Hall Fight
About
Genre: Action
Duration: 3:00
Production Company: Film Riot
Producer: Ryan Connolly
Director: Ryan Connolly
Plot Summary
This extremely short 3 minute short film looks to show the journey of a young women that is trying to escape the hall way through the 'east exit'. Several guards are after her with batons, however the audience are immediately aware of the fighting skills that she possesses. One guard (who comes across as an amateur and frightened) is instructed to not let her past him. He watches her kick ass on one of the guards that attempts to stop her before she reaches this final guard. As she walks up to him at the final section of the film, he simply holds the exit door open for her to allow her to walk out, to which she looks at him with a confused expression and then continues out of the door and into a helicopter that is waiting for her.
Conventions
This short film starts off with one simple shot of the security office to set up the tone for the whole of the production. The producer included the flashing red colour in the background to signify warning or trouble (which is continued out through the whole film) as well as a sense of comedy in the way that the amatuer guard plays out the scene. The guard uniform further conveys the message that she is the intruder and doesn't belong here, all without the need for dialogue. Grunting and yelling is used instead during the main fight scenes to show that the battles are intense and ferocious. The girl character is seen wearing leather clothing signifying that she means business and is trained. Her opponents are too trained allowing this to play out during the film without the interruption of loads of cuts or shaky footage. Instead smooth tracking shots can be used to simply track their movement and get closer to the action.
When filming, there was a great amount of energy with the camera movement, at the beginning in particular, which often tracks the guard and his expressions. This beginning scene actually sets up for the end scene in which he begins to wish that he didn't turn up to work that day. In this last showdown that includes aspects of comedy and character, it seems as if the guard is experiencing this moment as supposed to be apart of the action. This is shown by several long shots where we can see the guard watching the girl fighting another guard, and at times not seeing it at all in which we instead just see his facial expressions. The music at this point in the clip plays a huge part as a massive amount of suspense is built up from it. The music abruptly stops when the guard opens the door for her to run outside.
The lighting in this short film is very low key, with some chiaroscuro lighting being used as well as the ongoing red flashes which contrasts against the darkness. Given that the last scene was shot at night, it created a natural feel to the airport with no artificial lighting being used or post-production editing to brighten it up. The tracking shot of the girl was captured perfectly, to which she runs over to the helicopter. Manuel movement was added to this final shot added a sense of urgency for escaping.