Textual analysis of Easy Reader

Title: Easy Reader
Director: Lewis Rose


Narrative
This linear narrative tells the quaint story effectively with little dialogue. The film remains uncomplicated throughout telling a simple story of one man and his unique method or pursuing possible romance. 


This short film tells the story of Gary and his frequent trips to the library. Gary walks into the library to be greeted by the woman on the reception desk, it is clear from their conversation that Gary is a regular visitor to the library. He selects a book, Sherlock Holmes, and takes a seat on a sofa opposite a women. He skilfully glances over the book at the woman and sees that she is reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Gary replaces his book and swiftly leaves the Library.
Later in the day he returns, dressed as Huckleberry Finn with the same book in hand and attempt to talk to the women who is their again reading the book, but she avoids his conversation and leaves. Feeling somewhat deflated the receptionist asks him if that has ever worked. Gary recollects and the audience is shown how he has done this numerous times, he sees a woman reading a certain book and he dresses as one of the characters in order to break the ice in order to get to know her.
He sits down feeling once again deflated and lonely. As Gary returns to read Sherlock Holmes woman walks in, dressed head to toe as the title character. They exchange a smile and the film ends.

Characters
For a two minute film with a simple narrative such as this, this short film has more significant characters than I would expect.

There is the main character Gary who's story we follow. He is a character the audience may sympathise with, he a harmless fellow who's unorthodox flirting methods are unsuccessful. The audience may also find him relatable as they may be able to identify with his awkward attempts at conversing with women. However he has no problem talking to the lady on reception.


This woman is familiar to Gary and it's clear from their brief conversations that they have met before. She acts as a confidant for him telling him to "Just be yourself Gary". I expected her to be the answer to Gary's dating woes possibly due to her red dress and accessories acting as foreshadowing due to the colours connotation of love. 

Garys first love interest comes in the form of a blonde woman  reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. She is the stereotypical female love interest character, she is pretty, blonde and perhaps more unconventionally she is intelligent. This image is created through appearance alone and forms an instantly identifiable character

Finally there is the woman who, as a twist at the end of the tale, does exactly what Gary had been doing. She comes in dressed as Sherlock Holmes, the book Gary was reading. This instantly presents her as a favourable character to the audience as she is ultimately the thing the protagonist strived for: some one to love.


Locations
The film is set entirely in the library. Gary obviously likes it there and feels comfortable there as it is apparent from his easy conversation with the receptionist and later from Garys memories that he goes there quite regularly. I feel that only having one location to the film contributes to the simplicity of the short as a whole.

Cinematography

• Foreshadowing  - I really enjoyed the use of this technique in the film. There is the earlier mention of the receptionist wearing red and it's connotations of love but there is also some foreshadowing that is less of an interpretation however it is very subtle I nearly missed it. The final women, the one who dresses as Sherlock Holmes in order to impress Gary appears right at the start of the sequence in the background when he is first reading Sherlock Holmes. 

First in focus...

... then out of focus a he sits down

This does answer the question as to how she knew Gary like the book, it turns out she saw him at the beginning. She is only visible here for a few seconds and I had to watch it again and pause it to see is it was her. It's like a little Easter egg hidden within the film!

• Focus shifts - Used several times in this film, shifting the focus of the shot is a technique that changes what the audience is looking out without necessarily changing shot.  

Here we see the shift of focus throughout one shot. 

This technique is an innovative way that I feel helps keeps the film visually pleasing. It doesn't really serve much purpose other than it looks fantastic. 

• High angle shot - This shot shows the library and the woman Gary is going to talk to. This shot almost acts as an establishing shot (although establishing shots are usually the very first thing seen in a sequence), showing us the library, the layout of it and how far away Gary is from the woman. 

Editing

• Eyeline match - This continuity technique shoes us what Gary is looking at, allowing the audience to understand a bit more about how the character thinks. For example first Gary looks at the book rather than the Lady. 

...this is what Gary sees.

Gary looking over the book...

• Fade transition - as Gary looks up and remembers the past events the camera tracks upwards and into a fade transition. The bright white fade signifies that the events depicted have already happened rather than are happening at this point in the narrative. 

• Quick cuts - lots of quick cuts are used when Gary looks over at the first woman. This reflects his maybe nervous feelings at getting caught watching, it shows he is taking quick looks at her.

Sound

During quite parts of the film (the stretches without dialogue) a subtle trumpet tune plays. The score is not very fast, it matches the pace of the action which is also subtle. I think a louder, more prominent piece of music would have cut up the film more, making it more segmented, whereas as it is the action just flows from one thing to another. 

Titles

The opening title 'Easy Reader' is cleverly presented within the scene on a book whereas the end credits are more traditional on a black screen. In total the titles take up no more than around three seconds of screen time which allows more time to be devoting to the narrative. 

My thoughts

I really like the twist at the end of the narrative. I also like the expression of love in normal situations, so often love is presented as this perfect thing expressed through grand gestures the cost the earth to pull off but here it is in an eccentric but sweet fashion. The focus shift is a technique that really appeals to me and it's shown very well here.