"High Rise" is a social realism film about a mother and a baby in a high rise flat. The mother is waiting to feed the baby in front of the TV, and she comes across an opportunity for her post natal stress to be solved, the baby is going to pick up a toy by a wide open window. The mother then takes this opportunity to leave the room and allow her baby to fall out of a high rise building. After a scream she rushes back in, scared and worried looking for her baby. the film ends with the camera leaving the flat, looking over other high rise buildings suggesting that anything could happen in these flats. I am going to be discussing how the technical use of camera framing, lighting, sound and set makes us feel about what happens in this short film.
The establishing shot at the beginning is used for us to sweep into the flat with the main story in, and when the camera pulls out of the flat at the end of the film we get the message that there is an individual story in each flat. When we first see the flat we see toys littered over a dirty floor, and a bland colour scheme with cracked paint on the walls. This is a depressing feeling place which links to the mindset of the main character, and keeps the mood dark for what she is about to do.
Whilst the camera is focused on the milk bottle the sound dulls down and a deep atmosphere track fades up to give a dark feel to this moment of realisation. This combination of sounds remind me of a soldier being shell-shocked from an explosion, the mother could be in the same state of shock that she is thinking about letting her baby fall out of the window.
In the scene after this she is stood in a dark corridor with just a slit of light on her face so we can see her facial expressions. In this close up we see her eyes screwed shut, and this along with the sound of her breathing getting louder and clearer as well as the dark atmospheric sound this creates an incredibly tense and claustrophobic moment for the audience. After a short moment of silence we hear a scream from the baby and the mother rushes in, the camera is focused on the empty window, and then cuts to a shot of the baby, which provides a massive moment of relief for the audience. At this moment the audience feels other things aside from relief there may be some dislike to the mother to allow this possibility to happen, they may also feel empathy for the mothers mental state.
Overall I liked this film, I thought the use of sound was a big factor to create different feelings for the audience, and the tight camera angles were used effectively to support this. I also liked the concept of each flat having its own story to tell.
