Null - Ailsa

MRANG on "(Null)"

 

( NULL ) from David Gesslbauer on Vimeo. Uploaded June 2015. 

Media langauage and narrative

The short film starts with a tracking in of a washing machine (which is a symbol of everyday life.) Bassy, non diegetic music compliments this to emphasise the speed and the strain of everyday life. As this spins around, it shows us how the character's life is repetitive, so much so that everything becomes a blur. 

The title is introduced alongside a diegetic sound of an alarm clock, with a CU of a clock. We then see the character slamming their hand onto this to stop it - showing her frustration and need for her whole life to pause for a moment. 

After the alarm clock, the non diegetic bassy sound starts up again to show how another routine day of hers is starting again. The whole thing is filmed through a circlescope - which could be used to show how they are extremely focused and everything has become so routine that they aren't noticing anything else. 

More props such as a shower, plughole and hairdryer are shown in CUs to carry on showing her everyday, boring routine.

Through the different shots we also are taken through the character's whole day: it's clear that it starts at home when she wakes up (CUs of coffee, hamster...,) followed by her at work (diegetic sound of phone calls, CU of paper being thrown in the bin,) back to her being at home and then going out to a club.

Some of the transitions when she gets to the club become slower to emphasise her wanting the time to last forever and savouring her enjoying herself. 

There is a birds eye view CU of cocaine being inhaled, followed by a graphic match of her pupils diluting, to the washing machine again. This could highlight that there is no escaping her everyday life. 

The pace of transitions gets quicker after this happens, highlighting the effect of the drug she's just taken. 

We see a CU of a man, which then leads to diegetic sound and shots that suggests they are having sex. 

There is then no sound, as we are told through various shots that the woman is then going home. There is a shot of the moon, which through a graphic match is then turned into a street lamp. 

These two shots are shown after the characters have sex: suggesting that this has now made the woman pregnant. 

The narrative for this short film is linear: it has the everyday routine of day - to - day life, which then builds up to going out and taking drugs, and then shows the aftermath of this. 

Representation

 This short film represents how repetitive everyday life can be, and often people look for a way to escape this. Drugs are shown to be a way to escape this, a way to speed up life. They're also represented as being bad though - showing how they can easily lead to mistakes being made. Clubs are also presented like drugs are in this short film; a way to escape and enjoy yourself, but they tend to lead to bad things.

Genre

The genre of this is an experimental short film.