Plastic - Textual Analysis

The short film begins by following a small insect until it lands on the wardrobe door, which is also when the title “PLASTIC” is introduced on screen. The font of the title is red and in capital letters, which has negative connotations of danger. Also the colour red is quite alarming, which helps to catch the eye of the audience. There is a use of a handheld camera throughout the beginning, which suggests a sense of realism throughout the film. The use of a close up of the young women tells the audience that she is one of the main characters within the film. There are non-diegetic sounds heard in the background, which appears to be a piece of jazz music. This music slowly fades out and the use of diegetic sounds within the shot can be heard, such as the rip of her trousers and her grunting towards the situation.

The long shot of the woman running towards her phone suggests that it is an important phone call for her that she doesn’t want to miss. Within the mise-en-scene of the shot there is a canvas quoting “Be aware or you dreams, they might just come true” which is a way of foreshadowing the events to come. Then there is a mid shot of the women after picking up the phone, which reveals her happiness and a potential love interest within the film. The camera focuses to zoom in onto a close up of the clock, which suggests the woman has a limited amount of time until she meets her potential love interest. The insect is then see again but this time it decides to land on a magazine, which is called ‘Real Beauty’ and shows a blonde woman covered in make up on the front. This close up of the magazine symbolizes how society portrays beauty and what real idea of beauty is seen as.

This idea of beauty continues, as the next shot is a close up of the woman applying cream to her face and then trying to cover up her imperfection, which appears to be a spot on her nose. The camera then shows a side profile of the woman’s reaction, which is seen to be very emotional. There is a lot of CGI used throughout this short film, such as the insect and especially with the ‘plastic’ effect seen in this shot. There is a frequent use of jump cuts within the film to show the different angles of the woman’s face. For example, as she adjusts her nose there is a side profile shot, an over the shoulder shot and a close up of her face used to show the full extent. After this shot, the camera zooms into the magazine again, which tells the audience it is a key piece of iconography in the film. The jazz music in the background begins to be heard again as it matches in time with the various shots of the woman changing the way she looks. There is a long shot of a man walking up to her front door, who is dressed in smart clothing, which could be the one she was talking to on the phone previously. There are mid shots of the man seen outside the young woman’s door, which suggests he has been waiting there for a long period of time.

Next of all, there is a long shot of the woman standing in her living room. This shot shows how much the woman has changed herself for this date but she still does not look happy about it. The camera then follows the moth again to when it lands on the canvas with the quote on it. This quote could be see as the hidden moral throughout the short film as even though the woman wanted to change herself she still wasn’t happy with the outcome. The music in the background creates a negative atmosphere and could highlight how the woman is now feeling. A close up of an old photograph of the woman is shown and then the moth is seen to have died, which could be connected somehow.

As the man is seen about to leave a mid shot of him looking quite surprised to see the woman is used. This is done on purpose as the audience is mislead into thinking the woman couldn’t change herself back. Towards the end of the film the couple are seen walking down the street when the man says “You seem taller than I remember you” which tells the audience that the woman did not go back to her complete original self as she made herself taller. The film ends with a panning shot of the city, which appears to be special effects and more jazz music is played along with the credits.