So, I came across an awesome list of short films on Youtube featuring famous actors, which lead to Michael Cera’s Youtube page, which is littered with awesome short films his made or been featured in.
“Failure” begins with Cera sitting in a chair and eating something out of a bowl, then a jump shot shows us Cera getting up and leaving the room. I’ve been trying to use the jump cut, most because I like breaking rules, but my attempts aren’t working out.
I thought this film make good use of the jump cut for a few reasons, mostly because watching someone eat isn’t very interesting, and moving past it as soon as possible is nice.
I also really appreciated the minimal use of lighting. It was produced by Daniel Kellison, who also produces Jimmy Kimmel and David Letterman, which probably means some really cool gear was involved. I’d be surprised if they didn’t alter the light at all, but the esthetic of the lighting gives an impression that the film is low budget, which I think works for this piece.
Most of the shots are also pretty shaky, which seems to be intentional, because it looks like it’s on a tripod in some shots, but it definitely added to the indie-film esthetic.
Once Cera leaves the room where he’s confronted with a strange woman (Aubrey Plaza), at the bottom of his stairs. There’s a cool shot from beside Plaza, looking up at Cera.
There’s a really cool sequence when Cera clumsily drops a glass bowl and breaks it down the stairs, with piece of glass tumbling down towards Plaza. The camera goes from a medium shot on Cera, to a closeup of the bowl breaking, to a panning shot of pieces of glass rolling down the stairs, until Plaza’s in the bottom right third of a really cool horizontal shot of stairs.
Overall, I thought this was a really cool short film. It’s interesting, considering the ending, but some of the comments said it’s in reference to the two actor’s personal rivalry. (Google: Aubrey Plaza Red Carpet Rage)
Mohammed, I like the piece you chose to write about! I agree that the intentional use of hand-held, shaky shots totally works for the mood of the scene. One thing I also noticed are the subtle sound bites that add to the creep factor. At (1:58), an eerie sound effect coincides with the dropping of the cereal bowl you noted. The angle of the shots also evokes a sense of danger (2:30, 2:33). “Think so or know so?”––she takes another step towards Cera and each time she progresses up the stairs, they cut to Cera from a low angle looking up posing somewhat dominantly with his hand on the rail. That said, he still looks nervous! The dramatic lighting-–as you mentioned––very noteworthy and adds to the overall ominous mood of the piece. Great observations.
Interesting use of sound at 0:30 when the woman slams her hands onto the hand rails at the bottom of the stairs. The metallic sound is loud and threatening, and it reverberates for way longer than the sound would naturally last. The sound accentuates her aggressive tone and creates a sense of foreboding that lingers before blending into ominous background music.