Depict! Lighter Short Film Analysis

Lighter by Harry Plowden, UK Lighter is about a homeless man talking a walk and thinking about the day before and the night ahead. The opening credits enter with a shot of the sky at dusk, a very orange and yellow sky with the word 'lighter' these two are juxtapositioned together to contrast and suggest something about light considering the shot of the sun setting and the title 'lighter'. The film begins with a handheld tracking shot from behind a homeless man walking under a underground bridge in the middle of the night, we can tell he is homeless as he is wearing quite scruffy clothes, lots of overlays, a woolly hat, and carrying a massive bag that looks very similar to a camping type of bag but not very much luggage. Along with the shot under the bridge, there is a voice over/ as if we can hear inside the homeless mans thoughts of different people saying 'sorry' and other excuses; this is implying that the homeless man is thinking about the events that occurred the day before, it adds to the emotion as it makes the audience feel sympathy for the homeless man, and it gives an insight to the daily life of whats its like for the man. Then there is a series of voice over clips again in the style of his thoughts of the public swearing and being aggressive towards him. This to me implies that the homeless man doesn't have much luck trying to seek help on the street. A faded shot of a young man with a cigarette fades into a close up of his face as he puffs into the cigarette and slows down as he is in the centre of the shot then fades out and speeds up as he walks out of shot and as he drops the cigarette the camera walks over to it as the homeless man grabs onto it. Its set at night we can see this as the only lighting you see is motivated lighting from the street lamps and the small little lights embedded in the small underground bridge, him seeking used cigarettes implies he has an addiction that he fails to fulfill as any used cigarette he sees from the floor he collects and its even better for him if its a fresh one thats been chucked to the ground. The ending is a montage of lighter sound effects this was very effective to me as it connotes to me a shared addiction through society. https://www.depict.org/2017/lighter/?category_request=2017