Short film case study

1. Purpose and audience
Out to Lunch is a short film by Katia Koziara. This is an American
film with an estimated budget of $5000. Koziara worked on this film
throughout 2017 and finally posted it on the 27th April 2018. She is
also known for other short films such as the
Bracket Theory. “Out to Lunch” explores the
feeling of being a woman alone in a city. It
plays with the idea of neurosis, and the fine
line between overreacting and trusting your
instincts, when plans go awry. In our current
unstable political and social climate, and in
the shadow of the #MeToo movement, it wrestles
with the question we ask ourselves every day:
“Am I in danger? Or am I just being crazy?”
From watching the film and reading Koziara’s statement it is clear
that the film is showing how difficult it can be for someone living
alone in a city and how scary it can be when we hear so much about
sexual assault and catfishing, it is easy to
develop paranoia around this issue.
I would suggest that the audience for this film
will predominantly be young women that could
be anywhere within the NRS scale as it effects
people from all social classes. According to
Dennis McQuail’s uses and gratifications
theory (1983) the main reason this audience
will watch Out to Lunch may be Personal
Identity as many young woman might relate to
the protagonist in that feeling of “am I in
danger?”; particularly when she looked around and begins to see all
of the people around her as potential villains.

2. Form, Style and Genre
This film was most likely filmed on an
average quality film camera, Koziara
obviously used a tripod as the shots
are all very steady and clear. Koziara
submitted Out to Lunch to the website
www.filmshortage.com who then assessed
it and posted it for public viewing.
Out to Lunch has a basic style is filmed
in colour, however when the protagonist
begins to feel paranoid and suspicious
about the people around her, it changes
to black and white and there is a distorted effect with green and
purple tones to it; this shows how easily everything can become
distorted to you when you are going through this kind of paranoia.
This short film is part of the drama genre but it also has some
political undertones to it as it is commenting on a real issue within
society. This film portrays a realistic, believable character that
ultimately moves the audience emotionally which is very typical of
the Drama genre. Furthermore the film has a hard-hitting ending that
leaves a lasting impression on the audience.
Frequency and production process
Out to lunch is a standalone one off short, as its intention is to
show how difficult living alone in a city can be, particularly for a
woman. It brings across a powerful message that doesn’t need to be
part of a series to fully understand its significance and meaning.
To create this fil, Koziara would have had to go through a lengthy
planning process that could have involved mind mapping, storyboarding,
script writing, recce’s, risk assessments, casting etc. We know that
the estimated budget was $5000 meaning that Koziara was quite limited
with her resources. She would have had to spend the majority of that
budget on actors and hiring the café to film in. Once all the planning
was complete, Koziara would have begun filming which would take a half
day for the café scene and ensured that she has it at the correct time
of day for perfect lighting (around 9:00am-4:00pm). After filming,
all that was left is the editing which Koziara would have done using
professional editing software such as premier pro or Final cut pro.
Once the editing was complete, Koziara was ready to submit her fort
film to filmshortage.com for exhibition.

3. Production Process: What key production processes do you think the
director would have gone through to get this short film made and
exhibited?
Content and Meaning
Out to lunch begins with an interior scene; a long shot looking down
the protagonist’s hallway as she rushes around getting ready to go
out, this is obviously filmed using a film camera and a tripod as it
is high quality and the camera is steady. She dresses in a short blue
dress which emphasises her femininity while the blue colour could
suggest how lonely she could be living in the city alone. During the
editing process, Koziara added visible text messages coming up at the
side in an apple iPhone style with sound effects to show the audience
the conversation the protagonist had had previously planning this
lunch.
As she arrives in the café, she looks around to find that her friend
is not there yet. We hear some non-diegetic background music which is
slightly sinister. This makes the audience slightly aware that
something might be wrong which helps us to understand how the
protagonist might be feeling. We also see a conversation between the
protagonist and the waiter which is filmed and edited using shot
reverse shot. During this conversation, the waiter asks “are you sure
she’s coming?” to which the protagonist replies “yes… HE is.” The
emphasis on the word “he” reflects the benevolent sexism that we still
see even now is 2018; the waiter assumed that because she said she
was meeting a friend, that friend must be a woman, and therefore if
she was going on a date the assumption would be that she was meeting
a man.
As the film progresses we begin to see
low angle shots of the waiter and the
chef to make them look powerful and
possibly threatening, especially as we
find out through more on screen text
messages that it wasn’t her friend that
planned the lunch date. Koziara
creatively shows the protagonists
paranoia in this moment as she looks
around and begins to question and fear
everyone around her. She uses black and
white film as well as a colourful
distorted effect as we see the waiter, the Chef and the Man at another
table attack the protagonist, at this time there is high volume
distorted music to emphasise the danger. However this only lasts for
a few seconds as the film returns to colour and the characters are
all seemingly innocent. This was a very clever way of showing the
feeling of “am I in danger, or am I just being crazy?” The film ends
as the protagonist turns to leave and as she looks out the window she
sees the Man that was at a table outside of the window staring at her.