Analysis - Black Swell

Black Swell-
'A man (Richard Kind) tries to kill himself in a motel room- a thought provoking short drama with an emotive kicker. '

A Yacht Club Production

The opening scene shows a low angle long shot of some waves. They use a really dark blue filter to make it appear dark. This is to foreshadow something dark is going to happen. The next shot is a high angle medium shot looking pretty miserable in a hotel room. It then swaps to a low angle medium shot of a man opening a wash bag to then grabbing a gun out of it. This straight away acts as an action code that the actor is going to kill himself. It then goes to a over the shoulder high angle shot of him loading the gun with one bullet. He then lies down on the bed with the gun. We then become the guy with a worms eye view POV of the ceiling. It then shows a birds eye view whilst panning and zooming in which is confusing giving the viewer an uncomfortable feeling about the situation. Loud diegetic music interrupts the man. The eye line match shows where he is looking showing us where the music is coming from.

A low angle medium shot shows the guy banging on the door to see what the disruption is. A 1-2 over the shoulder shots shows diegetic conversation between the characters then showing that the characters recognise each other. Both characters go back to the same room. 1-2 shots show that the older guy doesn't want the guy there as he doesn't want him there. The room is recognisably dark which adds to the atmosphere. This scene goes on to show the younger character wanting to talk. Us finding out that the younger character has broken up with his wife and has no friends.

This scene concludes with the older guy shouting 'GET THE FUCK OUT!' at the younger guy. This leads to him leaving back to his room. He continues to play the loud music. We then hear a very loud diegetic gun shot. The older character looks shocked and concerned and a close up shows him looking outside his door to see what the sound was. A tracking shot which zooms out then shows the man looking forlorn at the sight of a dead body. We dont see the dead body but this leaves the viewer with a imagination and also saving money.

In conclusion, the film has a dark lighting situation with an orange glow. The orange glow is connoted with a drama. It is also in some way working with a religious connotation with death as the orange glow is connected with the idea that you follow the light at the end of the tunnel.