LOVEFIELD ANALYSIS


LoveField is a short film created by Mathieu Ratthe. The genre of the film throughout seems like a stereotypical horror having all the generic elements needed which is totally convincing for us the viewers to watch, however the creator has intelligently but a twist at the very end having the suspected murderer become the hero totally switching the new resolution and equilibrium. The narrative of the film throughout seems to be open however having the shock ending it falls into a closed narrative.

The diegetic world of LoveField seems to be somewhere in the American outback being very derelict and lonely therefore the editor had encoded meaning for the audience to feel alienated and uneasy. The character of a farmer is the main actor throughout having the usual stereotype of a rough beard, cap and denim dungarees this is a typical stock character and has been used in other full length horrors such as texas chain saw massacre.

Begining with a long lasting establishing shot of vast corn fields and mountins the camera slowly pans downwards from the skyline and into the ground of the dense corn fields adding supsension and awareness to see something hidden within. Having no chorus (narrater) a meduim shot of a sign cleverly reveals to the audience where the diegetic world is set folowing this a close up of a black crow signifies and connotes to the audeince their may be dead people in the cornfields. Later on a series of insert shots are carried out within just one take including a mobile phone, some underwear and a womens foot this having a preferred meaning on the audience that a murder of rape has taken place. A gradual pan upwards revaling the man also helps the verismilitude that he is the anitial killer of the women. Entering the final minutes of the film an important low angle shot of the man has him towering over what we asume to be a dead body with a towel, the next shot being a two shot suprisngly revealing the man holding a new born.

Non diegetic sound is evident with earay and stereotypical horror music playing through most of the film, along with this diegetic sounds are placed overlapping the sound track of a sign post creaking, this is encoded by the producer to arouse our imagination and to make it seem like a door slowly opening. Other noises such as a phone ringing, and a women's voice sounding in distress all having meaning for us to decode as generic horror traits as well. Lighting throughout the film is fairly moderate and natural looking, its only wen the man is seen stood up the lighting adjusts and shows more shadows contrasting with brightness, this is done to connote something isn't right and to reflect the mans personality or urgency.

Editing techniques are relevant for this film, in this instance, pace. The pace of the editing is noticeably slow through the first half of the film, this is changed when action is involved the pace of the film dramatically speeds up showing short snippets and various angles of the man running. Fade in and fade outs are used for when the title comes up this is suttle and helps juxtapose with the atomspheric music, later another valuable technique is used this time an eye line match. The eye line match is used showing the mans eyes focused on a particular object over his boot the following shot gives us the crow looking back, this suceeds in invloving the audience into the looking through the mans eyes. Lastly the editor weirdly uses a shot revearse shot structure of the farmer and the crow having the bird halk at him aggressively this is unsual to see as is normally used with just human converstaions back and forth.