'Exposure' by Paviourcole - Candice Tyson

'Exposure'

link to short film: http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/5364/exposure

Synopsis: a women's heavy night is exposed.
Genre: Thriller

Representation

• This short film represents the female character as someone who is not able to handle her alcohol and there for making herself vulnerable to other people and in this case a man that has followed her home. This is quite a stereotypical view of females being 'vulnerable' after drinking too much alcohol. Rather than the male character being the victim, the female stereo-typically is chosen to be the victim. 
• The male character has been represented negatively as he is shown to have followed a girl home while she is drunk and vulnerable and not only that but he then enters her house while she is in a state where is unaware of his presence. 
• I feel that the film is targeted more at females 18+ as its almost warning them of the dangers that alcohol can have if you drink too much. The stereotypical view of females is reinforced. 
• The shot above shows the vulnerable and unsafe state of the female character once she enters her flat. It is a shot looking over the male characters shoulder showing the female characters vulnerability and the male characters dominance- the slight high angle reinforces this. 

Narrative

• The short film uses Levi Strauss' theory of binary oppositions of weak and strong- the female character being the weak character and the male antagonist being the strong as he has control over the girl while she is in a vulnerable state. 
• Another narrative theory used in this film could be Barthes theory of the enigma code. The spectator watching the film is motivated to answer by close and active engagement with the narrative. For example, when the man is following the girl it makes you ask questions such as, why is he following her? What is his next motive? Why is he taking pictures? Does he know who she is? Why has he got lots of pictures of girls in their vulnerable state?

Genre

• The genre of this short film is thriller, this is made clear through the use of enigma- keeping the audience questioning what the male character is going to do once he has the female character in her flat and what he is doing taking all the pictures. There is also the use of:

• Low key lighting- low key lighting is used to create a mood and to build suspense, this particular shot shows his face in shadow making him look evil adding to his character as the antagonist. The dark shadowed shot gives a negative mood to the scene in addition to this from the close-up you can also see his facial expression. He appears angry, his eyes are big and in a stare making him look evil.  

• Quick cuts- the quick cuts speed up the time it takes her to walk to her flat, showing that because shes drunk she is walking slow and quick cuts show this process because as it jumps to each shot it shows that she hasn't got much further than the previous shot.

• Non-diegetic music- the non-diegetic music begins at this part of the short film building suspense as the answers to some of our questions are revealed in the next scene.  The music is slow piano music gives a spooky, negative feel to the scene and builds tension. 

• The use of camera angles- this one shows the the difference in level between the male character and the female character. You can see from this shot that the man is standing above her while she is on the floor. This shot makes the male character look a lot larger than the girl and more dominant.

• David Buckingham says "genre is not simply given by the culture it is a constant process of negotiation and change." I think this applies quite well to this short film and the fact its a thriller as thrillers have changed a lot from what they used to be. For example the typical conventions of a thriller used to be that the antagonist was always male and the protagonist most likely female. However, in thrillers now females can also be the antagonist and the male sometime the protagonist- an example of this is the film 'Orphan'. In this particular short film the same conventions still apply like they used to with the male being the antagonist, however this is not the same for all thrillers these days. Genre is constantly changing. 

Audience

• I would say this film is targeted at females 18+ as its almost warning them of the dangers that alcohol can have if you drink too much. The stereotypical view of females is reinforced. 
• The Virgin Shorts website as a whole I would say is targeted majorly at people aged 16+ as I feel anyone under this age may not understand the content of a lot of the short films shown on this website. I would say the website as a whole is straight forward and easy for anyone to use however the actual content and short films I would say is more targeted at people over the age of 16.
  

Media Language

• 'Exposure' begins with a number of jump cuts while a girl makes her way home after a night out. The jump cuts communicate to the audience the passing of time as she walks instead of the dissolve effect that is used heavily in a number of films. I feel that the jump cut is more effective as it is more abrupt and works really nicely to show the passing of time.  

The close up in between the jump cuts shows how the female character takes off her one shoe and throws it on the floor but leaves the other one on. This shows the audience that she isn't thinking straight and really reveals to the audience at this point that she is intoxicated. We know this because in a lot of films or TV programmes we see girls do this while they're drunk as they are no longer able to walk properly in their heels.

At this point of the short film it is revealed that a man is following the girl home. Straight away this creates enigma for the audience, asking questions such as why is he following her? What is he going to do to her?

This shot that I have used previously above shows the dominance of the man over the girl while she lays intoxicated and vulnerable on the floor. The shot is an over the shoulder shot in low key lighting. The antagonist appears dark and scary as we do not know what he is going to do next.




This is a close-up shot as the antagonist take photographs with the girl while she is unaware of what is going on. The close-up is used to show the audience that he is using a polaroid camera often used in movies where by photos are collected as memories because they capture a moment and cannot be deleted. You also see them in police investigation films where they have a wall full of pictures helping them solve their case.

I found this shot quite interesting as the antagonist has made himself a cup of tea and has sat down in the lounge. This is something you'd do if you were comfortable with and knew the persons house you were in, however in this case it doesn't appear that the antagonist knows the girl. So it creates the question, does he know the person he has followed home?


In this shot it focuses on the actions of the antagonist and how he's put her into bed and then strokes her head gently showing affection- this isn't something you'd expect to see, particularly from a stranger. This then starts to change the opinion of the audience that maybe he's not out to hurt her like you'd think of a stereotypical antagonist in this sort of situation.

The antagonists expression in this shot shows his almost loving and caring expression as he strokes the girls head. He's gone from an evil and dark looking antagonist to someone who appears more normal and friendly. Non-diegetic music starts to play around this part of the short film. It is slow gentle piano music that begins to build tension.

In this extreme close up shot it is revealed that he has got a number of photos from different addresses and the one he is pinning up is not his first victim.

The full extent of how many girls he has 'exposed' is revealed through a medium long shot. The shadow of the man as he walks away in addition to the music that is played creates a negative and overall tense mood.

In the second to last shot the female character is shown to have woken up. From the light coming through the window we see it morning and she is now alert and sober. The expression on her face shows the confusion she has as she see's a photo of her and a man that she has no recollection of. The medium shot is used to show the audience her expression and also what she is looking at on her bedside table.