Short film analysis essay

The Tea Chronicles

The Tea Chronicles is a short film written by Charlie McDonnell and Khyan Mansley. It tells the story of Charlie and Chris' new house mate, who appears to have an unhealthy obsession with making cups of tea for Charlie. His strangeness continues when he lurks eerily around the house and comes into Charlie's room when he's still asleep. Furthermore, His tea is made badly and appears to be giving Charlie nightmares and poisoning him. At the end of the film, it is discovered that he was accidentally using bad sugar to make the tea, which is what was poisoning Charlie and giving him the nightmares.

During the film there are lots of high and low angle shots. These are used to show the control and power that Khyan seems to have over Charlie as he is the one poisoning Charlie, and so they want the audience to believe that he is a bad character. There are also lots of point of view angles. These are used to show the madness and insanity taking over Charlie the more he drinks tea. The shot of the mug from Charlie's point of view shows that time has passed much more quickly than Charlie realises as he has only just been given the mug but we can now see that it is empty. The point of view angle at the end when Chris, Khyan and Jenny are crowding around him is used to represent his decline in health as it is a shot usually seen in films from the angle of a hospital bed when somebody has been in an accident. Over the shoulder shots are often used in conversations between Charlie and Khyan as it helps to emphasise the creepiness of Khyan's eerie lurking around the house. Throughout the film there are lots of close ups on Charlie's face. This is so that we can see how confused and scared he is of Khyan and his constant tea making. It also shows the process of Charlie becoming unhealthy as he begins to look more and more drowsy and appears to be very ill. Towards the end of the film there is a shallow focus shot of Charlie sat talking to himself and his friends worried about him in the background, used to show that he is not normally like this and that it is very out of character.

The Tea Chronicles uses fades throughout the film. This it to show time passing and to make the film appear more relaxed and calm. It also reflects how Charlie is feeling towards the end when he is drowsy from being troubled by nightmares and feeling ill from drinking so much unhealthy tea. The fades from tired Charlie to tired Charlie make the audience relate to the character as they too feel relaxed and drowsy because of what they are watching. Using a green screen to create the nightmare where Charlie is dressed as a tea bag was a very good idea as it makes it look more realistic than trying to create a model of Charlie small enough to fit in his mouth. In the scene where his friends are stood looking worried, there is a focus pull. This is used to show that he has distanced himself from them through being poisoned and is not longer a whole human being. Editing is used in Charlie's nightmares to make them seem further away from reality. It shows montages of tea and boiling kettles to help portray to the audience that the tea is haunting Charlie's nightmares.

The short uses dark colours to reflect the darkness of the film and the psychological nightmare that Charlie is going through. The set used is a real house rather than a set built for the film, as it helps to make the film more realistic and increases the verisimilitude between itself and real life. The film uses low key lighting as it helps to create the dark and eerie atmosphere that is expressed throughout the film. Other than the large amount of cups, most of the props were things that already belonged in the house, as again it helped to keep it close to real life. The clothes worn by the cast were kept as simple and generic as possible in order to try and make the film more about the storyline and the acting than what the actors where wearing in it.

The film's dialogue is often quite quiet as it helps to keep in with the mood of eeriness and makes the actors look suspicious and mysterious. The film keeps a running theme of patriotic music, often being listened to by the characters as it fits well with the theme of tea and makes people think of stereotypical British people drinking endless cups of tea, just like Charlie being forced into drinking endless cups of tea. The film also uses lots of diegetic sounds, like typing and things being moved on surfaces. As well as the patriotic music, there is also a large amount of tension music throughout the film. This is used to build up towards a climax in the scene and to remind the audience that something is going to go wrong.

The opening titles are not very long. After the first scene in the film, the words “The Tea Chronicles” come up on screen for a few seconds, along with a short few seconds of accompanying music. This is a good opening title as it does not last too long and take up a large amount of time but still makes an impact on the audience and reminds them what they are watching. The ending credits are much longer. They have patriotic music playing along with them to fit with the theme of music played throughout the film. They have the writers and directors name, the cast, the director of photography, producer, original music composer, editor, sound recordist, visual effects coordinator, costume designer, production designer, camera assistants, production assistants, credit to the unoriginal music used, a special thanks section and links to the behind the scenes video and an introduction video, explaining why the film was made in the first place. Although these are all useful things to have in a film, I will not have all of these in my ending credits as our film will have a much smaller production film and will be filmed, acted by and edited by predominantly the four people within our group.