Drama Project - 'Roshambo' by Free People

The night before receiving the brief I had been browsing Vimeo, I came across this short film named Roshambo by a company called Free People. The film works through the ideas of star crossed lovers, with a couple reuniting over some times on a Brooklyn street, starting out as a cup of coffee and a conversation turns into an unexpected romance, this develops throughout the narrative, then the male character has to leave, with the ending leaving the audience shocked, thinking whether he left or stayed.

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What drew me most to this film was how powerful it was in just 3 minutes, it left me wanting to know the ending. I also like the style of the film. The cinematography really stood out for me here, with the slow camera movement really added to the atmosphere, setting the tone, bringing out the beauty in the simplest of objects. There is a very shallow depth of field used (Image1), as you can see the director very clearly wants us to focus on the girl, this shot lingers for around 9 seconds, it moves slowly up her face and she blinks, which is in slow motion. This shot is a direct attempt to get the audience to connect with the female, allowing the audience to focus on her beauty, maybe think about what she is feeling for this man. I feel the shallow depth of field has been used for stylistic purposes, the director has very obviously stated/made a clear decision about 'this is how we're filming it'. I love the style used and being the cinematographer for my group I will discuss the style we will take when we shoot.

To the right (Image2) is one of my favourite shots in the whole film, I feel it perfectly shows the theme for the film; love. This is part of a sequence in the short film were the director makes it clear to the audience that these two people are now in a intimate relationship. Lighting is key to this scene, there are times were the the lighting is very soft, connotations of this in context of the film are tenderness and the act of falling in love. This screen shot is were the two character kiss, the camera moves down slowly to reveal a strong sun glaring into the camera, this shows the strength of the bond the two characters have, making there relationship the focus and strengthening the connection with the audience. strength

Along with the soft sounds of Lord Hurons - 'Ghost On The Shore' adds to the atmosphere of the piece, with the only real audio apart from this being the characters vocals. At the end, there is a scene were the couple are both stood next to a taxi were the male character questions whether he should be leaving. The audio here is just vehicles moving around and them talking. This is a almost silent scene even with audios, which is a strange idea, it leaves the viewer on edge.

This piece for me is incredibly inspiring, the beauty of the cinematography, performance and sound are spun together in a way that makes you connect with the character in pretty much under a minute. This powerful piece will definitely influence my style when filming  my piece.