Task 2: Short Film Analysis

Todorov's Theory of Narrative

Todorov's Theory of narrative has five stages, which include these simple ideas:

1- A state of equilibrium- When everything is normal as it should be

2- A disruption of that by an event- Something going wrong

3- A recognition that the disorder has occurred- Knowing it has happened

4- An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption- Trying to fix what is wrong

5- A return or restoration of a new equilibrium- Start of something new


Analysis of Short Films


Title: The Black Hole



This short film is about a simple office worker who appears to be bored at work using a printer.
It first starts off with the a black screen and then fades out in a circular motion showing the bold, white captions of "The Black Hole" straight off the bat we can see that the circular fade is used to emphasise the word 'hole' which exaggerates to the audience the main focus of the short film. It then uses a forward/ horizontal tracking combination to move towards the main character of the male office worker, we can clearly see the man's boredom via his facial expressions of being sad and his body language of being slouchy and a 'can't be bothered' attitude. Next shows the printer being slow and irritable which makes the character annoyed and fidgety so he begins to repeatedly press the buttons and kick the machine, but what he doesn't know is that the machine is doing something magical. They then use a match on action shot the emphasise the image of the black hole on the piece of paper, the man looks confused and begins to check whether the printer is doing the job he originally wanted- which it was??
Next he checks his watch and finishes his drink to move on to do something else until he puts his cup on the black hole and it mystically vanishes, the man is shocked and stunned by what he has just witnessed this is also emphasised by the sound effect they've used. Then after a while he begins to get a bit to familiar with this mysterious power of the black hole, they use somewhat close ups to show he is intrigued and happy that he has found this phenomenon, trying it out in different situation is his main option. A vending machine appears and the man instantly walks towards it and by his body language we can clearly tell he is going to try and steal a chocolate bar from there, which it does... He then spots his bosses office and gets the idea to go inside and take a look around via using the black hole to open the door and then appears the crown jewel of the business, the safe. Now we can see the overwhelming intimidation from the black hole by how close ups on his face reflect his darker side!, placing the black hole over the safe he takes the money but when attempting to reach the money at the back he falls in and gets trapped!! They have chose to use a reverse tracking shot to imply his troubles and the fact he could be there forever until his boss opens it up.