Textual Analysis of The Elevator

Directed By: Greg Glienna

Narrative: This is a comedy themed short film where a man is in a lift and is slowly joined in it with lots of over weight people. He notices the sign saying the lift can’t carry more than 200lbs. So he calculates the weight of all the people in the lift and panics that it might break. He gets off, when he sees a very over weight man approaching the lift and goes into the other one, which to his relief is full of normal sized people. However, it turns out he just got into a lift full of people who all need treatment for swine flu and realises there is a good chance he’s got it too. This is a story where basically, everything goes wrong for this guy!

Enigma Codes: Can the lift keep everyone on it?
Will he end up with swine flu?

Character Establishment: The character is established as an average guy, on his way to an appointment maybe. He is unnamed and is in his mid 20s. He is joined by maybe older characters, who all have one thing in common; their weight.
He then comes across average looking people, who all turn out to have swine flu! By his facial expressions he seems worried about a lot of things, such as the lift breaking due to the weight it’s carrying.

Locations: It’s all set in this one lift and it might be within a large building. The location doesn’t really give away much, just that it might be medical related due to the swine flu treatment bit and the large number of overweight people who may be seeking health advice!

Editing: All mainly cuts with close ups on all the characters, as it’s meant to be a confined space, so long shots aren’t exactly possible. The only long shot is when the character sees a very large man making his way to the already full lift!

Sound: There is no dialogue in this film, just the typical music of the elevator in the background and the coughing from the swine flu victims. This film is mainly done through the facial expressions and acting rather than the sound giving it more meaning.

Titles: very basic titles again, which seems to be common in most of the short films I’ve watch. White colour, plain font on a black background.