Soft Movie Analysis Essay

In the short film entitled Soft, director Simon Ellis firmly establishes a combination of character types that enhance the dramatic action being conveyed. More expressly, the father (and his son to a lesser extent) is clearly established as the protagonist due to the fact that the video’s dramatic development is centered on him and the story advances from his point of view. Also, a protagonist is almost always presented with a seemingly insurmountable hurdle/fear that he or she must conquer by the conclusion of the piece. In the case of Soft, both the father and his son are pitted against a local band of thugs, which they each greatly fear. As a distinct method of illuminating the unique thoughts, feelings and actions of the protagonist, this

In terms of the placement of the actors in correlation with each other (i.e., blocking), the director made sure that there were many gang members clustered around the central leader in order to make him appear dangerous and hostile. In the final sequence of the film, the antagonist (gang leader) and protagonist (father) are separated by a window. By placing a burier between these opposing forces, the director creates a physical threshold that the father must cross in order to face his fears. Another essential tactic used to improve the film’s dramatic action is pacing. When the film beings, the audience is immediately thrown into a violent, disorienting confrontation between the head gang member and the son. This rapid pace sets the tone for the entire developing plotline and grabs the viewer’s attention. The director also juxtaposes quickly paced and slow developing scenes in order to establish the tension between peace and violence that persists throughout the film. Ellis also employs sound as a clever tool to express dramatic tension. When the father finally decides to leave his house and confront the gang, his car alarm goes off. The loud noise created by this siren helps to generate a feeling of tension and chaos, which adds to the audience’s overall connection to the dramatic action. Furthermore, in many of the emotional scenes between the father and his son, the director choses to forgo the music in favor of complete silence. This heightens the dramatic rawness of these scenes and allows the viewer to truly explore each character’s inner motivations. Finally, by making the characters (i.e., the protagonist and antagonist) so fundamentally different from each other, both in attitude and appearance, the director succeeds in further promoting the film’s dramatic tension. When the father is preparing to face the gang, he takes off his tie and unbuttons