Short film analysis- Tick Tock by Ian chi

By Ruheet Hasnath

This is a story about a guy who is rushing to see his girlfriend after he thinks that he has taken poison.

This short film starts of by using opening credits. As you can see the opening credits are in a simple form and the text used was simple, This represents that the editor of the film did not spend a lot of time on the credits.

Behind the text a normal black background is used which is simple and shows no effort was put into the film.

The scene is opened with a mid shot of the clock as the time is going backwards.

The setting of the opening scene is in a bedroom.

The second shot is a mid shot of a girl sitting on a bed which starts to create confusion to the audience because they do not know what the story is going to be about as of yet.

A mid shot of the girl standing up, It is showing her gesture and facial expression. It shows that she is happy be cause her true love has walked through the door.

The camera pans to the guy walking through the door, There is a mid shot of the guy also showing his facial expression, it looks like he is also happy to his girlfriend.

Both of the characters clothing is casual and it gives an indication to the audience that they are both young.

A mid shot of the boy and girl hugging giving the audience a romantic feeling.

Suddenly the video starts to fast forward and there is a non diegetic echo sound which creates suspense to the audience.

This is a long shot of the girl shocked and upset that the guy just steamed off suddenly.

They used an editing technique here. They have speeded up the video to yet again create confusion to the audience in what is going on.

These two guys suddenly run back into the room and they are both exchanging diegetic dialogue.

A three shot of all of the characters in the room. They are exchanging diegetic dialogue with one another. They are talking in a different language so there are subtitles for the audience to understand what they are saying.

A long shot of the couple sitting down on the bed, incidental non diegetic score music playing in the background to create suspense towards the audience.

It then cuts to the guy and he is exchanging some diegetic dialogue, there is still non diegetic echo sounds while the guy is talking.

A mid shot of the guy about to walk out of the room as he is exchanging diegetic dialogue as he is about to walk out.

It cuts back to the couple sitting on the bed exchanging dialogue.

The editor used a different editing technique, what he done was he re winded the footage to when the guy is outside in the corridor knocking on the room door. This is once again creating confusion because couple of seconds ago the guy was talking to the girl inside the room, now he is outside the room knocking on the door.

A good technique was used to confuse the audience. There is non diegetic score music playing in the background.

The guy is having a flashback and it looks like the whole video is re winding but its not. This is showing the audience of all the things that the guy was doing before he met the girl in the room.

He has entered a different setting now. A low angle long shot is used in this clip. The non diegetic score music is also playing in the background.

A two shot is used, The main character is exchanging diegetic dialogue and telling the boy to hold the door. This starts to make audience think why he would say that. What is the need for him to hold the door.

Another two shot is used, it is showing the main character exchanging more dialogue with a teacher telling him that his books are expensive and his teaching sucks.

There is still non diegetic score music playing in the background.

A mid shot of him running backwards and talking on the phone. He seems to be in a rush.

The non diegetic score music is still playing in the background while all of this is going on.

A close up of the main character looking at his phone and it still seems that he is in a rush.

A title saying indifference used to indicate that the phone call was not important.

A longshot of the main character entering a different setting. It seems like he is rushing to somewhere.

The non diegetic score music is still playing in the background while all of this is going on.

The film still looks like it is re winding but it isn’t he is still in a flashback.

A mid shot of him running backwards, this really confuses the viewer as they still do not know what is going on.

A long shot of the main character entering another room. The editor decided to use a long shot to allow the viewers to see the characters gesture and facial expression. The lighting and colour that is used is natural which is good as you can see everything that is going on.

A two shot of the two guys exchanging diegetic dialogue. This has dramatically caused confusion because in the previous clips these two guys were exchanging dialogue in a different setting.

As you can see on the sub title he is telling the guy to call 911 which makes the audience feel that there is danger.

A close up of the guy, this shot is allowing the viewer to see his facial expression. It shows that the main character looks unsettled.

A two shot of both of the characters. This shot is showing that the main character is in anxiety and the other guy behind him is laughing at him which represents that he is careless.

It cuts to a mid shot of the other guy sitting down playing Xbox. He also exchanges diegetic dialogue saying ‘did you just swallow pills from that bottle’? This is a bad sign because the pills in that bottle are harmful.

A mid shot of the main character drinking water after he took the pill. This creates uncertainty towards the audience as they will be thinking that he took the wrong pill.

A mid shot of the main character opening another pill bottle to take some more.

It then pans down to the bin on the floor, it has images inside of it of his true love.

Which represents that he does not care about her.

A close up of a different colour clock to the one in the beginning of the film. The colour black is representing darkness and failure.

A paragraph at the end from a famous guy. This paragraph links to the whole film.

Closing credits look cool as they are in the middle of the clock.