Film analysis on 'The Life and Death of Tommy Chaos and Stacey Danger'

The Life and Death of Tommy Chaos and Stacey Danger from Michael Lukk Litwak on Vimeo.

The story of this short film is a tale of how Tommy Chaos and Stacey Danger meet and travel on wonderful adventures around and outside Earth. The reason why I love this short film is because of it's creativity and its amazing use of special effects and sound. This short film jumps straight into its creative story line and you can immediately see the imagination behind this short film through the use of costume, ideas and  lighting. I hope to gain ideas from this short film to improve my own and then use to improve my short film ideas along with music and special effects.

The first camera shot that is used is a panning shot then followed by a mid shot of Tommy laying in bed, his inner monologue running through his head. This is an excellent way to start off the short film as it establishes one of the two main characters and there for gives the audience someone to focus on. The panning shot leaves the audience is a slight suspense for a moment as it rises to his face, and therefore keeps the audience interested. I like the use of the panning shot and hope to recreate something similar in my own short film to establish my own characters. It then swiftly moves onto a tracking shot of Tommy running through the battle grounds. This smooth transition was taken in one shot. This was done by placing the bed upright so when Tommy needed to run into the battle grounds he could do so with ease. This could represent the flow between sleep and fighting, that each day is the same for this character. I could use a similar method for my short film but instead of it representing this event happening every day, it would represent  unknowing of when the character goes from her room into the daydream, therefore making the audience, too, unaware of when she makes her way into a daydream. A tracking shot is used for when he runs into the battle grounds. This is different from the still shots that can become overused in short films. I want to use a tracking shot of my main character walking or running to have a difference in camera shots and keep the audience interested. This can easily be done by having a flat surface, putting a camera on a skateboard and then rolling the skateboard at the same speed of the person walking/running. If I want to film someone running through the woods, a good technique is just having them run in a circle around the camera man, therefore you don't have to try and keep up with the actor. A slow zoom in to the characters or objects can give a little movement to otherwise still shots. Movement is key to a shot film, otherwise the audience would soon grow bored of the same shots. Slow zooms could be used just to establish a room first and then work it's way to the character or it could be a fast zoom to show panic.

Editing is a key part for any film or short film as it's what glues all the videos together. Without editing you would be left with a very raw looking short film with lack of colour. no special effects and no title. This short film is an excellent example for editing as it uses special effects, which is something I hope to use in my short film, a mixture of hue and colour change and also lighting. In the beginning the contrast is heightened to produce stronger black shadows and the colour changed so there is a warmth in the colour of the clip. Chroma Keying can be done on the majority of film editing software and is used in this short film. What they did here was take an image, here is it a circle cut out to represent the telescope, and then 'cut out' the coloured section you don't want so you can later on layer the video you do want in this section. I may have to use this for my short film when my jet

pack spaceman needs to fly. I could film him in front of a green screen and chroma key out the green. 3D animation was used for the two characters sitting on top of the wild bear with the glowing blue eyes. This can be done on a film set with a green screen. A similar effect was used in 'The Golden Compass' when the girl rides upon a polar bear. What the actors sit upon is a shape similar to the animals back which is the same colour as the green screen. That way the animators can layer the animation over the top of the green colour. I am not planning to do something that requires this much skill as I don't have the time to learn the skills and wouldn't have the time to create something like this. The lighting in this part has been tuned so it looks more like night time, and to do this you turn up the blues and greens in colour, heighten the contrast and bring down the highlights.
The title is what the audience will remember most about your film. The audience will come away knowing the name of your film and an opinion about it so creating an interesting title sequence is a must for any film or short film. The title to this short film uses layering, imagery, and a small spin into the title. This title describes the entire film perfectly as the majority of the film takes part in space, which is where the title is shown. When creating my own title I need to think about how I'm going to sum up my whole movie into a title sequence. A fade to black is used to indicate afterwards that the main story of this film is about to begin. The majority of todays films use this after the title to give the audience the sense that they are unaware of what is to happen next, that they have been put in the dark.

Mise en scene is best seen when the two characters are swapping stories of the adventures they have been on. The first story told is about how Tommy accidentally destroyed a Russian submarine and how he once built one. His costume is of a stereotypical Russian man with a large fluffy hat and moustache. Stacey then goes on to tell him how she once escaped from North Korea using two celery sticks and some peanut butter. For this she is wearing a military uniform to suggest that she had to escape from somewhere heavily guarded. The hairstyles change when they talk about others stories to a more formal style, but when they return to just laughing in some bed sheets their hair returns to slightly scruffy, to suggest that they are back to reality. When talking about other peoples stories their hair changes again, most noticeable with Stacey where her hair changes from scruffy to plated.

The hair styles also represents the stable or the unstable parts of their relationship. When they first get married, Tommy's hair is neat, symbolising the fact that everything is calm for them and that they're happy. Later on when they start to fight and to not enjoy each others company hi hair grows more scruffy, like the time before he met Stacey.

Finally, this film has both diegetic and non-diegetic sound which is used to create atmosphere and tension in areas of this short film. Non-diegetic sound is used for the theme tune and for sound effects such as swoops and unnatural sound effects. For the theme tune it is used in moments of adventure which I could use in some points in my own short film, so finding a good piece or creating a good piece of music will be vital. Also, in this short film a voice over of a mans voice is used to help the story along and to help the audience understand why and how things have happened. Because my short film is SO short, I feel doing this could benefit my target audience as they will be able to enjoy the film and understand it, especially if my target audience is a younger market. For diegetic sound I can record my own sound effects from my phone or with a boom mic, or search online for possible foley sounds such as foot steps and sounds of sketching/drawing.