Short film: TEETH

Why I chose this video?
I chose to use this short film as one to analyse because during watching it, I found it highly amusing and comical and thought it would be a good film to use.

Textual Analysis
This film is shot on a lake and it has just two men and a boat. The lake is empty apart from these two men. It is a real life location. The men are old, and are dressed in hats, blazers, generally dressed as a stereotypical old aged man. They are on a boat and are both holding fishing rods in their hands. The film is shot in black and white. There is no sense of daylight, or colours, it is a very simple film.

The establishing shot of this film is of the lake. It looks so calm and beautiful, the water is slowly moving, giving us a clear feeling of the peacefulness of the area. 

Then it goes to show the title of the film, and then to another master shot of the two men in their canoe on the lake looking out. 

From this shot it goes to a zoom in of one of the man's faces as he sneezes. Then it switches from two shots to single shots as it shows the back of one man and the other man giggling. The two shot allows us to see the proximity between both characters and how they are interacting with one another. As the man has just sneezed, the camera moves to the right a little and shows the edge of the canoe and the man's teeth lying on the side. As the man moves, the canoe also moves, and the following shot is from a low angle looking up as the teeth steadily drop into the water. 

Also near enough midway through the film, there is a dissolve into a blackout which dissolves into another motion picture. This implies a passage of time.

There is also a two shot near the end of the film when the man tries to wear another pair of fake teeth but realises they don't fit him.

Although there is no real written dialogue for this film, it still has sound. It isn't a silent film because the characters laugh and make noises that help us to understand how they are feeling. For example, the man who loses his teeth sneezes, and we hear this. Also, when his friend laughs, we hear this, so we know how they sound. Throughout the whole film there is a soft music playing in the background. The music doesn't stop even when we hear the diegetic sounds of the men sneezing and laughing. 

Genre

The genre of this film is fiction. I believe this is a story that has been retold over time therefore it could be a real life film? My interpretation of this film is that it is about 2 friends who have gone fishing and end up in a comical adventure.

Audience

I think the audience for this film is any age category. I showed this to my younger sister who is 14 and she enjoyed watching the film, as much as I did, so I don't think there is an age barrier for the audience. It is a popular film with over 200,000 hits on you tube. 

Context

The film was made in 2008 by Divamedia in association with the Irish Film Board. It was directed by John Kennedy and Ruairi O'Brien and edited by Phillip Cullen.