The Black Hole UK 2008 by Phil Sampson and Olly Williams Short Film Analysis Connor Hilton

The Black Hole Short Film by Phil Sampson and Olly Williams

Research By Connor Hilton

About the film(from the YouTube page): "A sleep-deprived office worker accidentally discovers a black hole - and then greed gets the better of him..."

Concepts:

• Representation
• Narrative
• Media Language 

Title Screen:

Analysis:

• The film opens with an establishing shot to a close up of a male character at work.
• The setting is in an office.
• According to Todorv's theory this would be the equilibrium stage of the plot.
• The man is wearing a white shirt that has the top button undone which suggests that he has been working for a long time that day and is tired. This costume is also iconic to an office worker.
• His facial expression also shows that he is tired which tells the audience that he has been working late.

  

  Close Up of male character

• The male character is attempting to print something and becomes frustrated when the printer doesn't work.
• The man kicks the printer and the printer prints a piece of paper with a large black circle on it.
• The man takes a drink, but as he picks the cup up we cut to a low angle shot of him drinking the water from the piece of paper's position.
• This creates enigma as we are wondering why we are seeing this from the perspective of the paper.
• It also looks like the camera is inside the piece of paper instead of on top which creates the 'black hole'.

  

  Low angle shot of man drinking

• The man then sets the cup down on top of the black hole and notices the cup dissapears through the paper.
• The man begins experimenting with the paper by picking it up and putting his hand through it which represents the human curiosity.

• 

  Close up of man putting hand through paper

• After the man discovers that he can put his hand through the black hole, her immediately looks up and straight at the vending machine 
• He then uses the paper to reach through the glass of the vending machine to grab a chocolate bar. This begins to con notate the mans level of greed to the audience.
• At this point the very humorous and fake concept of being able to reach through things with a piece of paper becomes real to the spectators. 

  

  CU of man taking bite out of chocolate bar

• There is then a pull focus zoom shot of a door with a 'keep out' sign on it.
• The lighting is low key which indicates that the door is off-limits for normal employees and is for the boss only.

Pull Focus zoom of the door

• We then see a close up of the man using the black hole to unlock the door from the inside.
• He then proceeds to the safe and sticks the piece of paper to the door with some tape.
• He reaches inside and pulls out a stack of money. 
• He smiles when he sees the money, it makes his face look creepy and shows his greed.
• Instead of stopping there, the man continues to pull money out of the safe until he has a pile of money.
• He begins going further and further into the black hole to reach the money.
• He then climbs right into the safe through the black hole.
• Once he is in the safe, the piece of paper falls off the door of the safe leaving the man trapped inside the safe and the money left outside the safe. 

  

  Mid shot of safe and money.

  To conclude, I would show that 'The Black Hole' is conveying the message of greed and how it will come full circle back to you in the future. The film coveys this message in an effective way as it is comedic and light hearted which makes the audience laugh but also think about the deeper meaning of the film. The film also has no dialogue and uses lighting, facial expressions and creative angles to show what is happening and what the main character is thinking. 

The Short Film: