Charlie Rushworth- Short film analysis

Short film analysis- SPIN

The film is available for download here.

And the creator of SPIN, Jamin Winan, has his own wesite here.

SPIN is a short film about a man dressed in black with a set of portable turntables. The film starts with an establishing shot then shows him falling to the ground in a dark alley as if from the sky, accompanied by a loud heavy beat intended to startle the viewer. He lands in a round patch of light, his turntables in their cases falling to the ground around him. The alley is portrayed as a very isolated place, with 'real life' shown in the distance by way of cars passing by.

He stands and walks out of the alley, a longshot showing him walking away, then a close up showing just his feet and ankles. You then see an over the shoulder shot of a car accident. Throughout this sequence there is a continued heavy beat counterpointed with a light high-hat rhythm, almost portraying the seriousness of the situation before him and counterpointed by his light-hearted mood. The next shot shows him walking towards the accident from the front in a medium long shot and stopping, putting the cases on the ground. It then shows a series of extreme close ups as the man in black sets up the turntables on the ground. The sound of the mechanisms in the turntables being assembled merges with the backbeat and, although seemingly unintentional, works well as part of the music. The next shot is then a close up of his face, cutting quickly to a longshot of him and the turntables.

From here, the shots regularly alter between close ups or extreme close ups of the man in black using the turntables and longshots of the accident. The next shot shows the man in black stopping the disc on his turntable from spinning. As he does, it cuts to the scene of the accident, which is edited and paused, with the initial view of the accident in monochrome being adjusted for colour and brightness. It then shows the man in black spinning the disc backwards. As he does, the previous shots of the accident have been edited in in rewind. It continually cuts between the man in black turning the disc and the accident rewinding, with the scene speeding up as the disc is turned faster. The scene shows the accident in rewind and returns everything to how it was before the accident. The man in black is then shown setting the disc spinning forward again, in a series of close ups. As the disc spins forward again the accident plays out again, showing the reactions of the various people at the scene in medium long shot.

The scene is rewound and played again twice, each time with similar editing to the first rewind. The music here becomes much less intrusive than before, now with a soft brass percussions sound of a high-hat but punctuated with notably more powerful beats at the important parts of the sequence, for example, when the turntables stop, when the man on the bike hits the car windshield and when the ball almost hits the bike wheel. However, this is returned to a more realistic sequence of sounds after the first run through of the accident scene. The last time the scene is played, however, there is a long shot of a ball rolling towards the cyclist. The ball is rewound, and followed back to where it came from in a series of shots, showing that the ball had rolled out of a woman’s shopping as she dropped it. Again, there is a series of close ups of the man in black and eyeline matches as it shows the people he is looking at, the people who had the ball in the first place. The scene is played again, as the woman with the shopping drops it once more. More eyeline matches follow as the film cuts between a close up of the man in blacks face and the ball rolling along the ground. The film cuts from the rolling ball to an extreme close up of the man in black turning a knob on the turntable, then cuts back to the ball rolling as it changes direction, giving the impression that the ball was affected by the turntable. There is another close up of the man in black followed by a longshot of the ball rolling past the cyclist. There is then another close up of the man in black looking satisfied with what he has done followed by a quick montage of shots in extreme close up as the man in black packs the turntables away.

The film then shows a medium long shot of the man in black as he picks up the cases that contain the turntables and zooms in slightly then, in another eyeline match, cuts to a close up of the ball rolling. There is then a shot of an elderly man pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair, with a businessman walking behind them. It then cuts to show, in long shot, how the ball is rolling towards them. In close up, it cuts to the businessman’s feet tripping over the ball. It then cuts to a medium shot as the businessman falls onto the elderly man. He, in turn, falls and lets go of the wheelchair. The scene cuts briefly to the wheels of the chair spinning, then eyeline matches between the woman in the wheelchair and different people in the scene. In longshot, it shows the elderly woman in the wheelchair roll into the road, only to be run over by a pick up truck.

It then cuts to a close up of the man in black to show his reaction, followed by a medium shot as he ducks the flying parts of the wheelchair. Again, the series of shots showing the turntables being set up is shown, but this time, slightly quicker. The scene again is shown in rewind as the man in black turns back the disc, with an over the shoulder shot followed by a sequence of establishing eyeline matches as the man in black checks out all of the people on the scene, and again the scene is set into motion again and the balls path altered. The shots showing the turntables being packed away is shown again and, like the unpacking shots, is shown quicker.

The man in black is then shown again in medium shot. It then cuts to the ball rolling towards the feet of a breakdancer. In close up, he trips, and this singular trip sets off a whole chain of events, with the ball being shown flying through the air. The ball is shown, in medium close up, to hit a man on the back. The ball then bounces into the hands of a man stood with another, giving the first man the impression he has thrown the ball at him. The three men start to fight. The breakdancer rolls on the floor, clutching his ankle, as a woman with a dog stops talking to a man on a phone and runs towards breakdancer (long shot), leaving the man with the phone alone. The woman with the dog knocks into a druggie, whose needle flies through the air. It lands near the little girl, who picks it up. The little girl’s mother, the woman with the shopping, screams, causing the elderly mans hearing aid to malfunction and give him what seems to be a heart attack. The businessman catches the elderly man, only to be sprayed in the face with pepper spray by the elderly woman in the wheelchair, who thinks the businessman is mugging her husband due to the ketchup stains the businessman has mashed onto the elderly man’s chest. The businessman steps backwards and walks into one of the men who was fighting, who now has a gun in his hand, with the impact causing him to fire the gun into the air. From the eyeline match shown from the man in black looking skywards and the soundtrack in the background, it seems implied that the gunshot has brought down a helicopter. The majority of these shots are done in close up or medium shots.

The film cuts to a close up of the man in black, then another medium shot of him ducking to avoid the debris from an explosion. The shots showing the turntables being unpacked follows once more, even quicker this time, and again, the scene rewinds as it cuts between this and the man in black, mostly in close ups, shown frantically rewinding the turntables. Here the man in black is shown at a normal speed with a determined look upon his face, almost static whilst clouds are shown racing in the background. A series of shots follow showing each of the people at the scene, edited for them to spin around, with what appear to be pictures from the lives edited in behind them. After that, there is an extreme close up of the man in black’s eyes scanning the scene, then cuts to him setting the disc back into motion. The ball rolls and is followed by the camera as once again it changes direction.

With a quick cut back to the man in black, the film then cuts to a low angle shot of the elderly man, at whose feet the ball has stopped with the sky shown behind him. The sun is shining through the clouds in this shot, giving a warm and cosy feeling, implying hope and contentment spreading through the scene as the sunshine spreads through the scene. The shot shows him pick the ball up and start bouncing it, all in the same low angle shot. The film then shows the breakdancer in a longshot, with the ball bouncing down the middle of the shot in front of him. The ball stops bouncing as he starts to dance to its beat, which is jaunty, upbeat and happy. The film then has an eyeline match from the little girl, who sees the man breakdancing. The girl walks towards the breakdancer, walking between the three men who were fighting in the last scenario. They watch as the girl walks between them and avert their confrontation (girl walking always shown in longshot, once form above, men’s reactions shown in close up and medium close up).

It then cuts to a longshot as the cyclist swerves around one man and crashes into the businessman. The businessman’s food flies through the air (shown in a medium/medium close up shot) and with help from the turntables lands on a man on his own. The woman’s dog runs after the food and the woman runs after the dog (long shot). The dog and the man in black have an eyeline match with the flying food to establish the dog’s interest and the man in black’s control. The two (the man and the woman) get talking as the man in black turns a knob, almost as if he’s turning up the mood of interest between them. This is all shown interspersed with eyeline matches from the man in black as he approves the new line of action that is taking place.

The shot moves to long shot of the elderly man still playing with the ball, the breakdancer in the background, and the elderly woman in the wheelchair. There is then a point of view shot from the elderly woman, looking over the elderly mans shoulder towards the sky. The shot changes to an extreme close up of the man in black pushing a slider on the turntables as though improving her health, then cuts back to the elderly woman in a medium long shot as she stands. In long shot the elderly man helps her up and in medium close up they start to dance. It then cuts to the druggie, with an eyeline match between him and all of the other people in the scenario. It cuts back to him in a medium shot, with a cut to an over the shoulder shot of him leafing through his money, to a medium close up of him followed by a close up of him putting all of his money in the breakdancer’s pot. Throughout the scenario, it cuts back regularly to the man in black, all in close up. At the end of the scene, it shows him once more in close up, followed by the packing up the turntables montage.

In longshot, it shows him walk away from the scene, all the people in the background. It cuts to the woman with the shopping and the little girl, cutting to a close up of the little girl throwing her doll into the air and dropping it, with a close up of it breaking on the ground. There is then a medium close up of the man in black from behind as he turns around. It cuts back to the doll broken on the ground, to the little girls face, to the man in black, and back to the girl (all close ups). It then cuts to a medium close up of the man in black, then a close up of the girl, back to medium close up of the man in black to a close up of the man in black. He is then shown in a medium shot starting to walk away from the scene before the unpacking the turntables shots are shown. The doll in shown in rewind fixing and landing in the girls arms then followed by the packing set of shots, all within the space of a couple of seconds. The film ends with a shot from ground level of the man in black running away.

This short film uses very little in the way of editing the shots together, with the majority simply cut together and with a very rare pan here and there. Eyeline matches seem to be overused but it is necessary to give meaning to the actions of the film without having to explain through dialogue, and gives the film a certain charm and quality that makes you feel involved in the scene. As far as editing goes, I particularly enjoyed how the speed with which the turntables were packed and unpacked increased with each showing, almost illustrating the man of black losing his patience each time he had to correct something again.

The lighting throughout all seems to be naturally lit, asides from at the very beginning of the film when the alley is lit with a circle of light. The film also plays with lighting cleverly near the beginning, as when the man in black turns a knob on his turntable the scene brightens and changes from monochrome to colour, though this is a product of editing rather than lighting at the location.

I myself found the storyline to be very engaging as, although no names are given for any of the characters in the film, you find yourself forming an opinion on them based on their personality, which for each character is shown brilliantly despite the lack of verbal sound. However, the fact that no character names are given makes it difficult for me to analyse the film, having had to give each character their own reference i.e. man in black.

The titles are very quick and cutting, in keeping with the overall feel of the film, kicking it off with a brief show of the company behind the film and the film's name. The credits are similar, sharp and snappy, each set of names briefly shown before being torn from the screen quickly. Generally, they follow the whole pace and mood of the rest of the film. I especially like the way that although the opening titles are indeed short, they set the pace for the rest of the film, a fact that may evade most people until they watch it again.

Overall, the almost 'mouse-trap' like individual scenarios where one thing leads to another, each time growing longer and more complex, makes this short film a thrill to watch and, despite the apparent simplicity in the shots and edits, achieves something that many short films fail with the greatest and most complicated of edits.