Analysing a short film to help develop and compare the plot for our short film.

1. Analysis of a Short Film
By Louis Piper

2. • Opening scene is an over the shoulder two-shot conveying the
male characters expression to be upset suggesting the female
character has broken up with him with this being a rom com.
• The second image is of the title sequence that introduces the
title of the short film and shows the male character being left
alone in the park whilst is girlfriend walks off after the
breakup and the boy on the bike finds his heartbreak funny.
• However the male character’s heartbreak isn’t permanent as
on the way home he sees a girl who he claims is “the girl of his
dreams” this acts as the rom com meet cute in this short film.
• A close-up shot of the girl is used to reveal her natural beauty
to the audience and her white smile, long, brown hair swayed
to the side give her the title of ‘the perfect girl’
• A shot-reverse-shot is then used of another close-up but this
time of the male characters expression which shows that just
by looking at her, he has already fallen in love with her.

3. • This medium close-up, two-shot is a flashforward of the what
the male character is imagining when he sees the girl and is
hit by love at first sight. This is similar to our short film as
when Harriet breaks it to Isaac that she isn’t wanting to date
him we use a flashback to convey how the mix up happened.
• This action shot adds to the comedy of the short film as he
misses the train which acts as a barrier in the way of love. This
particular moment even combines both romance and comedy.
And his additionally suited to our short film as it shows the
beginning of a journey for a guy to find his love, much like our
story.
• This long shot continues the male character’s journey on his
quest for love and additionally adds another barrier to his
quest. The traffic light not changing stops him from meeting
his love, similar to the post-it notes in our film making Isaac’s
journey harder and longer.
• The long shot/action shot is the beginning of an elliptical edit
which is a type of edit we will be using in our short film and
both are used to show the male character and Isaac’s journey
to meet the girl they love.

4. • Continuing the elliptical edit and shortens the screen time of
the characters long journey. Further, adds comedy to the
section with the text on screen.
• At the end of the elliptical edit, the male character almost
makes it to the girl before he is knocked over by a car which
serves both as humour and another barrier in the character’s
quest.
• The long shot precedes the scene when he is knocked by the
car, he takes a bike from the boy who ridiculed him and pedals
to meet the girl.
• After pedalling as hard and as fact as he could an over the
shoulder, medium close-up shows that he finally gets to the
girl and that the two get to be happy together. Tying into the
plot for our short film as Isaac finally gets to the meeting spot
with Harriet and those two can be happy together.
• Both plots have the same ending, when they get to the
meeting point they are greeted by bad, heartbreaking news;
the girl has a boyfriend already and Harriet instead likes
Isaac’s friend.

5. • This medium shows the aftermath of the male characters
heartbreak and he is slumped on a bench, alone, back at the
park where the film started. This is similar to how Isaac is back
in his class feeling sorry for himself and heartbroken and is sat
in the room where he first got the note.
• But in a comedic turn of events a girl runs passed who is “the
girl of his dreams” and he no longer feels heartbreak. This
comedy scene ends the move on a happy ending and
combines romance and comedy. And a long short concludes
the film showing him running after the girl. Our short film
equally ends on a humeros note giving it a happy ending.
• The credit sequence then follows and the title of the film is
shown again over an establishing shot of a city and is the
background for the whole credits which keeps the credits tied
to the film and also has an upbeat music track to add to the
“feel-good” aspect of the film.
• The credits begin with the director and writer of the film with
the name being in a bigger size and bolder font.

6. • The credits then credit the director of photography who told
the cameramen how to shoot the film and what shots to use.
And those who worked behind the scenes of the screen follow
to be credited.
• The next person credited is the assistant director. Who’s job is
to asses the filming schedule and make sure the cast and crew
are taken care of and safe.
• Then, continuing in the order of importance, the producer is
credited who’s job it is to direct the marketing and oversee
that the planning and filming goes to plan.
• The composer of the film’s musical scores and background
music is credited. In this case, the composer is credited
whereas some credits name the music label or industry, and
others can sometimes have more than one composer, label,
etc.
• Following on from the composer, the sound mixer blends the
music as well as non-diegetic sounds together.

7. • The cast are then named and credited starting with actor who
played the biggest/main character. Some credits roll with
order of appearance but this credit sequence and ours begin
with the actor of the main part.
• After the first actor is credited, the credit sequence just lists
the actors names in a big and bold font. This is most likely the
female character’s actress as it continues to appear in biggest
to smallest character importance.
• Due to there only really being two main characters, the other
actors are doubled on the credit sequence.
• The final cast names are usually the extras or the actors of the
smallest (often non-speaking roles) or are sometimes for the
big star actor, but in this film’s case and ours, they are for the
actors of the smallest characters.
• This credit sequence also gives thanks to either a possible
distributor or company that worked with this independent
film company to produce their film.

8. • Following on from that, this credit sequence ends with their
special thanks to companies and personnel.
The short film I analysed was “Love Sick” by Kevin Lacy which fits in with our plot in
many ways including the use of elliptical edit, a boy’s journey for love which
includes numerous barriers in the way and heartbreak which eventually ends in a
comedic and happy ending. It also included types of shots that we will be using in
our film and helped us gaining an understanding of how credits work.