Tune for Two - Short Film Research - Megan

Tune for Two (2011)

Primodrom

Vimeo

A man kneels by his freshly dug grave with a gun pointing at the back of his head and sings a song designed for two. I chose to write about this film because I thought the narrative was really interesting and I liked the element of humour. 

Representation

• The only social group relevant appears to be middle aged males. The class of the two individuals is not obvious to us, as their costumes are quite similar and we do not hear dialogue from either of them. (1)
• Genre/style - comedy/thriller
• The comedy element to this film changes our view of the murderer as we see him possibly having second thoughts about going through with the murder, and see a more 'human' side to him. (2)
• The thriller aspect comes from the tension created by the comedy, and the codes and conventions that we associated with this genre, such as the murder weapon, the desolate setting and the point of view shots at the start.
• I think that both characters are represented in positive ways, despite one of them being a murderer. The song allows a humourous element in the film and enables the audience to see both characters in a positive way, and almost makes you forget about the fact that one is about to kill the other.
• I think that there is slight stereotyping with the costume of the murderer, in that he is wearing a coat and gloves and is overall quite casual, but I do not think that he is a hugely stereotypical character as his actions throughout the film are not really stereotypically what we would expect of a murderer. 
• The film deals with the issue of murder but combines humour, which makes the narrative more intriguing. The audience is positioned to empathise with the man being murdered, but are also allowed to see a more personable side of the murderer.

Narrative

• As an audience, we are shown about as little of the story as possible. All we know is that the victim has been dragged to this location, presumably pretty much unconscious  and then sings a song before he is killed. We are given no indication of why this has happened, or what will happen after.
• As far as chronology goes, we are shown the sequence in order. We see the grave being dug through the victim's eyes, though we do not immediately understand what is going on. (3)
• I feel this film only truly links to Roland Barthes theory of action and enigma codes. I think these codes, such as the gun(4), the desolate setting(5) and the mise on scene elements, help explain the situation to the viewer, as otherwise the comedy element would not work and would make the film incredibly confusing for the viewer.
• The theory of binary opposites also works to an extent here, as it's a sort of good vs. evil, except we see a 'good' side to the 'evil' character(6), so our perception of evil is distorted somewhat.
• The beginning of the film is not the beginning of the story, which means that as an audience we almost seem to come in half way through, which is somewhat confusing at first. I think this has been done so that the audience can appreciate the comedy without having to empathise too much with either character as we do not know about what has happened previously.

Genre

• I think the thriller genre and the comedy genre are both present in this film, as there are codes and conventions of both in the film. As if often the case with short film, this is a hybrid genre film.
• Steve Neal's theory about difference in repetition is key to this short film, as the comedy genre is not often mixed with thriller, but works here because the most common elements of repetition allow the audience to feel as if they know what is going to happen, but are then surprised.
• Codes and conventions of thriller are key to the build up of this film, and without them the humour would not work as the audience would be so surprised by the singing, and it would not work as a hybrid genre film.

Audience

• I think the audience for this film is 20-25 year old males, possibly slightly younger, as they are more interested in thriller films and Vimeo is a website which is mainly designed for a younger audience. I also think that the comedy aspect would appeal to this demographic as well, and the twist to the narrative would be refreshing.
• I think this film would really appeal to this audience as the comedy twist is really unique and different, and is not what we are positioned to expect.
• I cannot find any evidence of other screenings of this film, or evidence of any awards which it has won.
• The production company is Swedish, but again limited information is available about it, which I would assume means that the company is quite small, and this was possibly quite a low budget film.

Media Language