3 Short films - Frankie

Short Film Review - Frankie 

In this short film 'Frankie' Dir. Mike Pappa - brings to life such a creative screenplay in such a very ideal and attractive way. It reminds me very much so of a Wes Anderson type film. It does this through it's use of the camera and the aesthetics, quite a visually rich sense of depth. 

Synopsis - "When a watch repair man acquires an antique pocket watch that can control time, he decides to use it to achieve his dreams. His plans soon become sinister when he learns he isn't the only one with the knowledge of the pocket watch." 

With this concept having not much to do with my own narrative, I chose it because when i first viewed it, I was intrigued with a lot of the aspects of this short film. Through the use of its cinematography, it's sound and the lack of dialogue, the mise en scene and editing. It may be the one furthest away from my concept of narrative, however it is pretty influential in terms of the way it has been developed and created. 

What I appreciated about the short film was its lack of dialogue, as dialogue wasn't needed to move forward this story at all. I found particularly interesting as with mine I really did struggle to shorten the usage of dialogue as my narrative wouldn't really allow it, however with feedback from Steve, I was able to actually take out a character and shorten the entirety of the first 2 pages of dialogue. 

The camerawork and lighting was key to this film, as it adds to the dark themes and forebodes notions of insecurity and quite menacing undertones.

(Screenshot of 'Frankie')

The lighting is very suggestive, it is low key, amber lighting from the street lights outside, indicating somewhat that he is very isolated and it is reinforced by the mise en scene i.e he has his large alarm clock sat by the side of him. Also emphasises his senile dysfunctional life habits and that he has a strict routine to be kept to. 

What I also got much pleasure out of was the ironic twist at the end, as throughout the entirety of this short film, we are made to believe that the protagonist is such a methodical man and is extremely meticulous with time and how he spends it. However (spoiler alert) at the end of this short we see that he makes one huge error, he rushes into something without the foresight to think that there may potentially be something else interrupting the flow of time that he had not took into consideration, which ultimately leads to his demise in this short film. 

Dramatic irony is something that I recognise to be very useful and often needed in films for them to be rich and entertaining, one of the major things that I found useful from Steve Coumbes lectures. 

In conclusion this Short film influenced on both aspects of my script and my film opening. This was achieved through looking at the films lack of dialogue, and trying to put that into my own work, similarly to my other short film I reviewed 'Alone Time'. As well as this, on the filming side aspect of it, through its smooth edits, transitions and the beautiful framing that was used throughout it I have tried to adapt to my own work.