Existing Films

The Black Hole

This is a comedy film, that shows a man working in an office and discovers a piece of paper that has a hole on it that allows him to go through things. This leads him to try this newfound gift on a number of things before trying it out on the office safe, which eventually is a bad decision. The character is seen in the opening shots of the film as depressed and waiting for the day to end and go home. We as the audience get this impression by the atmosphere that is created with the lighting of the scene, its grey with little natural light in the office. This makes the use feel the bored and understand the character more. The film is using the feelings of the audience to create the humour as most people have had the feelings of wanting to leave work and the audience are able to relate to the character. The mise en scene makes the whole film much more atmospheric we can hear the sounds of the printer in the opening scene in this scene we don’t see the photocopier to start off but it is heard. This is very clever by the director as it is a sound that most people will recognise as it is a sound that they hear everyday in their own work place. This adds to the mundane of the scene. The character is dressed in a shirt and tie but looks dishevelled and unorganised, all fitting the mise en scene of a boring day at work. This opening is important as the audience need to feel a connection with the character immediately as the film only has two minutes to get the story across so character development has to be faster.

Then the film challenges the conventions by introducing the character to the paper that has the hole on it. This is a clever twist to the story as now the audience is engaged into the film more and this is done because the audience want to know more about the hole, what is it? What is he going to do with it?. It’s important that the audience get this feeling in a short film otherwise they loss interest very quickly. The character becomes a much more engaging character because he now has some life and emotion, we can see this by the change in facial expressions and is behaviour. The hole although it has this power of being able to allow you to walk through walls, still looks in place in this environment as it is just a piece of paper with a black circle on it, this fits the conventions of the film as it is simple and ordinary. The character starts off using the hole to get chocolate, this allows he audience to feel more for the character as it shows the possibilities that are available to the character, and makes the audience wonder how is this story going to conclude. The camera work is great on this bit, the camera stays close to the character so we can see his face expression change as he realises the true potential of the hole.

The end scene of the film is the climax; he starts taking the money out of the safe. Although it is stealing and a crime we as the audience understand the character and the reasons for him doing this because he hates his job and probably his boss and the company so he wants things to go his way and this allows the audience to relate to the character even more. Finally his greed gets the better of him and the character becomes more exposed to the audience as someone that is either greedy or he is getting ahead of himself. The comedy of the film comes from the fact that he gets locked into the safe. This is clever because it represents a snap shot of the characters life in this short film he is hating work and his life hasn’t turned out the way he expected and things always go bad for him but finally he finds this piece of paper, this could be the turning point he needed but again it goes wrong for him. The audience can relate to this character and understand the feelings he must feel as he sits in the safe.

Matthew Moran 13.4