SHORT FILM ANALYSIS

The Moped Diaries.This short lasts 11 minutes and was released in 2014 (USA). The directors are Tyler Nilson and Nick Vitale. It falls under the categories of ‘Comedy’ and ‘Family’ (according to IMDB) and is rated 8/10 stars. The short is about a boy named Levi growing up on an island off the coast of North Carolina. When a new bridge is built connecting his island to the mainland he has to come to grips with the change and opportunities that come along with it. Love of home, love of a partner, and love of family all seem to be falling apart and slowly pushing him towards the inevitable, crossing that bridge himself to see what lies beyond the horizon.I chose this film because I liked the storyline, it was original and seemed personal and the style of the film (the way the shots were used and the effects).

THE MOPED DIARIES

The production is shown at the start of the short film. ‘Lucky Treehouse’ is a San Francisco and Los Angeles based collective of filmmakers and artists working together to make films, commercials, and television content inspired by the stories of youth, the unknown on the road ahead, and the feeling

of summer days, rope swings, experience & adventure. With over 30 years of collective experience in storytelling, from concept through production and post, Lucky Treehouse is a full service team available to create narrative and non-fiction work for agencies, studios, and client direct. The productions logo then fades into the black so the audience are left with just a black screen, but only for a few seconds. In the background the audience can hear the sound of what sounds like a ukulele and waves crashing but it is hard to identify.

The film then uses another editing feature from transitioning the black screen into the footage of this man. The footage of the man fades through the black. Using this could connote him fading or getting through his dark times/thoughts of some kind or he has found the light to do something new and this may be part of the plot/storyline. The same background sounds are being played which shows that there is no change in his life, it’s still the same, even though the music is very distant and faint, it sounds neither uplifting nor depressing. This gives the audience more thoughts on the mood of the film and if it’s going to be good things or bad things that happen. After a couple of seconds we hear this characters dialogue but we do not actually see him talking (so its non-diegetic). He starts to talk about an ‘old country song that says Love can build a bridge how beautiful is that? But let me tell you there is a flip side to that corner cause a bridge built at the wrong place and at the wrong time can tear love apart.’ With this said, the audience can now get a sense of what the film may in toll, whether that be a love between another person or a family member. I think that this leaves a little mystery to the film which can be intriguing because now the audience want to see what he is talking about.

The next scene is cut to very quickly and starts with a notebook being slammed onto this large map. The large map in the background suggests the geographical side of things may be introduced throughout the film and this may be heading

towards boredom for some people. The fact that this notepad looks scruffy and worn out could suggest a number of things but I thought that it represents his life and that it has been a long, tiring journey and he has been through allot. Also, the notebook has no bright colours on the cover, they are dark, bold colours, therefore the yellow makes the notepad stand out. Furthermore, his non deigetic dialogue is still going on, he says ‘this is my story’so now the audience know that the film was consist around this characters ‘life’and this notebook has all of his life events or basically the story of his life as its contents.