'Future Inc' By Martin Stirling - Short Film Research - Sam Swinson

'Future Inc' By Martin Stirling - Short Film Research - Sam Swinson

About the Film (Director, Release date, Overall plot and Issues):

This short film is a 5 minute short that was created by Martin Stirling. It was released on  the 7th May 2012 and it was made in 48 hours. I found this short film on Vimeo which is a video sharing platform.

The film's protagonist is a woman called Rose. Rose is a lonely person who works at a job that she is not enthusiastic about and her work colleagues poke fun at here during the day. Also, some of her colleagues take advantage of her by making her do their work. While at home one evening she stumbles across a 'new social media' called 'Future Inc' where you can talk to people from the future. Later on, we find out that it is just people sitting behind monitors pretending to be from the future. Rose keeps talking to this person from the future and she finds a way of meeting him which is by putting herself into her chest freezer and she freezes herself.

This short film plays with the idea of time and how you can freeze yourself in time to be alive in the future. Also, this plays on the theme of loneliness, specifically it emphasises how lonely people can easily be manipulated by other. This is due to the people they speak to online being the only people in their lives that take an interest in what they are doing.

Concepts:

I will be applying 3 media concepts to this short film. I will apply:

• Narrative
• Media Language
• Representation

Each concept will be colour coded to make it easier to see where I have applied each concept to the short film.

Analysis:

Narrative:

• This short film is an open-ended narrative structure that leaves the audience on a cliffhanger.
• This narrative style is very interesting and I could use it in my short film because it keeps the audience questioning the film and it means they have to focus on the smaller details in the film instead of having everything wrapped up at the end of the film.
• This means that the audience doesn't know if the protagonist (Rose) ever makes it to the future to meet the person she has been talking to.
• Additionally, this is a chronological structure so all the events are in order which makes the film easier to follow because of the clear path that the story takes.
• Ronald Barthes narrative theory can be applied to this short film:
• His theory is about 5 narrative codes.
• 2 of his codes, the enigma code, and the action code can be applied to the Future Inc short film.
• The enigma code is when some information is withheld from the audience to intrigue the audience into film and it gets them to look closely for answers to their questions.
• In this short film, the enigma code is used very effectively because the audience doesn't know who the person that Rose ( the protagonist) is talking to.
• Throughout the piece there are subtle hints that it is one of her colleagues, but, the audience have to look very closely for them and it only makes sense near the end of the film.

Figure 1

• For example, in the first scene of the film Rose ( the protagonist) is talking to QuirkyGuy (internet man that she doesn't know).
• This is a close-up over the shoulder shot of the two characters as they are talking (Figure 1).
• The man starts to yawn saying the dialogue "sorry, it's doing this and the night job."
• This suggests that the man may be low on income so he as to work 2 jobs and one of them being pretending to be from the future and talking to people anonymously on the internet.
• Also, the Barthes Action Code can be applied to this short film. However, this is a loose interpretation of the code.

Figure 2

• In the third scene of the film Rose ( the protagonist) goes to get some ice cream from the chest freezer that she has (Figure 2).
• This a mid-shot, but, the interesting thing about this shot is that the Rose ( the protagonist) walks out of the frame and then there is just this shot of the freezer on it own for a few seconds.
• This makes the audience ask the question why is there a pause after she leaves the frame.
• On top of this, the pause changes the faster pace of the start of the film because there were not many pauses in the start of the film.
• This suggests that the freezer is going to be used later on in the piece for some action and it is used by Rose ( the protagonist) to freeze herself in time (Figure 3).
• Also, it is used to create enigma because the audience are asking themselves the question of why is there a shot of this freezer.

Figure 3

• Vladimir Propp's theory can, also, be applied to this short film:
• His theory is that there are archetype characters in most narratives.
• Hero - Rose - she seeks not being lonely and having someone to care about her.
• Donor - Mason Gill - he provides the social network that Rose used so that she is not lonely and it helps Rose find someone to talk to.
• Villain - Mason Gill - the social network that he has created is fake which means that Rose is given a false sense of being befriended.
• Princess - QuirkyGuy - this is the person that Rose is talking to on the internet and in Rose's mind he will be her reward for freezing herself in time.
• Dispatcher - QuirkyGuy - he wants to meet Rose and that is what makes her try to freeze herself in time and he dispatches her on her mission to not be lonely.
• Helper - Mason Gill - he creates that social network that makes Rose want to freeze herself in time
• In addition, this is a restricted narrative and the film is shot in a clever way to keep it a restricted narrative:
• For example, when Rose (the protagonist) starts to exercise, because she wants to be in good shape when she meets the man from the future she is talking to, an extreme long-shot is used and slit framing is used to block out large portions of the frame (Figure 4).

Figure 4

• This shows Rose's (the protagonist's) struggle to get fit and it shows this to the audience from a third person perspective.
• This symbolises that others can only see a part of someone because they don't know what is going on in their mind.
• Also, it could symbolise that lonely people have quite a fixed mindset and are not open minded.

Figure 5

• Furthermore, a lot of the frames throughout the piece are very tightly framed, for example, (Figure 6) this is a mid shot, but, it was framed carefully to only show the important things.
• It only shows the protagonist, her tablet (prop), and the sofa (prop) that she is sitting on.
• This represents the closed mind of a lonely person and it creates the restricted narrative.

Figure 6

Representation:

• This short film has lots of re-presentation in it through iconography, its genre, the characters and the issues it relates to. 
• Iconography:
• In the film Rose (the protagonist) gets ice cream from her chest freeze (Figure 7). 
• Ice cream is often used by or eaten by lonely people.
• It is iconic for showing loneliness in films and this is because in real like when we are lonely or bored we will go to get something to eat.

Figure 7

• Social Groups:
• This film mainly shows middle-class people.
• We know this because where she works people are wearing smart-casual costume (Figure 8).

Figure 8

• Also, the few shots that we can see of her house show that she has food and other things like clothing meaning she is not struggling for money (Figure 9).

Figure 9

• Status:
• In the film we see the different status levels of people and how they individually affect Rose (the protagonist)
• For example, her work colleagues, who have the same 'official status' as Rose, but, because they have friends they pick on Rose (Figure 10) as they know she is lonely and consider themselves to have a higher status. 

Figure 10

• Also, her boss has a higher status that her in terms of power because he can dump lots of work on her desk for her to do and make her do in an unfair time frame (Figure 11).
• This links to Claude Levi-Strauss's narrative theory of binary oppositions Becuase Rose (the protagonist) is powerless and her boss is powerful.
• However, he abuses his power showing that him having the power is bad.

Figure 11

• Genre:
• This short film is part of the social realism genre.
• This means that the characters are meant to give the audience a true representation of the character that is in this situation.
• The important thing to remember with this is that it is a re-presentation of real life so it is someone's interpretation of real life.
• For example, the film deals with the issues of loneliness and the internet which are real things happening in society.
• Character:
Rose (the protagonist):
• is a lonely person who seeks love and some attention.
• she does the stereotypical things that a lonely person does, for example, she eats ice cream and snacks whilst sitting on the internet not really doing much (Figure 12).

Figure 12

•  she shows signs of a traditional view of femininity where people can easily take advantage of her, for example, her boss.
• Then in the middle of the film, she changes to become a more modern view of femininity because she stands up for herself, for example, her colleague tries to make her do his work (Figure 13).

Figure 13

• Issues:
• This short film deals mainly with 2 issues:
• Loneliness - how people can easily take advantage of lonely people.
• Internet - how you don't know who you are talking to online and how it can effect the victim of this abuse of trust.

Media Language:

The opening is put together in such a way that intrigues the audience and already tells the audience about the characters:

• The first shot is a close-up of the protagonist named Rose (Figure 14).
• This is from a very high angle which suggests that the audience is looking down on Rose because she has a low status.
• This symbolises the audience looking down on Rose as her colleagues do.
• This opening is very will put together and it inspires me to create an opening like it where the audience can build up a small character profile within the first few seconds of my short film.

Figure 14

• Also, during Rose's presentation to the rest of her colleagues, there is an extreme close-up shot on a defibrillator bracelet (prop) that she is holding (Figure 15).
• This suggests to the audience that they could be important for the same reason that the freezer is important to the story because of Barthes Theory of Action Codes.
• This is why there is a focus on the bracelet because it is what she uses to meet the person she has been talking with online (Figure 16).

Figure 15

Figure 16

• Furthermore, in the opening, there is a part where the audience go inside the heads of the protagonist's colleagues as they pick on her (Figure 17).
• This is interesting because it switches the perspective of the audience and it takes the audience's focus away from Rose and onto her colleagues. 
• To help with this a wide depth of field is used so that Rose's hand is out of focus and the colleagues are in focus.
• We focus on the colleagues just after a diegetic sound from the defibrillator.
• This is an inspiring technique because it is not seen often in most short films and it is a clever way for the audience to learn new things about the characters.

Figure 17

Short film on Vimeo:

FUTURE_INC_by _Future_Tense from scifilondon on Vimeo.

Inspiration (relating this research to my short film):

What in particular you found inspiring, or CREATIVE about the use of the concept in the film?

I liked lots of aspects of this short film and found lots of parts of it inspiring in different ways:

• Firstly, the extreme close-up on a prop that is featured at the start and the end of the film is very interesting because it brings a slight hint of circular narrative to the film even through the whole film is not a circular narrative.
• Also, I like the way the opening scene is set up because it allows the audience to find subtle hints about the character and learn more about the character, for example, the use of the high angle and close up on Rose to represent the audience looking down on her because she is of a lower status.
• Additionally, I like the careful selection of mise en scene for example, in Figure 18 in the background of this long shot a 'love' prop behind her on the shelf. Her head is blocking the prop which suggests that love is behind her, also, she doesn't know that the person she is talking to loves her in real life. 
• What I like about the mise en scene used is that it can connote many things and each audience member can interpret things in the film differently, but, end up with the same overall views about the film.

Figure 18