Film Analysis - The End

Title - The End
Director - Ted Marcus
Year - 2013
Running Time - 13:29

I recently watched this film I wasn't sure what to think about it straight after watching it, whether I thought it was good or not. The film is about a teenager living in London who wants to go out with friends but his mum and dad won't let him so he sneaks out. On his walk home, there is an alien attack and runs home to find out that his mum and dad found out that he tried to drug their wine and he walked back into the street, ending with a shot of an alien coming towards him, assuming he dies.

One editing technique that I thought was done well in the film was the montage during the night out. I think that this part of the film was edited as a montage because it isn't a main part of the film. The main part of the film is about the boy disobeying his parents and also the end scene when the aliens attack. Seeing them out drinking and having fun is needed to be seen in the film but nothing crucial happens during this section of the film so having it as a montage is the perfect way of showing it.

The opening of the film is also very well edited. We see the boy and the girl together, smoking. She lit the cigarette for him and starred at him in his eyes. This told me that they were close to each other, and the fact that they were out in a dark area smoking told me that they weren't allowed to be doing it. Then went cut to a shot of the boy talking on the phone to the girl whilst he was walking through London. This made me think that the opening shot could be a hint of things to come in the film, which it was.

I also thought that the use of close ups and quick cuts in the opening scene once the girl had given the boy her mobile number was very useful. I showed that they were both looking into each other's eyes and the fact that the shots were close ups made me feel as though the two characters wanted to be or are close to each other.

I also liked the use of the flash back at the end of the film when we see the boy's parents figuring out that he had drugged their wine was very good. Even though the colour was the same as it was earlier in the film, the drastic change in colour from when the boy was outside during the alien attack told me that what I was seeing on the screen was a flash back. I thought it was a good twist to the storyline because up until that point, I thought that the boy's parents had drank the drinks and had fallen to sleep. 

Overall, I thought that the editing techniques used in the film were very good and portrayed the story very well, however, I didn't like the actual storyline, having aliens attacking the world at the end didn't work for me. I thought that it would have worked better to have something happen to the boy that wasn't as extreme as an alien attack, for example he could have been robbed or beaten up as punishment for sneaking out of the house, rather than being attack by aliens. 

Link to film - http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2013/05/03/the-end/