textual analysis of a short film.

I have chosen a short film called The black hole by Diamond Dugs.



The black hole is a comedy about a tired and depressed looking office worker, who is photo copying documents, this reinforces the idea that he is a boring office worker carrying out mundane tasks. The photocopier seems to stop working so the man gives it a kick, a page is printed but what is it? A black circle on a piece of paper, a black hole. The film depicts the human races greed that we always want more, but will it pay off?

The film starts with an establishing shot of the office this obviously shows its set in an office, the colour pallet is very drab and grey denoting the depressing scenery. This shot is similar to a shot seen in action films such as batman which challenges the conventions of a comedy. The cinematic shot also seems to contradict the drab scenery off the office as it creates a feel of high action when its just an office. After this shot the way the rest off the film is shot has the feel of a TV advert but for some reason it seems to work. From the off you can see the man is bored and tired, he lazily taps buttons on the photocopier the photocopier stops working. The man kicks it and it prints out a piece of paper with a black circle on it. He dismisses it and put it on the table next to him, the scene so far doesn't appear to stick to any convention of a comedy. The man carries on photocopying, he picks up his drink, drinks it and puts in on the table on top of the paper, the cup disappears the man looks around confused and a slight comedic element is added. The man studies the paper looking around as if he's done something wrong, he reaches inside and pulls the cup back out. The scene still has the advert feel which helps give the film an edge.

Now the comedy starts to kick in, the man walks over to a vending machine puts the paper on the glass and reaches in side and palls out a chocolate bar, is this the first showing off his greed he has used this gift to steal. The man then sets his eyes on a room that says KEEP OUT he uses the black hole to get into the room, the man is pushing the boundaries, this creates suspense as you don't know what he will do next and how far he will push it. The man is in the room and pow there is a safe, the audience already know what he will do. He places the paper on the safe reaches inside and pulls out a wad of money, how greedy will he be? he reaches in 5 more times and on the 6th he finds nothing so he decides to go in. As he passes into the safe the paper falls off trapping him inside, the audience is left with the sound of tapping as the picture fades to black.

The film is very creative and supports the view that humans are greedy and are never satisfied, the man had the chocolate but he wanted more, he got into the locked room but again he wanted more and finally he could of stopped at 1 wad of money but is greedy and this is his down fall. I believe the film sticks to some conventions of a comedy, the characters lack of personality he is similar to Mr Bean and his cheeky stealing of a chocolate bar in its self is funny. The story line how ever is not funny, it has a dark hidden engender suggesting that mans greediness will be our down fall, this is very true as can been seen in the modern world, wars are started for oil. the film throws up hundreds of question about the human race. Overall The black hole is a very creative and thought provoking film unseen in most comedies.