Over - Short Film Review

Over (2015) - John Threlfall

Genre: Real life crime

Narrative: Events of a crime scene unfold in reverse order

Representation: The film is set in a quiet, middle class estate

Audience: To us an audience, the crime is shown subtly until the full story is given to us at the end. We are the bystander, and are only allowed to focus on one stop, which ends up being the place where the crime took place.

Notable micro elements: 

• The long takes on each time frame leaves us in suspense
• Ambient sounds - birds, cars, people
• Cuts to the objects the man had in possession (gloves, balaclava, torch, phone, camcorder, sweets and a family picture)
• Camera circles the spot where the man was

My response to the film: I personally enjoyed the film, but I think that it can only work as a short film. This is because of the use of long takes, and if it was a full feature film it would be very boring. The use of long takes does add a good amount of suspense to the film, and by the end of the film I did jump at the man falling on the car, just because my eyes had been fixated on one quiet spot. I liked the use of using a true story, as it added more of an emotional aspect to the story, as throughout it we are not introduced to any characters so we are not involved within it, and had no attachment to the dead man. At the beginning I was quite confused because no information is given, expect the woman laying flowers by the side of the road, and that is an indication that someone has died. Seeing the items such as the balaclava, I thought that it could of been a break in and someone died as a result of it, and so by the end of film I was shocked by the true story. And it was good to watch a film that still has significance in 2019, where only recently an event like this has happened again.

What could I use?

I think I would use the use of long takes from this film, as I have learnt, if done right, they cause such a big moment of suspense that it is easy to shock an audience.

What could I develop?

I think the idea of using a true story is quite good as you can show something in a visual way, and this can leave people understanding the story more than just reading or hearing something that they couldn't imagine happening.

What could I challenge? 

I didn't like the way the long takes didn't have enough action happening, and so perhaps if I do use the choice of long takes I would still make it interesting enough, so that the audience wouldn't be completely bored.