Short Film Analysis - 3)Slinky

Here is the last of the short films that I analysed, which is called "Slinky". This particular short film is about a man called Eddie who is confronted by one of his best friends from school Jeremy, who at first is portrayed as immature and not to have grown up since they past met.

Camera work:

• Panning shot from the sky to Eddie sitting on the bench with a newspaper to sow how sophisticated.
• Over the shoulder shot of when Jeremy is walking past Eddie until he spots Eddie, to shows the audience can see Eddie before he does.
• Close up of Jeremy’s face to show his immaturity.
• Low angle which represents the inner immaturity of Eddie.
• Wide shot allows the viewer to see the setting of the park, to help heighten the irony as the men are in an environment that is normally associated with children.

Editing:

• Shot-reverse-shot between to the men’s conversation.
• Natural lighting to show off the park, that it is an environment from children, usually.
• Quick cuts from character to character.

Sound:

• Birds singing help to reinforce this is a normal typical day at the park.
• Dialogue between each character – at the beginning Jeremy seems to be the immature one with the high pitch voice to suggest he is still a child, whereas, Eddie keeps a more controlled deep voice throughout until the end scene with the slinky.
• There is a sound bridge of Eddie's continuous laughter at the end of the clip whilst he is playing with his slinky.
• By Eddie changing his voice at the end shows he is letting out his inner child, implying he is just as immature as he was back at school.

Mise-en-scene:

• The light bulb is used usually in cartoons when someone has the “Eureka” moment, which suggests that Jeremy is still in the child’s frame of mind as he is on about Scooby doo, which is a children’s programme.
• The difference between the clothes the two men wear, shows the difference in character and social class status.
• The use of the food on the bench has slight subtleties of making reference to a pack lunch you would make for a child back in school to help foreshadow the “twist” later on in the clip.
• The use of the space hopper vs. the newspaper again shows the level of maturity between each character
• The slinky being involved is the “twist” to the short film, making it more interesting and turning the tables on who you think has the higher maturity level. 

Conclusion:

Out of all the three that I have watched this was probably my least favourite as the particular message conveyed was rather silly and in a way kind of pointless. I think what the director was trying to express was that inside everyone there is an inner child waiting to get out, no matter how old you are. I believe the director does do this with the use of camera work, editing, sound and miss-en-scene, however, it wasn't really my cup of tea. This could have been down to the amount of dialogue con sited as compared to the other two, they didn't include much in it so it was left to the imagination and how you interpret the clip. Therefore, I think that less is more, as the less dialogue the more effective and dramatic it is. However, I have taken all three short films into consideration and they have helped inspire me and gain some ideas for my own.