Textual Analysis 3: Tick-Tock



Mise En Scene

The clock at the beginning and end of the film is very significant, as it is referring to the amount of time that Emit supposedly has to live. At the start of the film the clock is moving anti-clockwise, which is the audience’s first clue that this short film is backwards. Considering that the film is backwards, the clock at the start is showing the minutes that have passed since Emit has taken the “morphine”, whereas at the end the clock shows how much time Emit has initially since first taking the fake drug.



 Sound

The non-diegetic soundtrack Anthem by Emancipator, in the background is well-timed with the action in the film, which emphasises Emit’s moves and his emotions. For example, at the start of the short film once Emit goes outside of Rena’s apartment the music picks up and the texture of the song builds once Emit starts to run. The tempo of this song is relatively fast, again fitting in with the action and creates the feeling that the film is fast-paced, as Emit feels as though he only has minutes to live the audience can feel it too through the use of this sound. This also fits into Emit’s increasing heartbeat; the tempo of the music often changes to how Emit’s heartbeat changes, meaning the music is a vital part in the film and the plot.



All of the diegetic sound presented in the film is echoed to make the audience feel the sense of fear and panic that Emit is experiencing. When a person is in panic or shock, their input of sound tends to blur as if they can’t absorb things properly. This is the same with the sound of the heartbeat, which is infact non-diegetic but is a representation of Emit’s heartbeat that shows the audience what he is feeling and how his heart rate is reacting to this, which is an example of synthetic personalisation as it makes the audience feel closer to the character.



Editing
The font of the titles is serif, and the colour is white. This is so that they are simple, but so that they also stand out; the text that appears across the screen during the film is important for the viewer to read as it is significant to the plot, so it must be visible.



There are no cutting or transitions of shots in this sequence as it is filmed in one entire shot, lasting around five minutes. All the sound has been given an echo to enhance Emit’s feelings of panic and shock, as if the audience was feeling what he was feeling.



However, the ending of the film is in black and white, before emit has taken the pill. This signifies that Emit has almost ‘woken up’ after knowing he only had minutes to live, and how the shock and adrenaline had hit him. Because the shots are reversed the colour fades to black and white rather than the other way round. The colour starts to fade to black and white at around 3:50 and onwards.

Subtitles have also been added to the short film, since all the shots are reversed the dialogue cannot be understood.



 Camera Angles And Movement
The camera is hand held throughout the short film, creating a sense of realism so the audience can understand what Emit is going through in these few minutes. Hand held cameras also relate to social realism genre films, which ties in with the genre of this short film.

Enigmas
Throughout this short film, the main question on the audience’s mind is “What is going on?”. This question is brought up because the audience can only truly understand the whole of the plot once they have seen all of the short film, since the beginning is actually at the end. This is much like the film “Memento”, which the plot of the film is also presented backwards.