Arrival

 Narrative

Equilibrium – Annie is sitting alone in a café, waiting for the father of her baby that she’s decided she doesn’t want to keep. She orders a coffee.

Disruption – A couple walks in, holding hands, and Annie sees them, causing her to start reconsidering her choice.

Recognition – Another costumer walks in with a baby in a stroller and Annie realises that maybe she does want this child after all.

Attempts to Repair – We see the internal conflict she’s having through the train sequence and her inner monologue where we hear her weigh up the positives and negatives of her decision.

New Equilibrium – Annie orders a decaf coffee, signifying that she has changed her mind, and is joined by a stranger that can be assumed to be the father. 

Lighting

The lighting in this film is grey and dull, showing that the location is England, as it is known for being wet and dark. 

During the train sequence, the lighting in the café shifts to darkness and there and flashing lights outside to give the impression that they are on a moving train. This represents her inner turmoil and battle with herself as a train can be loud and bustling. 

Costume, Hair and Makeup

The costume, hair and make-up is very plain and simple. Her jumper shows that she didn’t purposefully make an effort to look dressed up as there is no one she is trying to impress. She was probably too nervous to make herself overly dressed up. 

Setting

The whole film is set in a café in England. We can tell the location because of the accents and language of both the main performer and waiter.

The café itself looks clean and well kept. The lamps that sit on each table and the red seats could perhaps be mirroring the interior of a train, therefore making the train sequence more affective and believable.  

The café looks to be quite popular as people come and go quite frequently. 

Props

The main props used in this short film are a coffee cup and jug of milk. The coffee is not decaf, showing that she is sure about not keeping the baby. She gets lost in her thoughts whilst pouring the mil which causes her to overflow the coffee mug. The waiter is then over very quickly with a tray and a rag to clean it up, showing the efficiency of the café. It might also show that Annie is so visibly conflicted that the server may have predicted something like that to happen. 

Character Expressions

As there is very little dialogue because we are hearing the character’s thoughts, the actor must convey the emotion through facial expressions that match the voice over. If the tone of her voice becomes concerned then we see a worried look mirrored on her face.

She is a fidgety person, wringing her hands and shifting position constantly to convey her inner turmoil. Contrastingly, there are moments of complete stillness where her eyes glaze over and we see that she is completely lost in thought. 

Cinematography

The film is one continuous tracking shot, slowly zooming in on the main character. The camera does not change focus or position, only getting closer so that we can see more of the character expression and therefore emotion.

The camera starts behind the door, making everything unclear, until the server closes it and we see our protagonist. It starts as a wide shot to establish the setting and zooms to a close up to see her facial expressions when she is thinking intensely and her thoughts are spiralling. The closer the camera gets, the more pressure it adds on her as she feels as if the walls are closing in. When she is brought out of her thoughts by the server, the camera begins to zoom out, relieving some of the pressure as she is distracted.

The final shot is the father covering the camera and making the scene go black. 

Editing

There are no cuts in this apart from the final shot as it is one continuous take. The screen turns to black as the man walks in front of it, therefore using an invisible cut. This creates a seamless transition from the film to the credits. 

Sound

There is a constant diegetic background noise of customers sitting down for coffee and chatting. There is also dialogue between the server and Annie.

The thought tracking/inner monologue is non-diegetic as it is only heard in her head and not by any of the people around. The same goes for the train sounds.