BY ANUKA BARUA

Short Film Analysis- LOOP

PLOT

Loop is a short comedy/mystery film directed by Artiz Moreno. It is about a man who wakes up from the floor and discovers a chalk drawn around him. He is surprised to see this and drops his cup on the ground, then the phone begins to ring and he takes a step forward, unaware of the coffee he spilt earlier is still on the floor, he slips and hits his head on the table and passes out/ dies. He is now back to the start, hence why the film is called Loop.

Cinematography

The film opens with a close up of blood running across the floor slowly. The colour red in contrast to the metallic grey floor may connote to the audience that something bad and unfortunate has happened. Furthermore it may indicate what genre the film might be hence they might guess what is to come.

The next scene is followed by another close-up, this time it is half a face of a man on the floor, who seems to have the same blood we saw earlier leading towards him. This indicates to the audience that he is either dead or severely injured. Furthermore disequilibrium has been established as the audience feels uncomfortable.

In the next scene, a wide shot is used to show the man sitting up confused by what has just happened. His body language indicates to the audience that he is also confused about waking up on the floor. In addition the wide shot also creates enigma as we try to understand how an injury may have occurred in a very large, modern & minimalistic open space.

In the next couple of scenes, the director uses various types of shots and movements, consisting of close-ups, tracking and zooming. The main props; phone, coffee and the broken mug and shown through series of close-up shots of the man putting them back in the right place and clearing them up. This highlights the significance of the objects as they later on fall back in the original place.

The director also uses the tracking movement when he is clearing up the coffee on the ground. This is effective and it trails back to the broken mug, which the man as well as the audience are mystified by how it broke in the first place.

The next shot we see is a low angle of the man looking down at the what appears to be a bin. The shot indicates to the audience that he is the alpha male of the house therefore he knows what he is doing. Ironically, he has no memory as what actually happened but the audience on the other hand does.

We next see a point of view (POV) of the man finding a broken mug in the bin, regardless of this he still ignores it and puts in the new broken pieces. This shot is effective as it allows the audience to see the view of the situation from his perspective, except the audience have an understanding of some aspects of the situation

In this scene we see a eyeline match and shot reverse shot (S-R-S) between the main subject and the object. He and the audience are bewildered by the chalk drawing of man on the ground. The audience can learn that the place in crime scene and identify the genre as a mystery. The film also end on a birds eye view of the man positioned within the chalk drawing, leaving the audience shocked but yet enthralled by the clever plot.

Characters

The main character in this short film is the ma. Throughout the film the cameras and the audience eyes are on him. He is a man in his 30s, and judging from his big, modern house, he seems like an affluent man with a good job. In the film he is represented as an innocent man. This is show through the use of close-ups of his face and wide shots, to show detail of his confusion.

The other character in the film is the house guard. He is briefly shown in the film using a mid-shot of his backside, when he hears a loud thump. Although he hears the man fall, he takes no care or notice. This ironic as it suggests that it is not the first time he has heard the noise therefore has assumed that it was normal.

Editing & Sound

The editing at the start of the film is slow, but as the tension and mystery grows the films becomes more fast paced along with the sound. There are no such transitions except for a slow motion effect when the man drops his new cup of coffee on the floor. This effect is noteworthy as it conveys to the audience the reason behind why the man slipped and mugs were in the bin. The majority of the film uses standard cuts until the man slips. This is when the director uses match on action and faced paced cut to empathise the sudden and dramatic plot of the film.

The Short film doesn’t have any dramatic sound score or any non-diegetic sound. This may have been purposely done to convey to the audience that there is uncertainty and mystery in the air. Furthermore it creates enigma, as the audience wander how an unfortunate event may have occurred in a quiet, peaceful environment.

The only sound that we can hear in the background is ambient sound of a natural environment of a house. This adds realism to the situation. We can also hear the sound of an engaged telephone in the beginning and again in the end when the man hits his head o the table and passes out/ dies. Hence explains the title of the film Loop, as everything we hear in the end is only just the beginning of the ‘loop’.

Mise-en-scene- Props

The phone in the film is one of the main props used in the film. It is significant as it is the main driver of the Loop. It creates enigma as the audience question what have happened if the phone had never rang, this is shown through close-up of the phone and also thorough an eyeline match.

Another important Prop in the film is the smashed cup of coffee on which that leads him to slip and hit his head on the table. At the beginning of the film, the audience also can see a broken mug in the bin already and puts into question why he’s putting another one there. Therefore reinforcing disequilibrium.