Analysis Of Phone Booth (First 15 min)

As we have to analyse the first 15 minutes of a film i have decided to look into Phone Booth. This is because in this film there is a mystery killer which the audience, as well as the characters, are trying to figure out who he is and so this makes this film similar to ours. This film also has a 15 certificate which is, again, similar to ours.The title 'Phone Booth' is simple and so the title alone already gives the audience a clue as to what the storyline of the flim involves.

The film starts with a shot of space satellites, which then moves onto the earth and then begins to zoom in. However as it zooms into earth it fades into some kind of micro chip, rather than looking at towns or cities. As this is not what the audience are expecting, it stands out and so they will notice it. Whilst this is happening there is a non diegetic song added onto the scene with the word ‘operator’ being repeated multiple times. On top of this there is also a walkie-talkie sound effect. All of this together tells the audience that the film will have something to do with phones and so it therefore gives the audience clues to the storyline. The main reason it does this is because each of these things are very noticeable.

The microchip fades into a shot of a man’s phone which is then zoomed out, to reveal the location of the film. This also reveals to the audience what the microchip was from and so once again gives hints more hints to what the story-line of the film involves. The next shot is a long shot of New York which, again, reveals the setting.

After this the camera zooms in and out of random things happening on the streets of New York. At this point the audience are not sure about what/who they should be focusing on.  However all of these shots involve phones (for example on this screen shot 'Verizon' is the a company logo for an American phone network). Also there is no diegetic audio at this point (instead there is only non-diegetic music) which also does not help the audience to understand what is happening.

A voice over of a man begins to state facts about phone booths. As the random shots stop we are left with this long shot of a phone booth. The voice over then reveals facts about this particular phone booth rather than general facts. This then signals to the audience that this is the phone booth that they need to focus on and so gives them another clue towards the story-line of the film.

The voice over then says that you (the audience) are about to see the last man to occupy the booth. In this shot there are two men shown in the centre of the shot. Centered characters are always the characters that the audience are supposed to focus on and so this would suggest that either of these two men are who the voice over is talking about. However you can only hear one speaking (the one in the red shirt) and so the audience should understand that he is the one who is being talked about. 

In the next few minutes this man participates in multiple phone calls and every time someone picks the phone up they are shown on screen talking back. This currently does not seem important but later the murderer, on the phone, is not shown and so the audience go from being able to see who the man is calling to being as clueless as he is. This alone helps the audience to empathize with the character due to them being on the same journey. 

Once the man gets into the booth, the next shot is a long shot but from a high angle. This is an odd and random shot because the previous shots of this man have been mostly medium shots. Due to it being an odd shot the audience are more likely to notice it. This shot itself would suggest that someone is watching the man from a high angle. 

Later there is an eye line match from the man's point of view. As this follows his point of view the audience should have realized by this point that he is the main character. Also, the man is searching for the unknown person on the phone just like the audience. This again helps the audience to empathize with him.
The final shot i will discuss is an extreme close up of the mans face. This puts emphasis onto his frustration (his current emotion). The audience can therefore see how he is feeling and so have the chance to empathize with him again.

From analyzing the opening of Phone Booth i have noticed that in order to make our audience empathize with our girl characters, then they need to be on the same journey as them. To do this we could use eye line matches and only reveal things that the girls can see (such as the text message). In our film we are wanting to show the murderer preparing to kill the girl and so in order for us not to reveal too much the the audience we could avoid showing his face. That way neither the audience or our girl characters would be able to recognize him (the murderer).

Another thing i have noticed is the simplicity of the title and I feel that it reveals the majority of the plot. I think that this is both a good and a bad thing. For example i think that the audience would be able to guess what the film is about and so would be likely to be disappointed. However, i also think that it may give away too much of the plot. If the film was to be called something relating to a phone, a phone booth or a phone line/network (but not too obvious) then this would leave a gap in the audiences mind which the film would then need to fill. I therefore think that the title of our film should be something clever which relates to something significant from our film.