Jake Woolven "Side effected"

Side effected

I  found this short film (Side effected) on Vimeo by searching 'short films,' It was released on March 31st 2013 and was directed by Lev Pakman. The basic story line of this short film, is a urgent meeting between boss and pharmacist about the new drug in development causing colour blindness and how the boss tries to get the information from the employee who is not telling the boss this large scale problem.

In this short film i will be looking at;

- Media Language
- Representation
- Genre

To begin, this short film has many characteristics of a drama. This is as it has characters in conflict over a real life scenario . In this case being the drug side effects. This can be seen by there being clear tension between the two characters within the short film.

After this we discover that the pharmacist was lying and the boss put the drug into the pharmacists coffee. By doing this he manages to discover that the drug does in fact cause colour blindness.This mixes in with the drama genre as it is an unexpected event which totally shocks the audience and the pharmacist.  

Media language is used in this short film to show meaning without directly addressing it. As the argument intensifies between the boss and pharmacist the shots keeping within the 180 degree rule the cuts keep speeding up. This is so the audience know that the argument is intensifying and matches the dialogue what is getting louder.


Another form of media language is the mise en scene used. The costume suggests that they are working men most probably in the middle class as they are wearing smart suites.

The setting of the short film also suggests that they are wealthy. This is as it is set in an office building and we can infer due to the dialogue that thew older man is the boss which tells us he owns the company and therefore the building. This connotes that he has a high status as he is the boss of the company,

The body language of the two men allows us to immediately tell who is on control of the situation, This is as the boss is leaned forward and talking bluntly compared to the pharmacist is hiding behind his coffee mug and is leaning away as if he is screaming he is lying.

The representation of the two characters is that they are both middle class men who work in large businesses. We can infer this as they have nice suites and look clean which is linked to the stereotype of middle class men.

Before and at the beginning of the meeting we can infer that they are both able men as there is no indication to think otherwise however, after the boss gives the pharmacist the drug, the pharmacist becomes colour blind. This represents that the drug has very harsh side effects and the pharmacist was lying to the boss.

When the short films meeting begins when they begin to speak. you notice their accents which sounds as if they are from America.




From this I got inspiration for a good argument. This has very good cuts with eye line match and keeps the tension within the scene with the editing. I also like the props they used by showing details which would become more prominent later in the film such as the apples and coffee.