Textual analysis of Trolleycide

Title: Trolleycide

Director: Daniel Armtrong

Narrative

Trolleycide is spoof appeal/documentary about the work of mock charity the NSPTC. The short film documents the life of several supermarket trolleys. There is a young trolley called Allan, the narrator describes Allan's difficult life as a trolley, telling the audience how "he is forced to do 24 hour shifts with no wage" and how he is unable to see or feed his children. Later we hear how "Charlie gets scared when people are pushing him around, telling him what to do". Further on a trolley commits suicide by throwing himself into a canal. The short film ends with the narrator asking the audience to give what they can to the NSPCT in order to save and improve the lives of trolleys everywhere.

It doesn't have a typical story narrative as it is more of an advert than a story. For example there is no real resolution: first we see the problem (abuse), then how it could be solved (counselling) and what may happen if the audience doesn't act (Trolley suicide - Trolleycide). But at the end there is no guaranteed solution, only a plea for help.

Characters
There are 3 main trolleys in the sequence which act as characters:

• Allan 
• Charlie
• The suicide victim trolley

These characters are the victims of abuse and are presented to the audience as vulnerable. To convey the emotions of these characters the narrator describes their situation and a black and white filter is used over the  shots. More effort must be made during the editing process to express the emotions of inanimate objects because they lack facial expression, language or any means of communication that we use to derive meaning.

Along with the trolleys humans are present in this film too, they are represented in one of two ways. The human characters are either abusing the trolleys or helping them. 

This conforms to the stereotypes of charity appeal adverts: it's most usually humans causing harm to what ever the subject of the appeal is be it children, donkeys or the few remaining white tigers. But it is also humans redeeming themselves by trying to correct the situation. That's how the ads work. They make you as the viewer feel guilty in order to get you to donate, and that is exactly what's happening in this spoof which is part of the reason it is a successful, funny spoof. 

Locations

The film is set over several locations: A supermarket interior and exterior/car park and a canal. The supermarket is the everyday environment for the trolley and where most of the film takes place. These everyday locations add to the realism of the film, having it set in such places makes the whole film more believable and realistic. 

Editing Techniques

The editing is really important in this film to convey the emotions of the trolleys a of course, as I said under the character heading, we can't derive much meaning from their unedited image alone. Several techniques are used to achieve this effectively. 

• Black and white filter - Sometimes a black and white filter it used to signify the past or to make footage look old but in this film it conveys feelings of sadness and hopelessness. It intensifies the intended feelings of suffering of the trolleys in the footage. 

• Fade transitions - these transitions keep the pace of the film slow. A fast pace film tends to be a more exciting one, and that is not the aim of this piece. Fade transitions are commonly used in real charity appeals, making this an effective use of them in a spoof charity appeal. 

• Inter-layed  text -  "THIS ABUSE HAS TO STOP" said by the narrator and was also displayed on screen all in capital letters to intensify the serious message as it it was a real campaign by a real charity. 

Cinematography

• Hand held camera - It looks like most if not all of this short film was shot with a handheld camera without a tripod. The shots are shaky and unstable, I like this as it gives an edgy look to the film and could create the illusion that the footage was shot undercover. However it also makes the footage look unprofessional and unfinished. 

• Panning shot - The panning shot is used to show the amount of trolleys lined up outside the shop giving more of an insight into the depth of the 'problem' and how many trolleys it affects. 

• Wide shot - This wide shot shows a lot of the environment surrounding the character. It presents his as a very isolated character and again highlights him as one of the victims of the film. 

Sound

There is no music score in this video which is a shame, some depressing music would be quite fitting.

The characters never speak in the film. The only dialogue is in the form of a voice over mimicking real charity appeals telling story's of the turmoil of the victim (which in this case are the Trolleys). The voice over speaks in almost a monotone fashion relying on the subject to pull on the heartstrings of the audience. This again is similar in real charity appeals. 

Titles

Apart form the Virgin  Media shorts starer and end on the video the are no titles to the film.The absence of the titles doesn't subtract form the tone or the message of the film but makes it more like an advert than the short film it was intended to be. It also makes it look less professional as a short film.  

My Thoughts

I really like this short film because of the spoof nature of it. It's funny because people do treat supermarket trolleys this way and if they weren't inanimate objects yes, it would be horrific. It conforms to the conventions of real charity appeals, almost poking fun at them, using them to the film makers advantage by applying them to an imaginary problem. 

The film as a whole looks rushed to me, the lack of stability in the shots, the editing mistakes (such the fade transition into an identical shot) and the fact there are no titles or music ruins it a bit. However the idea is brilliant and that pulls it through for me.