Vicky and Sam – Analysis on Cinematography

I will be analysing the first few minutes of the 15 minute short film “Vicky and Sam”. This film uses similar comedy that we plan to utilise in our own film.

The scene opens with a close up shot very low looking at the ground. The camera tracks along the floor and written on the floor is the title “Vicky and Sam”. As the camera pans up, we see a long shot of a video store, with a young man walking a bike toward it. The store is lit up very well to draw attention to it, clearly saying “Video” in graffiti in the window. Then there is a cut to the boy putting his bike down at the entrance, the boy is slightly to the left of the shot, with the door being in the center. This could be to focus our attention on his intentions of entering the store. Then there is a jump cut to a medium shot of his arm opening the door, before seeing a long shot of the building from directly ahead as he walks in. Then there is a cut to a medium-long shot tracking across the side of shelves. A woman is stacking DVD’s onto the shelves, then as the camera passes another shelf, the young boy is looking at a DVD. Then we cut to a medium shot from behind the boy, he is in the center of the shot to show he is the focus character.

The scene is moving very slowly, we then cut to a long shot of the woman walking toward the camera, the boy the walks to the side and bumps into her. There are two bookshelves either side of the characters, it’s possible that this was shot like this to enclose the two characters together, forcing the attention onto them. There is then a close up of the boy looking at the girl smiling, then a close up of the girl smiling shyly back. This type romance is something we parody in our own short film. We then cut to an establishing shot of people in a café, this shot is used to explain and establish that the café will be an important location in the scene. The first line we hear is “You’ve got to be kidding me, right?”, this is in reference to the scene we have just watched. Then the same man says “It’s flipping cliché”, this is what we are going to aim for in our film, showing the lack of realism in a cliché romantic comedy film. This way we are creating something different that fits within the same genre. The 3 sitting at the table are all writing a romantic film, and in doing so are explaining to the audience that a film can be romantic and funny, without the cliché romance, this is what we want to convey in our own short film.

This film has used generic shots and romantic music toy convey and portray a romantic film in a cliché fashion. They have then used a more TV show like style to accommodate the comedy aspects, showing the writers writing the characters, showing the audience how unrealistic the generic romantic film can be.


Vicky and Sam from Nuno Rocha on Vimeo.

NightWalking - Short Film Analysis

NightWalking is a short film being showcased on The BBC Film Network. It is a black comedy
detailing a person’s thought process when walking home alone at night.

The “ACTAEON FILMS” company introduction has a dark, strong piece of music (strings) that suggests a drama/thriller/horror. The very first shot we are shown is a long shot of a woman’s legs as she walks along a dark road, strong light is beaming from the right side of the frame, possibly imitating a lamppost. This lighting is used effectively as it casts a large shadow onto the wall and floor to the left of the frame. The shadow suggests a dark story or event upcoming. The title “NightWalking” appears at the bottom of the wall, running along it. This is used well and is a more subtle way of introducing the title, without distracting from what is happening on-screen. The first line we hear is “I hate walking on my own at night”, this is an inner monologue inside the woman’s head; suggested by her mouth not moving, and said as if she is thinking to herself. This line immediately tells us that the film is focusing on the fear of being alone at night, we begin to wonder what will follow.

We then cut to a similar shot, but now it’s a medium-long shot, and we are seeing the top half of her body. We can see that she has a scared expression on her face, and due to the angle allowing a lot of space in front and behind the woman, we can see the large shadow of another person appear behind her. Then we hear “I always think there’s someone following me”, more signs pointing toward a possible thriller genre. The scene goes into grayscale when we see the other man’s shadow, along with some sort of distortion. This creates a mysterious effect, and we still don’t know who the person behind her is. We are then shown a medium close-up from behind her, possibly the view from the supposed “Stalker”. We finally see the man’s face, which is again shown in grayscale, possibly to keep us from associating with him. The woman goes through options in her head, such as “I could tie my shoe lace, then he could walk past” or “I should run!”, this is shown in the efforts to create a somewhat relatable film. As worrying about the person behind you is a common occurrence. She decides to turn around, and the man is no longer behind her. A mysterious feel lingers as I (the viewer) wonder where the man has gone. At this point there is no hint to a comedy genre.

She walks back to the corner she has just turned, to see if he is there, but she still can’t see him. However we can hear a phone ringing, the woman looks down and sees a mobile phone on the floor. The scene then fades out, and we cut back to the very first shot, however this time we are following the man that was walking behind her. He first says “Oh, I hate this; walking behind a woman on her own at night. It’s embarrassing, she’ll start to walk faster when she hears my footsteps”. Here is where the comedic effect begins, we discover that rather than a mysterious man stalking a woman, he is just walking in his direction, and is in fact worried about what she thinks of him.

The shots of the man are no longer in grayscale, and are without distortion. We are now meant to sympathise with the character. The man continues thinking, wondering if he should walk another way round, but sees no need to as he’s not a maniac. He then thinks he could just stand for a bit, and wait until she’s walked off, eliminating the problem, he then wonders if he could overtake, but as we saw in the last version of this scene, she speeds up to get away. He makes jokes in his head to calm himself, such as “This would be much easier if I was a rapist”. He decides to make a “loud, but not threatening” phone call, possibly to his mum. This time round, the man is well lit, we can see his face and he is displayed as less-mysterious. This has created an incredible shift in opinions, as we are lead to feel one way about a character, before listening to their side of the story. This type of subtle humour is something that could be very beneficial to our own short film. The man then accidentally trips over into a hole dug in the ground, so he can’t be seen and drops his phone, before the woman turns around to find the phone.

The way that this short film manipulates your thoughts on a story and a character, then completely changes your feelings by showing you another side of the story is something that I would like to attempt in our own film. I also like the way that the film uses a few one-liner jokes to add to the humour, to really slot it in the comedy genre.

In our film, throughout the majority we are lead to believe that Poppy is not interested in Callum, however we later find out that she’s a little weirder than first believed. This has been incorporated as an inspiration from this short film. The film can be viewed below: