THE BLACK HOLE Analysis
THE BLACK HOLE, Philip Sansom, 2013
The short film the black hole explores the concept of what somebody may do if they had the ability to reach through solid surfaces. An office worker is given this power when he prints a large black spot onto a piece of paper, realising the ability of the black spot when he accidentally puts his drink down on it and it falls through into nothingness. The man realises he can reach into a vending machine, taking food from the machine. The man quickly realises the potential of his ability and becomes greedy, using the black hole to break into an office and to take money from the safe there. However the man's greed does not pay off as he falls into the black hole while reaching into the safe, getting trapped in there himself.
Media Language in THE BLACK HOLE:
In the beginning of THE BLACK HOLE, we can see a very brief title sequence, lasting no more than 5 seconds. The title sequence has a black screen with the text 'The Black Hole' over it, the black on the screen wipes in a circular shape growing from the center of the screen leaving the title in the center to dissolve out of the frame. The next shot we see is fairly complex, it pans and zooms towards the main character at the same time while pulling the focus onto him at the same time. As this happens the man looks very bored and despondent, the costume that he's wearing is a white shirt and messy tie which makes him look like he doesn't really care about his job or what he's currently doing and that he'd rather not be there. The lighting in the whole sequence is fairly drab and dark, emphasising the man's facial expressions. We can see that we are in an office setting through the mise en scene of just this shot, there is a clock on the wall, a printer, computers on desks, and grey walls. The man's costume as mentioned earlier also shows this to be an office setting. Next, we see an OTS shot of him pressing a button on the printer in front of him, the sequence then cuts to a medium profile shot of him as he has a confused expression on his face. We then quickly cut back to a shot of him repeatedly pressing the button, and then to a close-up of him kicking the printer in an attempt to get it to work. This brief increase in pace in the sequence shows the character's frustration as he attempts to get the printer to work. We then cut to a bird's eye view shot of the black spot coming out of the printer, the pace of the sequence still remaining high. Next, we see a close up shot of the main character looking at the black spot in confusion, not knowing what it is or what it could be used for.
One of the key shots in this short film is a worm's eye view shot taken from the position of inside the black hole while it's on the side of the printer, this shot provides a small amount of foreshadowing as to what is going to happen in the rest of the film. This shot is followed by a medium shot of the man lazily placing his cup down onto the black spot, and it subsequently falling straight through. This scene is where the man discovers the power of the black hole that he now has. We also see a close up shot of the man's hand as he hesitates to put it into the black spot, the spot making on screen diegetic sound whenever he has his hand near it. The next shot we see is a MCU of the man as he puts his hand into the hole, still testing it's limits. The man has an excitable facial expression and his body language being slightly shaky is also indicative of excitement. Within the same shot, we see the man's eyes meet something which is out of frame, an eye line match is used and the camera is then focused on the vending machine which he was looking at.
We next see a slow zoom towards the vending machine as the man approaches it with the black hole in his hands, the shot zooms from a medium shot to a medium-close up. The next shot we see is a close-up of the man reaching into the vending machine through the black hole as he places it onto the glass, he pulls out a chocolate bar with a look of shock on his face at the sudden realisation of what he can do.
The next key shot we see is a slow zoom towards a door with the words 'Keep Out' on a sign just below a small blurred glass window. A similar zoom shot was used when the man was planning to reach into the vending machine, so in using this the director has shown us what his intentions are without telling us directly. We also see a close up of the man as he bites into the chocolate bar while looking at this door, he has a greedy expression on his face. This indicates that he still wants more, and he has only just got a taste.
Next, we see a shot from the inside of the room behind the door the man was looking at, we see his silhouette through the blurred glass as he approaches it. We then see the man reach through the door through the use of a close-up of his hand, and then a shot from the other side of the door as he enters the room. The lights flicker as he walks in and his face is shrouded in darkness once he's inside of the room indicating that the man has bad intentions on coming into the room. We hear an off-screen diegetic sound of electric static as the lights flicker.
Once again we see a zoom shot of another object, this time, the camera zooms towards a safe that the man intends to take money from. We see a handheld medium shot as the man looks around for people before he reaches into the safe, even though he's in the office on his own, this shows the man's guilty conscience and that he knows he is being greedy and doing wrong. We see several cuts as the man takes more and more money out of the safe, with each shot the man is sweating more with anxiety.
The next important shot we see is a close-up of the man placing his upper body into the safe and pushing the rest of himself into it. During this shot, we also cut to a shot of a small piece of tape holding the black hole onto the front of the safe barely holding. As we see the man's back foot come through the hole the tape gives way and traps the man within the safe. The final few shots are a close up of the safe, a medium shot of the safe, and then a long shot of the safe. The cuts between these shots are timed with the sound of the printer printing sheets of paper. We also hear diegetic sound of the man hitting the safe door repeatedly.
Narrative in THE BLACK HOLE:
Bordwell and Thompson's theory of plot and story can be applied well to this short film. The plot of the story involves the man gaining the ability to use a black hole to his advantage. The man gained this ability after the printer spitting out a piece of paper with a big black spot on top of it. After realising the ability of the black spot the man then uses it to steal a chocolate bar from a vending machine, his greed increasing he attempts to steal money from a safe in the manager's office which he broke into using the black hole. When attempting to steal the money the man is punished for his greed by getting trapped in the safe. The plot of this story is fairly basic, following the concept of a man gaining power, becoming greedy with it, and then being punished for his greed.
There's a lot of information in this sequence which allows you to assume certain things about the story. One of these things is that we can see that the man doesn't enjoy his job, he looks very bored and despondent in the first scene before he finds the black hole. It is apparent that the man has been working here for a long time as his body language indicates that he is simply going through motions of things that he has done for many days before. This is also indicated by the excitement that the man shows when he discovers something's going to be different about his day when the black hole is introduced. We can also see a lot of old, worn equipment in the man's workplace, indicating that they don't care about their employee's conditions and that he is likely to be a very small cog in a very big machine.
Representation of class in THE BLACK HOLE:
When looking at representation in the black hole, there are two primary things that we can look at: the main character and his actions, and also the environment that the man is in. One of the first things we can see in the sequence is the man's clothing, he is wearing smart clothes but in a very shabby and lazy manner. His shirt and tie are both a mess, from this, we can gather that he doesn't want to be working here and that he cares very little about the job. Just from this we can gather that he is likely working class/lower-middle class, his job is likely to not be rewarding him and he doesn't enjoy it but he's trapped in it since he can't find another job.
The environment that the man is in also heavily indicates the class of the man since it's the environment that he is working in. Everything in the sequence is very dark and grey, with no significant colour at all. All of the technology in his workplace is old and worn, with old computers, and an old, dirty vending machine. This environment indicates that the kind of office job that he is working is in a place where the workers aren't treated well, which in turn indicates that he is of working class.
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