Strangers

This short film starts off in a dark train station platform as the train zooms past, showing to the audience that the short film is based in a train, there is also a non-diegetic sound of drums to show to the audience that this is film is based in somewhat of a tradition. The camera then shows a mid shot of a man walking into the train door as the train arrives, he is a normal guy wearing sports clothes and a gym bag(possibly coming from the gym). He then proceeds to sit down, and then he glimpse towards the guy sitting opposite him giving him an awkward look, this somewhat creates an awkward tension between these two characters, the camera then tracks the train as it slowly passes past.

The guy sitting opposite him is wearing smart casual clothes and reading a newspaper, it clearly shows Muslim extremist on the front page suggesting to the audience that he himself is also a Muslim (not an extremist). The other character starts playing with his necklace of the Jewish star, to show the other guy that he is Jewish, there is a close-up of the other guys face as he realises the Jewish star, this shows his reaction towards it and clearly shows that there is a small tension building up.
The drums starts to thump play loudly as we see 4 men walking down the train (they are a racist group, this can be recognised by their skinhead and tattoos), this suggests to us some sort of trouble is going to be caused. They proceed to sit down, as it shows an over the shoulder shot of them spraying graffiti onto the the guy's newspaper.

As the tension slowly rises by the loudness of the drums and whispering, we see each of the character's close-up face reaction as they are looking at each other with confusion, however the skinheads have a very angry evil look towards the Muslim guy, not acknowledging the fact that there is also a Jewish guy sitting opposite him. As the train stops at a platform, the Jewish guy proceeds to leave until his phone starts ringing a Jewish theme song, this automatically breaks the tension towards the Muslim guy as the skinheads turn towards the Jewish guy, we see mid-shots of all the characters turning towards the Jewish guy as he hesitates to find the phone in his gym bag. We see a close-up of the skinheads face as they are all angry and starts to stare at both religious characters. We then hear two loud non-diegetic drums as the two religious guy nodding at each other, this shows us a sense of teamwork and unity as they both proceed to run for the exit as the doors start to almost close. The unity is shown when we hear a non-diegetic sound of traditional middle eastern drums to show us that they are both from the same country. They quickly rush down the train as the pace of the drums builds up alongside the the quick cuts, this raises the excitement within the audience.

The non-diegetic music stops as soon as they escape and the door shuts on the skinheads, showing that the two characters are safe. As the train leaves, they are now both in the opposite side of the platform facing each other, they then swap the bags. They both nod at each other and leave.

Again this short film is conventional, as it has minimum dialogue, this short film speaks alot about the issues relating to the trouble in the middle east, such as the conflict between Jewish and Muslim religion. In a situation like this, it shows that the two religion can work together in a team. The film is based in a underground train station, as the diegetic sound of the train is loud and aggressive this raises the tension and awkwardness within the audience. The sound used in the film is non-diegetic, using a constant humming noise which again raises the tension and awkwardness within the film.

By Shayez