Lo2: Textual analysis

The rushes I have chosen show show how our team used short film conventions such as lighting and stage design to indicate to the audience that Toby's character is more heart-full and caring as he is shown throughout the film showered in sunlight, while Ellis's character is hidden in shadows and darker areas which represent how he is corrupt from his injury. This is proof of us using binary opposition within our product. Which is used to help the audience dictate who is the protagonist and antagonist of the story. Also, we used mise-en-scene elements such as clothing to help build on the binary opposition as we presented Ellis in clothing that would be worn by someone living a life of crime. Our footage has met generic conventions and replicated conventions similar to other short films that are in the Thriller/ Dramedy genre. This is through things such as lighting, acting, set design, and costume design. All of these elements come together to form a thrilling story which includes both comedic and dramatic scenes. 

Editing techniques, such as fast edits and flashbacks, are used to show the decent into madness that Ellis's character suffers through. These techniques are used more frequently during scenes in which his character becomes more sporadic and crazy. They offer the audience a look into the mind of that character. Also, to make scenes seem more dark, like the final suicide scene, we added a blue hue and desaturated the scene slightly in order to make the scene with Ellis's character seem depressed.  We contrasted this by filming Toby's character in sunlight and editing shots he is in to appear bright and more saturated to ensentuate to the audience that he is less corrupt than Ellis's character. This imidiately 

makes the audience more fond of him as a character, meaning that the dramatic death scene of his characters death will become more emotional for the audience. Furthermore, the rest of the film is edited using longer reverse shot reverse takes of the characters conversation. 

The casting of the characters is also used to show binary opposition, and the power balance between the two characters. This is presented via the height difference and build of both actors, as Toby is short and skinny, while Ellis is taller with a bigger builder. This shows the audience that Ellis, is the antagonist of the story while Toby is the unlikely protagonist. Building on this we have subverted the unlikely protagonist and overpowering antagonist story structure. As we have made Ellis, the antagonist, the main character. Along with this, Toby's character is killed off, subverting the unlikely protagonist character trait.