings.

The first piece of dialogue is the title of the film - so a form of 'credits' have been integrated into the film in one way or another. I'm not entirely sure how the title correlates to the film's plot.

Straight away, I appreciate the director's usage of a POV shot - when analysing 'BITCH', I found that there wasn't a great variation in camera positioning.

Within the first 19 seconds, the director has achieved different angles, different perspectives and includes a 2-shot when the two characters walk through the door.

I also applause the editor's choice of titling. It's very uncommon for any sort of film to use a freeze-frame of the footage and overlay text - this vibrant yellow, simplistic font has a very 'indie film' feel about it. Each word appears on the screen, one after another with a punching sound effect. I like this approach to titling and feel like we could incorporate something similar into our group's short film. The editor then uses a second-long sound bridge of one of the guys brushing his teeth.

Another unique style of filming was using the fourth wall as a mirror - the character is shown looking directly into the camera as though he were looking in a bathroom mirror. This would usually break the continuity in any other narrative, but works due to his toothbrush prop being a code for his setting. The short continually uses various framing and uses the fourth wall to their advantage - looking into the distance seems to be very common.

Personally I feel as though this film was created with objective narration - we, the audience are observing in on two college guy's lives living together. Although we are not directly learning anything, the semantics are very familiar - we have that shared understanding about the struggles of living and sharing with people in a confined space.

The film relies on repetition in dialogue; each line begins with "Did you...?" - in an apartment where only two people live there, it's clear that the other had done to upset the other. This is great for comedic value when done in this quick pace of filming. The film discusses the struggles of taking on responsibility when you first move out, so the themes are all based around personal hygiene, paying bills, and cleaning up - three things that neither of the two seem to be good at.

 Figures 4 and 5 are my favourite scenes. The lines are:

"Did you do the dishes?" and "Did you do the trash?"

Clearly neither of them have done their chores, but still are disgusted/disappointed in the other's actions. They are living a stereotypical lifestyle of a teenage boy.

The director was also clever to group all of their problems together. The first being bodily waste (tidying up facial hair, flushing the toilet etc.), the second being general tidying up trends, the third being bills/payments, the fourth being saving electricity/security measurements. From there, another character is introduced to their already hectic lifestyle. Teen romance is obviously a hot topic in college, and I appreciate that the director made sure to cover every aspect of their day.

Once a new character has been involved, multiple action codes are used to join the scenes together. A quick rundown:

• "Who drank my soda?" - female interest drinking a soda in the background
• "Have you seen my stash?" (presumably marijuana) - female smoking in next scene while reading journal
• "Are you reading my journal?" - female asks "Do you really think I'm pretty?"

This miniature narrative leads to the two have sex. The short also discusses cheating, shared partners and wanting to move etc.
Much like 'Bitch', I like that the short discusses topics that aren't unrealistic - these are all things that happen in the modern world but are presented in an entertaining way. Where a lot of short films rely on character development, it's as if the apartment they were living in is the main character we care about. The setting and all the things that go on in there seem to be the point of interest.

From this film, I'm taking:

• their use of the fourth wall
• experimentation with jump cuts
• unique style in titling