Ralph (Dir. Alex Winckler) 2008

Sebastian Black                                     Film Studies A Level              Tuesday 15th September 2015

Ralph (Dir. Alex Winckler) 2008

Mise-en-Scene:

During the beginning of this film, it is set in a train station & this is for about 2 minutes. The use of a train station indicates to us that the main character (Ralph) has travelled from the UK (judging by his accent & he also says he’s English) by the train. This also indicates to us that he does not have enough money to travel by a plane however knowing that he’s from England, going by train seems like a sensible route. Ralph is in the telephone booth area in the train station, this is because he’s trying to call Clare but he’s missing a number, so he spends most of his time putting an extra numbers. After coming out of the train station, Ralph goes to a café to buy a phone card however he has to buy food to get change in order to get a phone card. The use of the location shows the reality of how it would be normally, however films that are in multiplex cinemas, they tend to over exaggerate how places seem.

Ralph is wearing a red short sleeved polo shirt, white trainers & dark grey jogging bottoms. Around his neck he is wearing a gold chain & underneath that are his earphones (white). On his right wrist he is wearing a silver watch on his left wrist & a silver bangle on his right wrist. His costume indicates to us that he is orientated (wears a watch), he is also the stereotype of a British teenager.

“The waitress” as Ralph calls her is wearing a blue tank top, a necklace, on her right wrist she’s wearing a black hairband. After the man in the café wants to kick Ralph out of the café, the waitress goes to change her clothes to show Ralph around. After changing her clothes, she’s wearing a lilac top, jeans, her hair is down rather than in a bun & she was carrying two baskets.

Clare wears a pink polo shirt, & blue jeans. Judging by her clothing, you could say she’s active. We know she’s also from England because of her accent & because she uses the slang word “twat”.

We have various ordinary props to give us the impression that it’s just like everyday life. Ralph has a big suitcase with him which gives us the idea that he’s going to be staying somewhere for a very long time.

The other props we have are the telephone booth, pen, paper, plate, food etc.

With hair & makeup, everything is done to make it look normal & every day. Looking at the waitress, it seems like she has hardly any makeup on, she’s sweating (judging by her body language) so she doesn’t exactly need to wear makeup if she’s just at work. 

Performance:

The performance in this short movie isn’t dramatized like blockbuster films, it’s realistic. Although Ralph didn’t know the language & he didn’t know where he was going, he still managed to get to where he though he needed. He asked the people around for help whereas in a blockbuster movie, maybe the character would freak out, start screaming or shouting & that doesn’t relate to us as the audience.

When the waitress saw Clare, she didn’t freak out or anything, she just acted like nothing had happened, the same goes for Ralph when he saw Lorenzo, he didn’t add any drama to it, instead he just went & followed the waitress.

Whilst the waitress was arguing with her boss, she did get angry but she didn’t hit him or anything, which shows the reality of being in a work place, you may argue with your bus but you wouldn’t slap him or anything similar to violence.

Cinematography:

There are various shot sizes in this short film. We have long shots; these long shots tell us the scene. There’s a long shot in the train station when Ralph is getting out, this tells us immediately that he is in the train station. We have long shots when he is out of the station, when the streets are being showed to represent what Ralph is looking at.

The medium shots are there to show who it is, so when in conversation, there are, medium shots of who is talking to who.

The close ups are there to show the facial expressions. There are various close up showing Ralph’s reaction, & the waitress’s. When Ralph is dialling Clare’s number, we have a close up of Ralph dialling the number & the close up then goes to his face to show the concentration.

When Ralph asks the French man talking on the telephone, we see a high angle. The high angles symbolises Ralph’s vulnerability.

Edit:

The pace in this short film is not fast like action films, its real time pace. The pace is like this for the audience to keep up & relate.

The style of edit is simple, it doesn’t need any superimposition or anything similar because it’s just supposed to make us as the audience feel like it’s ordinary everyday life.

Sound:

We have diegetic sound on & off screen. The dialog is on screen. When Ralph is in the café & he uses the telephone the second time, he leaves the telephone hanging & we do hear the French lady speaking, we know it’s from the phone however during that moment we don’t actually see the telephone until the camera has a medium shot on the telephone. Another sound we hear that is off screen diegetic is the accordion playing the background, we don’t exactly know where it’s coming from but we do know it’s somewhere in the streets.