1500 WORDS Analysis - Inspiration

When coming up with a film idea, inspiration is key to finding the style of the film we want to make. I am going to analyse short films with intent to take certain aspects and apply them to the production of our short film.

1500 WORDS

SYNOPSIS- When Stanley Franks is told he has 1500 words left to live, he faces a battle to keep both his marriage and himself alive using the fewest words possible.

This short film is a dark comedy that takes place in a grounded, realistic world. Unlike a lot of films, 1500 words is narrated by a disembodied voice that is never established, this is reminiscent of story books that are told to children, this gives the film a somewhat childish tone which is contrasted by the dark humour being portrayed.

The opening of the film shows the main concept of the story, it shows a counter, counting down to 1500. This title fades into the first shot of the film, which takes place in a doctors office. This is a birds eye view of the office. This office is shown to have one main light source at the window but it eventually fades to darkness, which sets the tone of the film of contrasting comedy with death and possibly foreshadows the eventual death of the main protagonist. A skeleton can also be seen during this shot which could also be foreshadowing as it could represent a grim reaper lurking in the darkness. 

The next shot is a medium shot of the doctor delivering the bad news to the main character 'Stanley'. Half of the doctor is shown to be in light and the other half is in darkness which shows how the doctor is trying to deliver this 'dark' news 'lightly'. The skeleton is also shown looming in the background in the darkest part of the room. It then cuts to a medium zoom shot of Stanley sitting receiving the news, Stanley is seen to be in a state of despair. This dark and light atmosphere is also shown in this shot. Behind Stanley, there seems to be a shelf with many different types of medicine, this is ironic as all of this medicine can't help Stanley's condition. The zooming nature of this shot shows the impact of this news on Stanley. The narration begins in this shot, the narrator describes how Stanley's reaction is separated into different sections. This narration is non-diegetic sound as none of the characters acknowledge it.

As soon as the narrator says the first stage of Stanley's reaction, "Anger", it then cuts to the match on action of Stanley's fist hitting the table with tremendous force, this action perfectly represents the emotion that the narrator tells the audience. After this action the scene proceeds with a montage of Stanley representing the emotions the narrator states. The scene constantly cuts between Stanley speaking and the doctor counting down his remaining words. This scene highlights the comedy in the film, it is more effective due to the scene being preceded by a tonally dark scene.

Throughout this scene, the doctor doesn't seem to care about Stanley's condition, this could show that the condition Stanley has isn't a rare condition. This helps build the world for the audience, making it more believable and also adding to the comedic element.

After this montage, the film returns to its previous slower pace. This slower pace is used to advance the story on, rather than to show comedy. This scene shows how the mood returns to the state it was at the start of the film, a metaphorical way of showing this would be when the doctor puts the skeleton back together. It shows the audience that everything is back to the way it was. After this, a shot of the counter that the doctor is holding is shown, the counter is shown in the middle of the frame and the numbers can be read clearly, this shows how important this counter is as it represents the rest of Stanley's life. It then cuts to a close up shot of Stanley which mirrors the previous shot of the counter, showing that he has the same amount of importance as the counter. It then cuts to the doctor writing the letter and the narrator explains that he is writing about leaving his wife, this reflects the running theme of contrasting dark and light. 

As Stanley leaves, a shot of the doctor is shown the camera begins to turn and it seems to seamlessly transition to a shot of Stanley walking down a path. This transition could show that Stanley's life has now become a blur as one event leads to another seamlessly and without a real explanation.