The document provides information about the short film "Phone Box" including: - It was directed by Alan Powell in the UK in 2014 and aimed to convey a message about people resorting to desperate measures. - The realistic style aims to portray issues people face and show others they are not alone. - It uses manipulation of mise-en-scene, cinematography, sound, and narrative to provoke an emotional response from audiences.

1. Phone Box Review

2. Purpose and Audience
• The Director of phone Box is Alan Powell, not only did he direct the short film, but he also produced it.
• The film was made in the U.K. in 2014.
• I think that the reason that the film was made, was to send out a message. I feel as though the message that this film gets across is
that in desperate circumstances, people will go to extreme circumstances to put something right. Although phoning from a phone
box is not very extreme, it is certainly unusual for this day in age, where many of us use mobile phones to communicate. We can see
that all of these people are very desperate to make a phone call, it may not be to put something right in all of their cases but they
each have a reason for being so desperate to use the phone. No matter what has happened in that phone box, people will still use
the phone box in times of need. For example, the lady that we see at the start of the film is desperate to phone her daughter who is
giving birth. Her way of making up for the mistake is to make that phone call to her daughter, supporting her after the birth of her
baby.
• I feel as though the audience, for this would be for more mature audiences, due to the language and some of the topics that may be
hard for younger viewers to understand. In terms of the NRS scale, I feel that the audience would be the in the categories D and E,
this is because these people are the people that are the most likely to relate to the situations that these characters find themselves to
be in.

3. Purpose and Audience
• In terms of the 4c’s the Audience would more than likely be the Strugglers.
• This is because the people that are within the people are living for today more so than the future as many of them find themselves
to be in dire striates. For example, one of the characters has not got a job and is struggling so much that he cannot even afford a
mobile phone and therefore, has to use the phone box. These people may find it a lot easier for them to relate to the characters and
therefore, feel more of a connection towards them.

4. Form, Style and Genre
• I think that the film technology used within this film is a handheld digital camera.
• The director has exhibited their film by sending it into “filmsshort”. The website are then responsible for choosing whether or not
they want the film to be put onto their website for the public to view. It then went on YouTube and from there onto the website.
The film won joint, “best cinematography prize”
• The style of the film is a very realistic style. It is almost like you are on the streets of London yourself, watching all the events that
went on unfold.
• I think that the director is trying to reach people that are in these situations to show them that there are other people going through
similar problems. I feel that the realistic nature of the film, really aids this.
• The genre of this short film is drama.
• The codes and conventions that I can identify within this film is drama and rom-com.
• A very key scene, where both of these conventions are seen is in a scene, where a young man has just found out that his girlfriend
was cheating on him with another man. Showing both rom-com and drama conventions.

5. Content and Meaning
• Mise en scene has been manipulated to create an emotional response from the audience. This is particularly evident when one of
the women writes down the number of the hospital that her daughter is giving birth in with some lipstick on the phone box so that
she can come back to phone up the hospital and hope that her daughter wants to talk to her. This evokes an emotional response to
from the audience because we can see just how desperate she is to talk to her daughter. As well as this after writing with the lipstick
she rubs some off of the phone box to put some on her lips this really shows how desperate she is .The lipstick is also a darker
lipstick maybe connotating the mood in which she is feeling, being a fairly frustrated one. The phone box itself, makes the audience
raise many questions, there is writing all over it, leaving the audience to wonder about the stories of all the other people within the
phone box. A lot of the writing is written in black, perhaps connotating that actually people go to the phone box to write when they
feel frustrated.
• I feel as though the Cinematography has been done in a very clever way to evoke an emotional response. The majority of it has
been filmed from outside the box. This is means that it almost feels as though we are watching these people, upset and frustrated
but we can’t do anything to help them. The Cinematography of the film has been made to make the audience raise questions about
the film as some of the shots throughout the film, are very much unexplained. For example, there is a shot of a coffee cup being set
down inside of the phone box. This is clearly a significant shot as it is focused on the coffee cup for a relatively long time. We, as
the audience are then left wondering why the coffee cup is so significant.

6. Content and Meaning
• The Sounds within the film have been created to provoke an emotional response from the audience. This has been done by at the
start of the film having very soft, intense and emotional music, we instantly know that this film is going to be emotional. We can
also hear the sounds of horns beeping, as if we, ourselves are actually in London. This adds to the realism of the film, showing to
the audience that these are real issues going on in the world. The music being intense makes the audience question just how intense
this film is going to be, wondering what events are going to take place, willing the audience to keep watching.
• The editing evokes an emotional response from the audience. This is seen particularly at the start of the film. We can hear all of the
actors voices at the start and can make out little parts of what has been said. For example, we can hear a young man frantically
whispering, “Is Ashley there?”. We then wonder what has happened to someone named Ashley and evokes empathy from the
audience as we are aware there is a big possibility that something is going to happen to someone. We then realise that actually it is
going to be the young man that gets hurt as he pieces together that his girlfriend has been with another man. This not only evokes
an emotional response but also forces us, as the audience to ask questions.

7. Content and Meaning
• There have been no sfx used within the film but the Narrative and Structure has been manipulated to make the evoke an emotional response from the
audience. A good example of this is when we see the woman that is desperately tying to phone her daughter, we see her fail and get extremely annoyed.
We then later see her again come back to the phone box and phone the hospital that her daughter is giving birth in. This shows how desperate she is to
find her daughter. The Narrative that is used also evokes an emotional response when the woman say’s tells the lady at the hospital she does not know how
to put things right between her and her daughter. This also makes the audience ask the question of what has she done that is so bad that her daughter
wont talk to her. Another part of the film that evokes an emotional response due to the structure is when the man that is trying to get a job goes back to
the phone box for the company to phone him back, we then see that the phone is broken and he unfortunately, is unable to get in the phone box. This not
only leaves the audience feeling a sense of empathy but also leaves them wondering what is going to happen to him in the end.

8. Frequency and Production process
• The short film is a stand alone- one off.
• I think that the director would have had to go through quite a lot of production processes before making the film. They would have
had to write a script and do a recce to make sure that the area that they wanted to use was suitable for filming. Aswell as this, they
would have needed to do a prop, makeup and outfit list and buy anything that was necessary from this list. They would have also
had to compete a production schedule and a risk assessment.