Tom Telford's Blog

 The Arrival is based off a photograph of a young girl in a coffee shop, and we can clearly see the influence of that photo in the mise-en-scene, which, given that it is a single take film, is very important. The mise-en-scene has an old fashioned/vintage style, which is due to the fact that it is filmed on a set as oppose to a real place so there is lots of intricate detail (e.g. clocks in the back when she is talking about time etc.). Narratively, she begins with ordering a normal coffee, because she is seemingly sure about not keeping the baby, but then her choice of getting a decaf coffee at the end tells us she has changed her mind. It is a circular structure – she begins talking about caffeine and ends in the same way. This is reflected in the cinematography – as the camera slowly zooms in and then zooms out and we end in the same place that we started. There is also pairing throughout – when she talks about her biological clock, an older woman that looks quite like her walks...

Over uses a very interesting reverse narrative structure, as well as having lengthy shots that give us very little information about what we are watching. The effect of this is that we are led to make out own assumptions and decisions about what we think is going to have happened. As such, everything that comes into frame, we begin to assume that it is related to the death that we eventually learn about. For example, when we see that there were muddied up shoes in the evidence, we then assume that the death could somehow be related to the boy we just before saw playing football with his dad.  Another aspect of this film that is very interesting is the fact that we get the perspective of the British suburban population, as oppose to the point of view of the Angolan character that has fallen from the plane. The simple answer is that the audience of the film is supposed to be the British suburban population – it is a more understandable story for us to see the aftermath from an outsid...

In ‘Tight Jeans’, the way that comedy is represented, both with a literal and then a deeper meaning, is very interesting. It is demonstrated as a method that can be used to find deeper truths. In the short film, there is a heavy lean onto the performances, and onto the script, which is what creates that comedy, however, through the genuinely funny performances of the characters, and the ‘young men chat’, there is a genuine deeper meaning that each individual character comes to understand at the end of the film. The movement of the camera is also very good, as is gives different angles and shots without at any point breaking up the flow of the characters or the dialogue. Director Destiny Ekaragha said: “I think sometimes laughter is the best way to talk about serious issues, because it stays in your head longer. Dramas are great and I’d like to do one, but at the moment I’m loving laughter.” Tight Jeans is the perfect embodiment of this, what initially begins as: “why can’t we wear je...

 In ‘The Ellington Kid’, we are situated with certain characters through the positioning of the camera. This happens so that different emotions and feelings are created towards those certain characters. For example, with Nathan and Beefy, the two characters having the conversation, we are situated right in their conservation, with an eyeline match, being on the other side of the room, and there visibly being space at their table. When it comes to spectating the Ellington Kid himself, we are situated with the boys behind him, we are the threatening presence following him, and this feeling thus creates sympathy for the threatened kid and emotionally aligns us with him. This alignment with the gang also just makes us, as the audience, feel much more predatory in general, creating a discomfort in the actions of our viewership, and so the gang as well. Lastly, the kebab shop workers – most of the shots they are involved with are POV shots from their position, which again separates the b...