R15: Textual analysis of a short mystery movie 2

Film: Only to exist

Genre: Short film Mystery

This short mystery movie has elements of the psychological genre, due its deliberate messy narrative and the use of unique camera work. For example, the very first scene of this film includes a high angle shot of a male protagonist’s hands, as he is washing them in a sink and this is followed by a pan that starts off with half of the protagonists face on a mirror and moves to show the other half of the man’s face off the mirror. This perhaps may have been used to start the film off with disequilibrium, because of the unsettling feeling that the first scene creates with the use of these camera movements. In addition, this element can viewed as unconventional in the horror, mystery and psychological genre, but I think contributes in the creation of an enigma code (Barthes). Once, again conventionally the protagonists are male and he is the only character in this short film, which represents patriarchy in society.

The short film then progresses to use canted angle, because the narrative seems to be about a detective who is trying to figure out the murderer, responsible for the death of many women. The use of canted angle is effective especially when the detective is going through papers and this is followed by a mid-shot to show the man throwing papers out of frustration. The combination of these two angles, give the film a mysterious and almost builds tension. This scene is accompanied by non-diegetic, choir (voice) instrumental and female whispering, which contributes to the tension in this scene and may connote to the idea that the man is facing inner conflict with the murder case and this is affecting his ability to focus on solving the case. As a result, men are perhaps represented as being unprofessional; as the protagonist is allowing his emotion affect his work.

Slow paced editing is used to show flashbacks and flash forwards in the short mystery film and the shots to represent a flashback are edited to be tinted slightly grey, connoting that these events are of the past, but they are still important in the current events of the protagonists life. Secondly, in a flashback the duration of a shot that showed a man’s hand dripping with blood was quite long and this was accompanied by the rising in pitch of string non-diegetic music. This scene, builds up anxiety, as the long duration on a bloody hand hanging out of a bathtub and the background music may connote to the idea that someone has committed suicide, which may lead people to think that the murderer makes people kill themselves. This is later confirmed when the protagonists actually shoots himself in the end of the film. As a result, this results in completely dismissing Todorov’s narrative theory of equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium

Throughout this short film, various locations are used from bathrooms, to an office and even outdoor car scenes. These various locations make up the mis en scene and once a again give this short film a sort of disturbed feeling and the use of these many locations may connote to the idea that the protagonist has many things to do but is unable to complete the, because of the conflict with himself.

From this short film I think I am going to pull out the idea of using flashbacks and flash forwards, because i think it created enigma codes and gives the film a mystery element, which I want in my film.