Task 2: Short Film Analysis 2

Todorov's Theory of Narrative

Todorov's Theory of narrative has five stages of which the narrative is broken down into, 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

                                                                 

    

This short film is called memorize and is based in the year 2027 when everyone has been implanted with “the memorize chip “this allows officers to hunt down their suspects and play back their memory to see whether they committed the crimes.

Film starts with quick cut scenes of a man looking behind them whilst running as if being chased. The audio makes this clearer as in the background we hear the non diagetic sounds of police car sirens and the beating of his heart in time with the cut to black. The man is then placed within the shot having negative space behind himself which gives us an early indication that he’s about to be shot from behind. he then drop to the floor from the shot and the camera reverses out from an ELS to show the futuristic officer walking towards the body that has an electric spark effect emanating from it. The officer picks up the body and pulls out a scanner to the back of the man’s head, this then brings up a holographic display showing a play back of the man’s memory proving that he didn't commit the crime. We then get a long shot of the second suspect as she runs up through a building in which she attempts to confront him then slows the officer down by chucking grenades down the stairs which is shown as a slow motion close up as they fall towards him then giving us an Ariel view down the centre of the stair case.

Nevertheless he survives the blast and makes it to the next floor where his path has been blocked by a remote controlled machine gun on a tripod which then fires at the officer who then hides and throws a grenade which is also shown in slow motion until it stops itself underneath the machine gun and then destroying it. The officer then walks into the room overlooking the city. The woman that he was chasing then appears over his shoulder then begins shooting at the officer however the officer in front of her appears to be a hologram with the real officer appearing behind the woman and then shooting her in the leg allowing him to scan her memory. The video play back of her memory shows that she’s not committed the crime and shows the person who did commit the crime which signifies the stage of 2 I which the video has disrupted current events and changed the timeline of events.

Stage 3 begins with the officer driving to the location of the crime and as he pulls up the camera gives us a wide shot of the location showing the recognition of the problem and situation. After he arrives and enters the building a holographic wrist device is acting like a map on his wrist which tells him where to go. The device leads him into a small room where the camera pans around show it’s just a simple brick wall however the wall then begins to flicker and pixelate. We then get a high angle ELS to re-establish what’s happened as 3 people are revealed on the other side of where the wall was.  After a couple of shot reverse shots the 3 people bring up their guns and begin to fire however the officer doesn't go down but just flicker telling us that this is the hologram.  The hologram then raises its gun acting like the officer is and then shoots the woman in the middle however the shots came from behind where the real officer was stood. The other 2 men then run in to the opposite sides of the room and start shooting towards the officer. One of the guys then get shot in the head and the scene has been edited with a slow motion effect as the man falls to the ground. The last man then gets up and runs across in a horizontal track. The guy carries on shooting and the officer flickers again showing it's the hologram. However the guy doesn't notice and the camera changes to a different angle but still tracking horizontally until he runs into the officer who grabs his gun and knocks him to the floor. The officer the point the gun to the man on the floor and pulls the trigger several times. We don’t see the man get shot but we see the officer form the side on waist up shooting down, with each bang the scene flashes slight and the camera quickly zooms in for a burst. After this it cuts to a quick ECU of the officer’s eyes and then cuts back to his whole face as he turns to locate the diagetic sound of clapping coming from behind.

From here this signifies stage 4 where the officer tries to repair the disruption by solving the crime.  From out of the dark and in a long shot a man enters the frame clapping. This quickly cuts to a scene of the guy being dropped on the floor with the dead guy’s foot in the side of the shot along with a patch of blood. Both men are then put into an ELS of the room as they walk into the centre of the shot which has also been edited into slow motion. As this happens it cuts to a close up of the criminal waving a white handkerchief to show his surrender however the officer quickly restrains the man then holds the scanner to his head. With the criminals head in the side of the shot the holographic play back starts up.

From here signifies stage 5 where a new equilibrium has been put in place but the problem hasn't been solved. As the holographic play back appears the video crackles then cuts to a close up as the words appear “ time-code deleted “ this signifies a new problem which has caused a new equilibrium but not the one that the officer wanted to achieve. He then takes the criminal into another room which was seen earlier in the woman’s playback as to where the murder happened. In this room are computer screens that have been hooked up to a scanner like the officers with the monitor saying the time-code has successfully been deleted. As this happens we get an over the shoulder shot of the criminal brush himself down and as he walks out he says “ have a nice “. This then cuts to a shot of the officers head form behind then cuts to black and all we hear then is the officer say “ we got a problem “.