Virgin Media Shorts: 2:20 Analysis

This Virgin Media short film, 2:20, definitely excels in all of the categories that are executed well in the video (e.g. the fact that the video does not rely on any dialogue to carry the short film as it solely relies on visual communication and the fact that although the short movie only has a length of 2:20, it made me draw a lot of interpretations to the two characters in the video.)

Firstly, it is the suspense and drama that is executed superbly as it is not just the tension in the video but even how viewers are suspicious about the woman who had introduced these "foreseeing specs" since the woman could very well be portrayed as the Angel of Death as she even, in the last twenty seconds of the short film, seems to stop the other character from making any movements which leads to his presumable death.

In addition to this, the lighting and imagery seems to contrast this character since she seems to have this sort of darkness in her soulless eyes while the locations around these two characters seem to show a vivid and bright atmosphere (e.g. the shops and restaurants seem to have a vibrant and colorful feel and the other characters seem to be cheerful whereas the person who only has a mere number of seconds of living seems to feel isolated; this could be due to how the woman feels isolated in comparison to the rest which links to how she felt that she needed to let the person know of his near-death.)

There are particular shots which are used throughout the short film such as; tracking shot (that is used for the "Angel of Death"-type character), the point-of-view shots (which are used when the person wears the Magic Specs and sees exactly how many years remain for the people around him and himself) and reverse angle shots (which are taken near the end of the video to give the situation a tense feel to it.) Furthermore, there is an extreme close-up shot that is used when the person is looking at himself through the car window to add tension to the situation.