2. The short film begins with the main character, a teenager lying asleep in bed the door bell rings, so
he decides to go downstairs and see who it is. He opens the door to unveil a wrapped-box but no-
one insight apart from the post man across the street, he’s glances around but see’s no-
one. After opening the box, there is a stopwatch and a note next to it saying “use with care” , he
picks up the stop watch and starts to fiddle with it unknown of its power (the stopwatch is able to
fast forward, rewind and stop time).
He presses a button and everything freezes, insight a car freezes driving along the street he is
amazed by the stopwatch. So he decides to venture into the living room where his brother is sitting
down watching TV, he asks his brother what he is watching, there is a disagreement between the
two so he stops time and takes the remote. After resuming time he changes the channel and the
two start fighting, at this point we see the postman at the opposite side of the street, he too has a
watch in his hand as well as another box to be delivered. The post man stops time with his watch
and realises he has mistakenly delivered the wrong package to the lad.
The post man uses his stopwatch to rewind time and at this point the film rewinds to the start
point. Here the start is repeated as the lad walks downstairs to find a package, this time in the
package is a video game entitled (the name of the film) with the image of a postman on. The lad
stops and thinks. The camera then shows the postman delivering the correct package to another
house further down the street.
3. This idea begins with the shot of the post man delivering both post and parcels, he
already posses a stop watch and is able to stop time. As he steps off the kerb he sees an
oncoming car just meters away from him, he stops time and walks across the road safely
to deliver a package. At the next house he drops off a parcel in the shape of a box.
A lad answers the door and takes the parcel inside, it’s his 17th birthday and is expecting
a new video game that is uncle proposed to buy him for his birthday. He is
quite disappointed when he finds an old stopwatch. He begins to tamper with the
stopwatch and mis-abuses its power to play pranks on his brother, after fiddling with
the stopwatch it malfunctions and time is sent in reverse towards the past, 3 years
backwards (so that it is his 14th birthday).
He awakes goes downstairs and finds a parcel by the front door (after hearing the
doorbell ring). Inside the box is a stopwatch, he picks up the stopwatch and hits the fast
forward button, unknowing. The film then flashes back to the post man delivering the
parcels again, however this time the post man delivers the video game that his uncle
has in fact sent and the stopwatch is delivered elsewhere.
4. The short film begins with the main character, a teenager lying asleep in bed the door bell rings, so
he decides to go downstairs and see who it is. As he gets downstairs his brother is having breakfast
and he opens the door to unveil a wrapped-box but no-one insight apart from the post man across
the street, he’s glances around but see’s no-one. After opening the box, there is a stopwatch and a
note next to it saying “Use with care, but never rewind time” , he picks up the stop watch and
starts to fiddle with it unknown of its power (the stopwatch is able to fast forward, rewind and stop
time).
He presses a button and everything freezes, a close up of the clock on the wall stops, as he turns to
talk to his brother about the powers of the stop watch he realises that the stop watch froze time
and everything not touching the watch. He resumes time and tells his brother about the powers of
the stop watch. His brother doesn’t believe the watches capabilities, therefore he shows his
brother by allowing him to both hold the watch while he stopped time.
His brother is amazed by the capabilities of the watch and says “what shall we do with it?”. The
brother takes a deep stare into the stopwatch while ignoring his brother talking and begins fiddling
with time, he then accidently hits the rewind button sending him back into time without his the
Main character. The main character is then lying asleep in bed the door bell rings, so he decides to
go downstairs and see who it is. As he gets downstairs he remembers the occurrence, and his
brother is no-where to be found.
5. • Todorovs Narrative
Todorovs narrative can be applied to our short film ideas hence the plot has the 5 distinct stages
(3 main stages) that are needed to fulfil his theory. The short film begins with a state of
equilibrium, the postman is delivering post as usual. As he approaches a house he delivers the
wrong package, this is the dis-equilibrium. There is then a disruption where the postman
realises he has delivered the wrong package (later on in the plot). He then realises this when he
see’s the stopwatch in the boys possession and has to rewind time (an attempt to repair the
disruption). The short film then rewinds to the beginning and all is restored. This is the new-
equilibrium, however a change in the fact that, the boy this time receives the correct parcel or
as in idea 3 he looses his brother.
• Classical Hollywood Narrative
The classical Hollywood narrative can also be applied to our short film framework ideas. All 3
ideas revolve around getting things back to normal after the stopwatch ends up in the wrong
hands. In addition there is a closed narrative in-place, where all loose ends are tied up at the
end of the short film. In examples 1 and 2, the stopwatch is delivered elsewhere and in example
3 he looses his brother. Also within fitting of the theory, the storyline must be far-fetched and
this is certainly the case, where time is adjusted by a simple object (a stopwatch).
6. • Levi Strauss Binary Opposition
This theory can be applied where there are instances of conflicts brought up in the film. In our
short film I have detailed a few examples that cover all of the 3 narrative ideas.
- Normality and Extra-ordinary
- Control and submission (person with the stopwatch has control over time)
- Power and weakness (e.g. power of the person with the stopwatch in
their possession)
- Selfish and greater good
• Branigan
Branigan’s theory can be applied whereabouts a story is organised into a set of stages by which
people remember them. This is clear in each of the 3 frameworks where I have explained a clear
plot for each. In accordance to Branigan’s theory there is firstly an introduction to the setting
and characters (this is clear in narrative framework 1) where the postman is shown visiting
houses in the village. There are several other steps in this theory such as stage 3 where the
protagonist has an emotional response or statement. E.g. in narrative framework 3 he picks up
the stopwatch and fiddles with it, making time freeze, here the main character has a surprised
reaction.
7. • Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze
It can be argued that Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze can be applied to my short
film, in the way that none of my narrative frameworks include the use of a female (all roles
are played by males). This empowerment given to the males who feature in the short film
can be classed as being sexist towards females, hence men are given dominant roles.
• Barthes theory and Enigma code
Barthes' Enigma Code is a theory that suggests a text portrays a mystery to draw an
audience in. The text poses questions and as a result people become intrigued in the
piece. For instance, a murder mystery will often not reveal the identity of the murderer
until the end of the story, which poses the question "Who is the murderer?“. This theory
can be applied to all of my 3 narrative frameworks.
In the first framework the postman delivering a package to one of the houses, encourages
the viewer to question “what lies within the package?”. A series of questions can be
applied to each framework; in framework 3 the audience may question “where has his
brother gone?” after he disappears from the fast-forwarding of time.
