'Olive' by Rob Holder - Candice Tyson

link to short film: http://www.virginmediashorts.co.uk/film/5112/olive

Synopsis: a trophy wife sees an evil route to her ultimate goal... but will she take it?
Genre: thriller

Summary
'Olive' is about a 'trophy wife' that see's a vision of her husband dying, the vision comes true and she's pulled between letting him choke to death or to help him.

Representation

• 'Olive' represents gender in quite a stereotypical way. In the synopsis the female character Olive is named a 'trophy wife', the term 'trophy' suggests she is an object and not a human being, like she has been won and not chosen and that she is owned by someone- her husband. This is a stereotypical view of females as men are often presented as being higher and better than women, particularly in films years ago this was a lot more common and men were often given the leading roles rather than leading female roles.

In these two extreme close-ups we see Olive putting make-up on- making herself presentable. Women are often portrayed in magazines etc as having to be skinny and to wear make-up in order to be pretty or beautiful. The way Olive puts on make-up in this shot tells us she takes pride in her appearance and maybe wants to impress someone. The extreme close-up emphasises what she is doing and gives us the idea that she is making herself pretty for someone.

The non-diegetic music played throughout this sequence sounds sophisticated and posh setting a middle class or upper class scene. Not only the non-diegetic sound but also the fact she's looking after her appearance suggests she is a middle class lady.

We then see a close-up of Olive's expensive rings. The rings look expensive once again suggesting she is middle or upper class. Not only that but the rings go with her label as a 'trophy wife' as rings symbolise owner ship once you are married.






This medium shot tells us from what we can see that Olive's husband is either middle or upper class, this is shown from the props in the scene of the martini and newspaper. He is wearing a dressing gown suggesting laziness while his wife is making an effort and taking pride in what she looks like.  





Narrative

• We don't see or hear anything about the story behind the plot. However, from what we do see us as viewers can guess that she's very unhappy in her relationship and is desperate to get out of it.
• The structure of this short film is circular- the narrative begins with the end events. We see at the beginning of this short film see Olive's husband distressed and choking. From that event it switches to normality with Olive lying on her bed like she's woken up from a dream. Later on at the end of the film the beginning event is replayed making it a circular structure.
• A narrative theory that supports this short film is Todorov's theory of the 5 stages.

1.Equilibrium- A relaxed setting with the non-diegetic piano music playing in the background with the diegetic sound effect of the olive's being dropped into the martini and Olive waking up from her sleep.

2.Disruption- Olive's husband chokes on the olive's from his martini.

3.Resolution- Olive kicks her husband in the chest and stops him from choking.

4.Restored Order- Olive's husband stops choking.



5. New Equilibrium- Olive hands over her ring, the calm non-diegetic music begins to play again.

Genre

• The genre for this short film is a thriller. The conventions of this film that makes it a thriller is the non-diegetic music- it starts off normal and calm however when Olive enters the garden the music begins to change and starts to give a more negative vibe to us a viewers. The change in music suggests something bad is going to happen. Then as Olive's husband begins to choke the music grows loud and fast building tension- a common convention in a thriller.

• There are no other conventions in the short film 'Olive' to suggest it could fall under any other genre. However, I don't feel you could really put this film under the thriller genre as it doesn't support enough of the conventions.

Audience

• I'd say the audience for this film could be anyone over the age of 16.
• The gender that this film would target in my point of view would be mainly female as a big part of this film is about a 'trophy wife' being unhappy in her marriage and is trying to work her way out of it. From this some females I'm sure will be able to relate to this more than men would be able to. I also feel it would target females as now days females fight the idea that men own us women and at the end of this short film Olive hands back her rings suggesting she has given back his ownership of her and she is now free of him.

Media Language

• I found that Barthes theory of action and enigma codes works quite well in this film. Particularly enigma code as consistently through out the film you're asking what is making her so unhappy in the marriage? Is she going to let him die? What stopped her from letting him choke to death? What made her hand over the rings?

I like the change of non-diegetic music in this scene as it is contrapuntal to the way she is acting. Although Olive is acting loving and caring towards her husband the non-diegetic sound is telling a different story and instead giving off the negative vibe that Olive is feeling at that moment while he husband is oblivious.


 I thought this extreme long shot was quite effective as it shows how big the house is and that even with all the money Olive has she is still unhappy also showing that money can't buy you happiness. This shot also sets the scene nicely and shows you were the following events take place.




There are several close-ups and big close-ups like this one shown on the left. They show the reaction of Olive while she watches her husband choke. Her facial expressions at first show concern then quickly change to an almost blank expression like she's not feeling any worry towards what she is seeing, like she doesn't care and she's happy to watch him suffer. The director has used this big close-up to emphasise her emotions and to make the audience concentrate on her expression and not what is going on around her.



On the left is an extreme close-up of Olive's husband as he looks at her in desperation for some help while he battles for air. The movement of the camera in addition to the male actors movement creates an unsteady and panicked  atmosphere. The extreme close-up allows the audience to concentrate on the desperation and panic shown in Olive's husband's eyes




What I liked about this short film-
What I particularly liked in this film and will consider using in my own is the way the director used the music to set a calm and peaceful scene and mood then by changing this slightly and by increasing the pace the atmosphere changed completely to one of which was tension building.