Monday 19 September 2016

Short film analysis- Arret Pipi.



At the beginning of Arret Pipi, the mise en scene of long, peaceful country roads is shown through POV hots of the male lead character who is driving. These shots are used to divert the demographic from believing that the short is a horror. This is also paired with incidental music, allowing the audiences expectations of the film to be changed further.


Within the journey through what appears to be the countryside, we are introduced to the two main characters, a couple whom appear to be going on an adventure together. Firstly we aere introduced to the girl in the back of the car through a medium close up. This shot allows the audience to see that she is a young and beautiful girl who is happy, again diverting audiences from the genre of horror. This then is followed shortly by a close up shot of the man driving, he appears to be in a relationship with the girl as he is seen turning around and smiling at her.













Following on from this, a series of medium close ups of the girl laid down on the back seat are used, each at a different time, creativley showing a change in time and scenery. This mise en scene begins to get darker until it is finally nightfall, again showing a change in time and location.





The couple are then shown pulling into a service station through an establishing shot. This mise en scene portrays the service station as scary, old and hidden. This is paired with a sound bridge of the incidental music from their journey to diegetic music from the song in their radio. As an audience we are aware that this couple is in the middle of nowhere due to them being the only car and no poeple to be seen in the opening shot. Along with this shot the title of the short "Arret Pipi" appears in the bottom right, in the colour red. Red is a code and convention of the genre of horror and it is included to foreboard that danger may possibly happen, with it bwing a danger sign.


After the couple get out of the car and head to the bathrooms in the servcie station, a long shot of the girl is shown as she turns around in fear to observe what is around her. Within this shot we are able to see that the place they are at looks very dark, old and scary. These are typical locations that one would associate with a horror, especially including the fact that it is in the middle of nowhere. A diegetic sound of a branch snapping is added to this shot in order to foreboard to the audience that something may happen. After this we then can clearly see her walk away and into the bathroom.


A close up is used of the cleaning mop on the floor, this is added as it is unexpected for the audience and enables them to feel fear. This shot is shallow depth of field, signifying that the mop is important within the film. This object is strange which is why audiences feel fear from it.


A two shot is used with the old lady/cleaner and the girl. This two shot enables the audiences to see the juxtaposition between the clothing of the two. The young girl is wearing clothes you would usually associate teenagers to wear, which signifies her youth and the old woman is wearing old clothes which seem to be very used and run down. This shows a difference in character towards the audience, helping them disover more about each character as the short goes on. The younger girl is seen to just ignore her and go to the toilet. 


A camera pan is then used so that the audience can establish that the couple are both on the toilet, in a very disgusting and dirty place. This adds to the genre of horror as it is something an audience would fear if challenged by it in reality. This birds eye view of the characters show that they are still close to eachother as they went in cubicals next to eachother, this shows the relationship between the two of them. 

















The two shots below are both a medium close up and a close up of one of the main characters, the girl. These shots are included to show her reaction at the events happening next door. At first she is seen laughing as the old woman is heard asking "Toilet paper! Red or blue?" and it is a parculiar thing that someone would find strange. Further on from this the diegetic sound of the boy shouting "no" multiple times is used while there is a close up on her face, showing her reaction to the situation. This shows that something horrific is occuring, making the audiences expectations divert back to horror.

 

Following on from this shot is a POV shot from the girl of blood pouring in from the other toilet cubical. Blood is iconography for horror films, and the fact  it is used contrasted with something white and pure portrays that even worse things may happen. The colour red is symbolic for danger and is used multiple times within this short film, i believe that this repetition of the colour was used to foreboard danger to the demographic. The extreme close up was used after of the blood soaking into the white paper to represent purity disapeering. The boy was young and due to this inconvenient stop he has lost the abilty to live any more of his life.


After this incident the girl is seen opening the bathroom door of her cubical through a close up shot, seeing the door go from closed to open. This shot is used as it enables us to see her facial expressions and gives us the impression that she is scared. This helps to make the moment more intense for a demographic, typically something that most horror films convey.



Following on from this, a man grabs her and starts to strangle her. This is portrayed through a mix of close ups, to show reaction, and long shots to show the environment around. After this a high angle shot is used when he is trying to drown her, this is to show that he is superior to her and that she is weak in this situation. Along with this, contrapuntal non diegetic music is used in order to show the juxtaposition of the situation, for example in this case the girl is being strangled to death whereas the music is happy, something you would associate with a different genre.


Following on from this is a POV shot from the girl, something in this shot can be seen falling onto the bad guy. At this point as an audience we are omniscient as we are aware what is going to happen before the villain does. It is almost as if we are in the eyes of the girl, a typical way in which horrors tend to frighten us- because they allow us to have the experience.

A birds eye view shot of the girl and the villain laid in the toilet cubical are used as we can see the entire mise en scene from it and not just parts. Within this we can see that the villain is injured as something heavy fell on his head and the girl is soaking wet and terrified, we can see this from the way she is tightly gripping onto objects. In the bottom left there is also a pool of blood on the floor, red objects/items are a recurring theme within the short film as throughout we are given short clips of them, this is done as the colour red is a code and convention for horror films and including it makes the audience understand the genre.


The girl then rushes to the car in moral panic, wanting to get into the situation. A medium close up is used in order for the audience to see her leave the bloody red hand print on the window, as said before the recurring theme within this short film. There is low key lighting in order to represent her fear, as everyone understands that we were all once afraid of the dark.



When she finally sees the car, a  diegetic voice is heard saying "Red or blue?" Then a medium close up is shown of the girl being strangled to death, or if you want to say it how the woman has, being turned blue. This shot makes the audience sympathize with the girl as direct violence is portrayed and we can see that she is in pain through use of facial expressions.


A birds eye view shot is used to conclude the short film, within this shot the car slowly stops moving and as an audience we know that it is because the girl has stopped struggling. This shot is then followed by the credits.





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