Analysis of Short Films; Two

Stranded

Iconography

- The car keys connote freedom which is lost when the woman drops them into a puddle
- The mobile phone also connotes freedom

Mise-en-scene

- Props include; keys, phone, cigarettes (lighter), van

- Lighting is mainly dark due to it being night and the woman/men are outside except the few scenes of the footage in the house

- Setting is outside, either outside the house, in a woodland area or on the road

- Weather is damp evident with the puddles and the mud

- The woman wears blooded pyjamas and cardigan
- Men wearing yellow helmets and bright safety jackets, one of them has a wooly hat and scarf instead

Narrative

- Key features would mainly be the woman running through her estate, woodland, road etc which shows her desperation and the men talking beside and in the van showing them going through their every day lifestyle, oblivious to others around them

- The audience would expect everything that could go wrong for the woman, goes wrong and that the child (daughter) does not survive 

Sound

- Diegetic sounds include the woman heavily breathing, wet beat of her running on mud, sound of the woman searching in the puddle, car engine, banging of tools when the man throws them into the van and the banging of the man pushing the van door

- Non-diegetic sounds include the humming tune which changes to a more eerie sound, banging of tools in the distance from the woman, showing the stairs and a distant voice from the past recalling what happened, ambulance siren and the sad tune near the end when the woman discovers her child is dead

Camera

- Pan around the house 

- Cut from long shot of the house to a mid shot of the woman (then to the car and back)
- High angle of the puddle showing the woman putting her hands in trying to get the keys
- Mid shot of the woman searching for the keys
- Long (low) shot of her bending down towards the puddle
- High angle of the phone promoting importance
- Mid-long shot of the van
- Tracking the man walking to the van
- Close up (focuses) on blood on the stairs
- Cuts between the van (showing the man and the rear end of the van) then the woman running/falling
- Low angle of the van
- Tilt shot of the men conversing
- High angle of the men working
- Cuts between the man conversing beside the van
- Mid-long shot of the woman in the house which tracks down when she falls on to her knees
- Close up of man looking down (in uniform)
- Blurry image which is tilted showing the girl falling
- Long shot of van driving of which the camera then tilts downwards and to the side to somewhere else

Message

- If there was a message it would be likely that it would be, always be careful and that not everything goes to plan