MANNEQUIN - AWARD-WINNING HORROR SHORT

FILM
The short film starts with a title card, where the name of the company behind the short film
is displayed. This title screen is fairly
basic, and has a certain classic vibe to it.
The word spells 50 50 Visual with a
white sans-serif font on a black
background; this colour choice allows for
an easy reading and it exalts the name of
the company. The sound is completely
absent during this opening scene.

The short film then continues with a composite scene, made by multiple shots of a theatre
and a zooming out shot of a woman working with a sewing machine, all linked together with
parallel editing. The light in this scene is quite poor, especially when dealing with the shots of
the theatre which are almost in complete darkness; there is however a slight blue tint filter
applied to the screen, which makes everything look slightly darker than it really is and gives
the scene a more melancholic vibe. The sound in this scene is made of a very slow piano tune
that almost makes the audience feel gloomy, and of the diegetic sound of the sewing
machine.

The mise-en-scene of this scene also has

some very interesting elements, such as the
mannequin which ties in with the title of the
short film and the white board next to the
protagonist, which has the word Secrets
written on it and connotes a theme of mystery.

This scene serves as an introduction to the movie, as it shows us the main character and the
environment where most of the action will happen, and it is followed by another title card,
with the same black background and the same soundtrack as the scene before, but this time
with the word mannequin on it. The word is yet again written in a sans-serif font, but the
lines of the letters appear to imitate brush strokes.

The music is interrupted during the start of the next scene, where the protagonist exclaims
as she cuts herself on the sewing machine. We can see her finger-cut, with blood on it, and it
is also the first time when we get a close-up of the protagonists face.
The next scene is quite strange, as the
protagonist directly addresses the
mannequin with a question, almost as if it
could hear her. This is an obvious
foreshadow for the audience, as it tells us
that the mannequin will play a part in the
next events. She then proceeds to medicate herself, when she is interrupted by a phone call.
The camera in these scenes are pretty classic, with typical over the shoulder shots when
dialogue is made and close ups on the characters face or on the object she is using (if an eye-
line match is used).

The phone call scene continues on for a bit, with the audience only hearing what the
protagonist says. It is obvious however, because of her facial expression and because of the
dialogue itself, that she is not receiving good news, and then continues to talk to herself,
saying that she will have another long night. Talking to themselves is a common exposition
technique in movies, since it allows to fill in the audience on details without too much effort.

What is interesting in this exposition scene is

the camera work. The frame is divided in thirds,
with two thirds being occupied by the
protagonist and one by the mannequin; what is
peculiar is that both the character and the
object behind her are on the same level of
focus, which in a way makes the mannequin appear as important as a human being.

In the next scene the protagonist interacts again with the mannequin, talking to it and putting
a scarf on it. Said scarf then happens to fall
off, and when the protagonist notices it,
she puts it back on the mannequin in a
different fashion. The camera work is kept
simple, with mainly tracked mid-shots and
panning close-ups, but the soundtrack
comes back to life with an ominous piano
music now playing; when the scarf falls, we also have a different sound element, as we hear
the sound of something moving against bubble wrap (the material in which the mannequin is
covered). This connotes fear and mystery for the audience, who might think that it was the
mannequin alone who removed the scarf.

Theres also a flicker of the lights in this scene, which is a pretty popular horror clich; it
usually symbolizes when a spectral entity has entered the scene, and therefore it could
reinforce the feeling of fear in the more experience members of the audience.
 The next scene is a time lapse of our
protagonist working, still accompanied by the
same ominous music. This scene ends with a
close up of the dress, which symbolises that
our protagonist has finished working; the
dress itself is quite interesting, since it is fully
red, a colour known to connote fear, passion
and violence.
In the same scene, after the close up of the dress, we also have a close up of the mannequins
face, which almost appears to be staring at the dress.

What follows next is a scene of the protagonist walking through a corridor, as she makes her
way to the teathre stage. This scene is a lot darker, since the lighting is a lot more low-key
than previously; the lightning also has a green
tint to it, which makes it look even more
ominous.

The character then goes back to looking at

costumes, where she is interrupted by the
sound of moving bubble wrap and a whispher
calling her name. This is all captured with a midshot of the character, with her face exalted by
a spot light, allowing the audience to fully capture her expression of fear. The moment when
the whispher is heard is also the moment when the music stops, which builds tension in the
audience and prepares them for a jumpscare. The soundtrack then shifts to a crescendo
mettalic sound, which culminates with the sound of the lights going off.

When the lights go off, we can see the

terrified expression on our characters
face, even if there is really poor lighting.
We can also hear the sound of footsteps,
which obviously terrifies the protagonist as
she believes to be alone. The sound of
footsteps is interrupted by something even
more creepy, a whisper saying you cant run; this makes the protagonist feel powerless, and
therefore allows the audience to emphatise with it.

The lights come back on, and she proceeds to scan the building for any intruders; she does
not find any other human being around, but she is numerously times interrupted by a
mannequin blocking her way. Meanwhile the soundtrack continues to raise in tempo, and it
culminates when the character confronts on of the mannequins on stage; the mannequins
still seem lifeless here, which doesnt explain how they were able to appear in all the different
spots shown so far.
The protagonist then sees her dress, and finds the photo of a woman inside it. As she slowly
turns her face back up, the camera follows her eye movement in a panning shot, only to reveal
another mannequin staring at her. This time the protagonist shouts at it, and when the
mannequin reacts by moving she quickly starts running.

The scene where she tries to escape is very chaotic, and even when she is stuck next to a door
the lights are still flickering and her
movement is very agitated. We there
have another very clich scene, where
the mannequin appears at the end of a
hallway and slowly moves towards the
character as the light flickers. The sound
in this scene also helps building the
feeling of chaos, as the crescendo sound of screeching metal is accompanied by the screams
of the protagonist. This scene ends with a black screen transition to the final scene, which
also reinstates the ominous piano soundtrack heard before. The final scene simply shows the
mannequin in the original room, now wearing the clothes of the protagonist, as to symbolise
her death.