The Fly🪰

  

THE FLY🪰

The fly is the story of a getaway driver who is waiting outside a bank, ready to drive the robbers away when he first hears a fly. Throughout the course of the film, he becomes more and more agitated by this fly, and the fact that he can never seem to kill it. Eventually, the fly drives him so crazy that he stabs a toothpick through his mouth, and then shoots the front of the car. 

Sound

This film uses sound in multiple clever ways:

1. show not tell- The spectator is never told that there's a bank robbery going on, however sound effects of blood curdling screams and gunshots coming from inside the bank make this clear. The fact that we cant see inside the bank builds a sense of fear, as it's up to the imagination of the spectator to picture the possible horrific scenes inside. 

2. tension- Sound is also used to build tension. The ongoing sound of the running car engine creates a sense of passing time and desperation, which builds tension as it's clear that the getaway driver is keen to drive off with the robbers as soon as possible, so as not to be caught by the police. The buzzing of the fly also adds to this tension, as the spectator can see the driver become more and more annoyed at it each time, so every buzz acts as a warning that he's about to have an outburst of anger.

Cinematography

The film begins with a close up of the car keys and then another close up in shallow focus of the driver's tapping fingers, and then an establishing shot of the car outside the bank. These first three shots are enough to tell the spectator straight away that this man is a getaway driver, and is waiting impatiently to drive off after a bank robbery. This is a clever way of using cinematography to tell the spectator where they are, and what is happening, simply through 3 shots. 

Another good use of cinematography in the film is the multiple close ups on the fly itself. These act as pov shots, and place the spectator in the shoes of the driver, as they show how all of his attention is drawn to the fly, rather than paying attention to the robbery going on inside. 

Mise-en-scene -props

From the very first shots of the film, attention is drawn to the driver's toothpick- this follows the idea of Chekhov's gun- and so the spectator is aware that by the end of the film, something important will happen involving the toothpick. This therefore causes tension to build as the spectator wonders what will happen to it, and their anticipation to find out grows.

Overall opinion:

Overall, I quite like this short film due to its ability to tell the spectator where they are and what's going on, without any dialogue. I also think the use of diegetic sound is very effective in building tension. However, I personally find the mise-en-scene (whilst effective in the context of the film) quite boring, in terms of colours, set and costume.