SHORT FILM ANALYSIS 1:TICK TOCK – BY LEN CHI

By Daniel Da’Costa Brewster

TICK TOCK – BY LEN CHI

Tick Tock is a short film, created by Len Chi. It was edited, written and directed by Len Chi, the film adopts the drama genre and it looks at a man who believes he’s going to die after taking pills.

The film is approximately five minutes long and is focused on the main character EMIT as he is trying to fulfil his life's highest potential. He had taken morphine pills which he had thought were helpful antibiotics and by doing so he came to the conclusion that he had only a few minutes left to live.

After coming to this thought he was quickly attempting to correct all the things wrong in his life and reiterate the love for his family. Little do we know until the narrative becomes clear and the film progresses, that it was his friend playing a prank on him and that he wasn’t really going to die.

The film uses a foreign dialogue and is all narrated backwards, so the beginning of the film is the end and the end of the film is the beginning, the plot can relate to everyone as it expresses passion and love for their family and friends and does create a verisimilitude as although the film is backward we can relate to the simple conventions within the film.

FIRST FRAME IMPRESSIONS

The first shot of the film is a medium shot of the clock, this sets the tone of the film from the off and gives the audience a little insight into what the film is about, showing a clock is a great idea which can allow the audience to create ideas within their heads to attract them to continue to watch the film and create possible innuendos.

The clock is moving backwards which suggests that something wrong is definitely happening, along with the ‘tick tock’ of the clock it really gets the audience thinking and craving more and more of the film, retaining incentives for them to continue watching.

The pan from right to left also supported by the shakiness of the shot creates an ideology of the unawareness and the unknown creating an enigma.

FILM ANALYSIS The opening shot quickly pans over to who is later known to be

Rena, Emit’s girlfriend, the warm colours of yellow and blue are perfectly shown through the good use of colour correction.

The shot then pans again to show Emit walk through the door and text is shown on the screen which writes ‘Cowardice’ which is defined as ‘Lack of bravery.’ this connotes to the audience that Emit is not a strong character and goes against typical stereotypes of the strong male and weak female.

The airy non diegetic music also foreshadows events to come and suggests that not everything is going good for Emit and there’s going to be some sort of drama within this film.

We first see dialogue in this scene where Emit is seen running away from his friend, Emit (as a subtitle) comes up which indicates that the film isn’t in English, however we come to find out the film is backwards so the dialogue is too.

FILM ANALYSIS

• This shot shows a sign of concern from Emit, after him and his girlfriend hug, the film starts to go back in time which shows that an event has already happen, the screams for ‘My Wallet’ and thus further validated by ‘You don’t know what I just did? Oh my gosh..’ this quote alone shows that Emit is in trouble of some sort and it creates a relationship with the audience as we want to know what the problem is.•With this happening it brings a small part of the narrative as we confirm that the film is a drama, however it leads us to wanting to watch more to find out the further implications of what he has done that’s such a big deal. • It later moves on to shot 3 which is a three shot and shows everyone in the room, and it enables the audience to also relate to the other characters, creating a verisimilitude as Emit’s friends don’t know why he’s stressed either. •Not only does the questioning of the narrative keep people questioning and enticed to continue watching but the use of panning, tilts and tracking, these wide range of shots allow the audience to gain a feel as if they’re actually in the film.

FILM ANALYSIS Emit tries to explain to Rena that he was most likely going to

black out, this explains to the audience that he has done something really bad, he is holding her softly around the neck which connotes to the audience that Emit and Rena are boyfriend and girlfriend, this further emphasises his plan to resolve any problems he had left with his family.

Emit is shown giving a box to Rena which triggers emotion from Rena and such a reaction which suggest they were an item and going out, however it still creates some areas of unknown and gives the audience every reason to continue watching.

The next shot a two shot helps to further emphasises this point the fact that they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Diegetic dialogue ‘But I still liked you! I did’ reinforces this argument and reverses the roles making Emit a antagonist causing pain towards the newly protagonist of Rena.

This shot pans from left to right and right to left to helps to

solidify his discontent with the fact that they’re not together

anymore.

FILM ANALYSIS We then follow Emit within this shot as he is

running to find Rena, because this film is backwards it shows that what we saw in the previous shot was a very important matter for Emit and it was something which he classed as very important, which entices the audience to feel sorry for him.

We see Emit exchange dialogue with his teacher ‘Your teaching sucks’ this quote alone shows that Emit now has nothing to lose, he is talking in a reckless tone without holding back which again draws the audience in, to wondering what is it that he has done to have him acting like this.

The non diegetic score music of a piano playing really creates an atmosphere and connotes to the audience that Emit is on a journey the music helps unfold his story to the audience and really get a grasp of what’s happening, we know that Emit believes he’s dying and the music kind of simulates a flashback.

Reputation defined as, “the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something.” now what Emit is doing in this shot is ruining his reputation which connotes to the audience and foreshadows that the unknown thing which has happened to him is more serious than we first thought.

FILM ANALYSIS Emit is asked for donations and

gives his bank card and pin code to the woman enquiring, such a bold statement says that he has nothing to lose and the audience are now beginning to think that he is going to die.

Greed is defined as ‘intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food’ and this ultimately contradicts what he’s just done, we see him give up his money by giving the woman his credit card, which connotes to the audience that Emit’s mind is all over the place he isn’t sure right now in what he is doing.

The message of this shot seems to be people only really take into consideration the things they love, when you’re so close in losing it.

FILM ANALYSIS Emit is on the phone to his mother and is explaining how he wishes

he was a better son and that he loves his mother and his Dad, this seems to be what he perceives as his last messages to his parents. The sounds of crows symbolises things such as; Death – knowing that Emit may only have a few minutes to live it gives the audience a chance to really feel the pain of Emit, his life is quickly coming to an end and he has to make up for everything he’s done wrong in only a few minutes.

The text indifference comes onto the screen, which is defined as: ‘lack of interest, concern, or sympathy’ which again contradicts the context of the film because he is taking a major interest in his family and making sure that they know he is sorry for treating them wrong, this is now connoting to the audience that there is change.

As there is a familiar occurrence of contradiction it is evident to see that this a change within the film and that Emit is doing the complete opposite to the text on the screen which then again brings up the idea that you only change when the going gets tough and that there is a problem happening, which again is evident in what Emit is doing.

FILM ANALYSIS Another interpretation of the words on screen are that

they’re the ones of his past and he’s trying to correct them by explaining himself just before he dies. Laziness ‘the quality of being unwilling to work or use energy; idleness.’ Emit now can’t afford to be living like this and needs to change his ways in order to get his dignity and respect back.

Emit uses dialogue to say call ‘911’ which is the emergancey force in america, however as the shot continues we see his friends laughing behind his back, which suggests to the audience that what Emit is going through was a joke and further connotes that this is a real reality check for Emit if anything.

The audience now see Emit in a new light and instead of feeling for him they sympathise with him, however learn that nothing is wrong with him but he is now able to fix his life.

FILM ANALYSIS There is a heartbeat in the background, non diegetic sound effect

which is helped to be illustrated by the dialogue ‘This isn’t aspirin, these are morphine pills’ We know as an audience know what the drama was about now we realise that Emit is scared for his life believing that the pills are morphine, however we continue to see his friend laughing which connotes to the audience that this is a prank rather than reality.

The music at this point in time has stopped which engages the audience to really focus on the box and connotes that this box needs to be looked at and sends a clear message, the fact that the film is backwards suggests that because we’ve come to this point in the film, and everything has stopped he really is evaluating his life.

This appears to be the same box that he gave to Rena earlier in the film, this connotes to the audience that it is something of importance within their relationship and from watching the earlier footage it seems that he done something stupid in order to take it away from Rena in the first place.

FILM ANALYSIS This shot shows the close up of a clock which goes with the title of

the film tick tock, and the quote from Steve Jobs again reiterates the importance of family and friends and knowing that you only have a short amount of time to live, really seperates the small things from the important.

I think this is one of the best shots as it engages with the audience and gives them a chance to look back on their lives and really think of what’s important to them as a whole.

I think the quote is some what excellent as it effects everyone who watches the film, this gives Len Chi the full attention of all his audience, making sure they’ve understood the narrative.

SUMMARY I think this is an excellent short film, the majority of the film is done in a long take which

is very hard to pull off and the fact that his film is done backwards and the narrative is clear shows that the filming, editing and directing of the film was superb.

The camera is not steady which makes the audience feel like they’re there and re creates the verisimilitude, as the film is going backwards it creates a disequilibrium but again as the narrative is clear and good use of subtitles help the audience really grasp the films concept.

The sound used in the film was excellent the use of the heartbeat really took it for me as it connoted to me that the heartbeat represented fear and expectations and the whole film represented correction, so hearing the heartbeat meant that Emit was in fear of what is going to happen next and the backwards narrative was the whole existent to Emit trying to change all that is wrong in his life.

Len Chi displays quotes throughout his film and one word quotations which really challenge the audience to make their own interpretations from the film, contradictions then ask the question of is Emit really changing? This film does question a lot of things about Emit but acts as a metaphor to really be asking the questions of yourself and I believe that Len Chi has done a really creative and excellent way to get his message across.