Analysing Short Films

• Start by looking at the opening shot/sequence. How is the audience drawn in or attracted? What aspects of mise en scene, camera work, editing and sound are used?

• How are characters and narrative introduced? How is information about the characters conveyed in a short space of time? (Think about visual shorthand through mise en scene and camera work, and aural shorthand through sound and dialogue).

• What kind of narrative does the film have (linear, non-linear, realistic, surreal etc)? How is the narrative re-enforced through the mise en scene (esp setting, lighting & costume) and camera work? Make sure that you clearly discuss how the film manages to tell a whole, complete story in such a short space of time

• How does the film end? Is there a sense of completion? Or is it open-ended? Does the film appear to have a particular message or theme? What kind of feeling did it leave you with? Why?

Overall you should be looking to write a thorough analysis of the short film, focusing on how characters and narratives are introduced and information relayed in a short space of time, as well as looking at technical areas such as mise en scene, camera work, editing and sound. Short films are an art form and one that is used for a variety of effects; try to consider each short film as a work of art and approach it with this in mind.







Example of Short Film Analysis

The film begins with an iris out revealing a desolate office, presumably sometime at night. The camera travels past a cluttered desk over to a medium close up of a man, standing by a photocopier, looking dejected and tired. The colour scheme of the film features heavy use of grey and black. This could possibly be to convey a sense of how the man is feeling – he is extremely bored, exhausted, wants to be anywhere but at work. This good use of visual shorthand gives us a clear insight to the man’s state of mind in a very short time.

The beeping of the copy button is the only sound heard, and it is heard at a very loud volume. It may have been presented to us in this way so that it may add to the irritation of the man not being able to work it properly and to make us feel sympathetic to his plight. A piece of paper with a large black hole printed on it is shown sliding out on to the printing cradle from a high angle. As the paper with the black hole on it slides out on to the cradle, the shot slows down somewhat, possibly to add emphasis on and draw the audience’s attention to the piece of paper – this is the black hole of the title, and something odd and eerie may be about to happen.

There is a close up of the man’s face, which is filled with confusion and alarm. The filmmakers may be trying to convey, through the character of the man, what they possibly want the audience to be feeling, and that they are following the events with the man and seeing them unfold with him.


The use of camera shots and sound become more bizarre and elaborate after the man is shown dropping a coffee cup through the black hole. The man is shown peering over the black hole, looking down at us from the black hole’s point of view. This possibly presents a shift in power – the black hole, in some way, is in charge here, and it is slowly drawing the man in, possibly leading him to meet a dire end. There is also a low, ominous drone which accompanies the black hole. This adds emphasis to the idea that there is something not quiet right about the black hole’s existence.

The man is then presented as taking the black hole over to a vending machine and using it to steal a bar of chocolate. This is a key character change in that the filmmakers now establish the man’s greed and gluttonous nature and sets up the events which are about to ensue. There is a tight close up of the man as he stares greedily and covetously at a door reading “Keep Out.” This further makes his greedy nature apparent, and also perhaps infers the idea that a terrible and awful occurrence is about to take place. A medium close up follows of the man shown entering the room, turning the lights on (which flicker, ominously, giving out an eerie, strange, and truly bad feeling to the audience) and sticking the black hole over the door of a safe which is locked inside the room. The man is then portrayed as looking about him suspiciously; possibly paranoid that he is being watched. This, again, indicates his greedy nature, and also the idea that there is some guilt in him over what he is about to do.

The man is then shown, through a single tight shot, crawling through the black hole, into the safe, wanting the last of the money. The filmmakers show his crawling in an uninterrupted take, presenting to us the full extent of his greed and where his endeavours are about to take him. The paper with the black hole printed on it then falls, keeping the man seemingly trapped in the safe for good. The camera begins to pull back away from the safe, until it is at a fair distance from it. The sound of the man tapping on the door from the inside, along with the beeping of the copy machine, fuse together to create one final burst of sound before cutting to an almost bottomless black hole.

The film, which has a very surreal feel to it, comes full circle with the ending. It ends in the only way it could, that is with the destruction of man as a result of his curiosity. as it managed to convey a very serious message about the greedy nature of man in only a couple of minutes and still managed to be extremely effective at the same time. The film overall makes great use of diegetic sound to portray the story in an effective and evocative way, following clear conventions of short films to have little or no dialogue, whilst also using great visual shorthand through costume & lighting to quickly establish the scene and situation.