Textual Analysis (Losses)

Losses is a short film by Ryan Connolly, produced by Triune Films released in 2011 which is free to watch on Youtube.

The purpose of this film, according to the video description, is to be “an exercise in how professional a project can be with as little resources as possible”. It was shot for less than $200 and with only volunteers helping out.

This is the reason why I feel that it would be useful to analyse Losses, as our group will take a very similar approach at making our film: Hardly any budget and no professional crew or actors.

The target audience for this film consists of two types of people:

Firstly, those who have subscribed to Ryan’s Youtube channel which is dedicated to indy film making.

Secondly, people who are generally interested in short films and/or action films.

Whilst it is rather easy to get his subscribers to watch the movie by promoting it in his other videos, Ryan had to utilise generic conventions of short films as well as of the action genre to attract the latter type of audience.

As an example, the protagonist is shown to be in jeopardy, as he fights his way to the antagonist’s office.

This in combination with a race against the time, the heavy use of weapons and the odds being stacked against the hero creates a very common theme of action films, both short and feature length.

However, the film also utilises conventions of short films. For instance, there are only two central characters, the pro- and the antagonist. This allows the audience to relate to the characters in the small amount of time.

The two central characters

The way the narrative is structured is also very conventional for short films:

Following a linear structure, it changes from the original equilibrium to the first disequilibrium as the protagonist defeats the first henchman.

This is followed by fight and action scenes typical for the action genre, until a second equilibrium is restored as the protagonist enters the boss’ office.

However, the second equilibrium is then disrupted by the twist, as the protagonist kills the antagonist.

The film concludes with somewhat of a resolution, with the protagonist leaving the building, seemingly unharmed.

The film does however leave many unanswered questions and unresolved enigmas, e.g. the question after the identities of both the pro-and the antagonist.

What is noticeable about this short film is that it is shot and edited very professionally.

The camerawork is very conventional for action films, showing that the maker of the film knows the genre well and/or did a lot of research into it.

Take for example the framing of shots, which is done in a very thought-through manner: Tight shots are used in close combat as well as dialogue scenes, whereas wider shots are used for example during walking and shoot-out sequences.

Tight shots

Wide and Medium shots

The camera angles are also very noticeable. For instance, high angle shots are used to connote which character is in power in a scene. This can be seen in the opening scene where the protagonist is seated and the boss, standing up, literally talks down to him.

Low angle shot connoting that the boss is in power

Another example is the scene in which the body builder walks down the stairs preparing to fight the protagonist. Here, a low angle shot is used, connoting that the antagonist of this scene is in fact the superior fighter, putting the protagonist in great danger as he has to overcome this challange before finally facing the boss.

Low angle shot connoting the superiority of the antagonist

The editing is continuous which adds to the movie experience and once again shows off the professionalism of the studio behind the film. Continuous editing is something that we will try very hard to achieve as it makes a movie look so much better whilst being inexpensive. Furthermore, the pace and rhythm of the editing changes throughout the film: Fast paced during action scenes and slower paced during dialogue sequences.

The sound in this film is very effective. The diegetic sound effects of the guns, fist fights as well as dialogue sound very professional – it is apparent that Ryan knows very well how to record sound (dialogue) and create foley effects (gun and fight sound).
The non-diegetic background music (which Ryan created himself, as he explains in a different video) also sounds very professional and, through it's pitch and rythm, conveys to the audience that the protagonist is in great jeopardy. This is a typical way of using music in films and Losses does exactly that.
We will definitively put some time into planning and making our soundtrack as we see this as a defining part of the film, not only shown by the example of Losses but also by last year's project, where we put a lot of time into creating the soundtrack and were afterwards often praised for it by our audience.

The mise-en-scene in Losses is, due to budget constraints, rather simple: It was shot on the grounds of a college.
However, because of well thought through lighting as well as camera positoning (to hide certain things that would instantly give the location away as a college), it looks spectacular.

The thought through lighting hides well the fact
that this has been shot in a college.

Talking of lighting, the film has a dark theme, which is reinforced by very fitting lighting.
Lighting probably is the most difficult part of mise-en-scene to perfectionate. However we will take Losses as a good example for how to get the light right, as well as looking at online tutorials.

Ryan and his team also managed to save a lot of money concerning the other parts of mise-en-scene:
The costumes are simple, but effective: All the characters wear generic clothes. The make-up is similarily basic.
The props are limited to guns, handcuffs and a needle – once again, very simple, however the narrative does not require any further props.

Not a huge range of props

In terms of acting, Ryan got his family and friends to be in his movie. Again, this is something we will do for our project as well, as professional actors are out of question due to our low budget.

In conclusion it can be said that Ryan and his crew reached their target of making a professional looking film with a low budget. Many of the techniques they used, such as exciting camera angles and continuous editing are techniques that we can use for our own movie, and Losses is a good source of inspiration for this.
Many of these techniques are also explained on Ryan's Youtube channel called Film Riot, which we will be looking at for tutorials.

Watch Losses here.