Party Animal- Short Film Analysis.

Short Films Research

Any films in this research are found on:

https://www.shortoftheweek.com/

Party Animal

The short film ‘Party Animal’ is a comedy about a man named Chris, who is revealed to be a recovering alcoholic at the end of the short film. Throughout the film there are two different settings. One of the settings is almost like an interview using a medium close up of Chris while he describes his life as a ‘Party Animal’. Chris is talking to somebody which is diegetic sound however there are no other sounds whilst he is talking, this directs all attention to Chris and his story.

The scene then cuts to black and non-diegetic, incidental music is used to set the scene of a house party, as the camera tracks and uses the wall as a wipe to reveal the party. The film uses upbeat music to set the mood and presents people at the party. This is similar to the first idea of our short film as our idea was to reveal a bar using multiple shots such as wipe using walls and shadows. The film is similar to ours as it contains humour however it mixes humour with reality.

‘Party animal’ is the type of short film that the majority of viewers can relate to, which we hope to present in our film, techniques that make the audience relate to a particular character. However the first idea of our short film also shows you the deeply negative things that could potentially happen on a night out which makes our short film the perfect drama. Shots included in this short film include shot-reverse-shot which display clear conversation between characters, which would be used in our short film. The film includes slow motion editing which intensifies the moment of being at the house party that the main character Is attending, which makes the audience feel as if they are there too. While the main character is at the party location in the film, low-key lighting is used to clearly show that the party.

A jump cut is then used to show the morning after the party in a natural environment (the front garden) with natural daylight. Only dialogue is used in this scene as it is without music and the characters have a conversation, music isn’t used to show a reality in the short film.  A close up shot shows the main characters face as he’s sleeping in the front garden, in comparison to a long shot of the front garden and showing two of the characters centre shot. This second shot is used to set the scene and show the audience the result of a party and show the difference in the two characters lives. Another jump cut is used after the character experiences life changing events, the location changes to a different house party and non diegetic music begins to play as the main character walks in the house and returns to his regular lifestyle as a Party Animal.