This document summarizes and analyzes three short films related to the theme of bad days. The first film, "Story of My Life" uses relatable scenes of oversleeping and struggling to get out of bed to show a bad day. Shots include close-ups of an alarm clock and the main character's tired face. The second film "Right Place" focuses on a man with OCD working in a convenience store. Close-ups and medium shots emphasize his precise movements. Faster editing and music convey his anxiety. The last film "Anticipation" contrasts gloomy close-ups of morning items with a character who loves Mondays. Voiceover and shots of her walking barefoot

1. Case Studies
Zahra Noor

2. The first short film I am going to look at is called „Story of my
life‟ on
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtdpZiPpsj0
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This film is a similar theme to the film I will be making. It is based around bad things that happen in a
person‟s day.
The film starts with a mcu of an alarm clock showing the time. 7.46. This is clearly important as the
audience are being shown the time for future reference perhaps.
The video then cuts to a CU of a girl sleeping who then wakes up and unsuccessfully tries to turn the
alarm off then back to a mcu of the girl going back to sleep (trying to block out the sound_ and then a
CU of an alarm ringing on a phone and various attempts by the girl to turn it off. During these scenes
there is non-digetic sound of alarms ringing, and the sound of these alarms is very annoying, making
the audience feel the way the character is feeling because she has to wake up.
Then a MCU of the girl turning the alarm off and saying 5 more minutes. She then wakes up and
reaches out to the alarm clock to check the time cutting to a CU of the alarm clock and it is now 2.00.
This is something that the audience can relate to and because of this enjoy the video.
I think that in order to make the film enjoyable to audiences it should be relatable as well as funny to
keep the audience captivated.
There are many scenes in this video showing relatable events but one of my favourites is the one
about getting out of bed. It starts off with an over the shoulder cu of the girl watching a video. She
then turns her chair half way in order for the viewers to see her face whilst she is talking on the phone
about how she isn‟t tired even though it‟s 3am. It then cuts to a MCU of her waking up in the morning
extremely tired, the same annoying alarm sound in the background. The girl then forces herself out of
bed by dropping on the floor cutting to a MLS of her sliding out her room on the floor, her head on her
pillow, making her way to the bathroom. I think this is an extremely good idea for our short film
something about Monday because after a long weekend it is very difficult to have to get up early in
the morning. I think this is something that I will definitely be getting inspiration from for my video.
The editing techniques used in this video include captions and SFX to make the message of the video
stronger. After every little „event‟ that happens in the film, there is a sort of thump/whooshing sound as
the title of the video „Story of my life‟ appears on the screen while the video image goes monochrome.
The video is shot in live action but there isn‟t any linear narrative structure. I‟m not sure if you would
call is non linear though because it‟s not really a story that has to (not) be in order, the video just
shows various different things that happen in her/ our lives.

3. The next video I will be looking at is a short film by
futureshorts called “Right Place” on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBhjDgmGrXg
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I really like this video because it has no dialogue (barely any- voice over towards the end) and the
non-digetic sound goes really well with the story. This short film is about a man who has OCD and
works in a convenience store.
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The film starts off with a CU of a plate and knife and spoon being put properly, someone measuring
distance between them and then cuts to a CU of a cup of tea on a plate being put properly. The CU is
from a bird‟s eye view and then cuts to a CU side view of the person cutting a fried egg then back to a
bird‟s eye view of the egg cut into squares.

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The plate and cup is white which connotes cleanliness. The film then goes on to show the man
doing various different things (CU/MCU of taking pills, going toilet etc.) We get to see that the
majority of things he owns, from clothes to furniture, are white. We then see the title “Right Place”
come onto the screen. At first the letters are all jumbled up and they are being unscrambled to
reveal the title. But it says “Plight Rlace,” the „P‟ and „R‟ are in the wrong place and then they
change and go to the right place which goes with the whole OCD character as well the title.
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In this short film there are many CU or MCU, we never see anything more than we really need to.
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We see the character go to work and he starts putting everything in the right place, e.g. turning
things around so the name faces the front, in a CU.
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The shot then cuts to a MCU of a security man watching the CCTV footage from the store and
then back to a CU and then MLS of the worker scanning items at the till in a bird‟s eye view.
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We then get to see a bird‟s eye view MCU of the man giving back the customer change in a very
strange manner by laying the coins in rows according to the colour and value.
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The film then makes its cutting rate faster and adds non-digetic fast paced soundtrack whilst
showing CU and LS of the man putting things back in the right place as the cutting rate gets faster
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Towards the end, there is a voiceover of the man speaking in Japanese with English subtitles.
There is digetic sound of a car driving past in the background which connotes a city surrounding.
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I think CU/MCU has been used very effectively and fits in well with the whole OCD persona.
Also, the use of music and the cutting rate really helps show the characters anxiety especially as
the cutting rate gets faster.

5. The last short film I will be analysing is Anticipation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJzvGLdaxN4
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The film starts off with a CU of a kettle and then water being poured into a cup.
The film starts off with an ECU of the handle of a kettle. Then someone‟s finger switches the
button on. There is digetic sound of the water boiling.
ECU at different angle and the kettle is shaking and the orange light is on and then it turns
off. It Continues with water from kettle being poured in cup and a voice over starts “every
Monday is one step closer to summer” then non-dietetic music starts giving it a hopeful but
still depressing mood.
There is a low angle cu of the character stirring her tea with non-digetic slow music playing
adding to the gloomy effect.
The shot then fades to a calendar, with a narration over still describing Mondays. About how
bad it is and everything that is wrong with Mondays
There are many cu‟s showing different objects which are used on Mondays:
cups, folders, books etc.
The film then changes the story with the line “the day some dread, but me, no, I love it”
Cut to a closed curtain with sun shining through and then the camera pans to the character
waking up in her bed in a mcu zooming in.
There are cu‟s of the characters feet as she walks through her garden barefoot which then
fades to the a mcu of the characters legs outside whilst she is walking to work. There are a
lot of cu‟s in this film.
I think that the in this film, the close ups are effective but this is not something that I will be
using in my film as it‟s not really that necessary. I think that the voice over in this film works
well and perhaps my group and I could consider having it in my film. I like how each of the
shots go well together and that the type of shot has been carefully planned out so that each
shot is as effective as the next.