Research 9, the short

     Today, I watched a short film called 9 as a part of my research for my class. As I was sitting there watching the short film from Shane Acker I jotted down some notes of how I felt throughout the short film and what I thought was really interesting for the director to use. This was definitely a short film style I never watched before, so it was really refreshing and interesting, it also made me really curious of other films and movies like this one. Throughout the short film I loved how there was no dialogue at all, I feel like it makes it even more unique and special as you have to focus on other details and background to understand what's going on. As I was first watching this short film I felt creeped out as if I was there, but the quality was low from my teachers uploading it onto canvas, so I tried to ignore that factor and just watch the short film for itself. On the topic of creepiness, the silence between the two rag-dolls, 5 and 9, in the film added to the creepy effect of the film. The special effects throughout the entire 7 minutes of the film were very subtle and straight to the point. I also felt like the special effects added to the plot of the movie which was a machine versus the rag-dolls. The constant use of diegetic sounds such as the wind, machines clanking, footsteps and the growl of the machine beast was something that I loved throughout the film. In the background you can also hear a low score in the background but overall the diegetic sounds overpowered the instrumental music in the background. 

    The fact that there was no dialogue and an abundant amount of diegetic sounds I truly felt as if the world in the film was wiped out of the human kind and just made it feel surreal. I wished that the short film had more character development of the two main rag-dolls in the film which were 5 and 9. We knew as the audience that they worked together because when rag-doll 5 passed away, rag-doll 9 was upset and shocked at what happened. In the end rag-doll 9 defeated the monster machine and brought justice to all the rag-dolls that were killed. Other than that we truly see the growth and development of the characters in a sense of personality and likeness. The only scene that I felt like truly made me see who they were was when rag-dolls 5 and 9 worked together to build a lightbulb or light source from sources around them. This made me see how resourceful they were of their surroundings. In the ending we are revealed to a whole bunch of rag-dolls other than the main rag-dolls 5 and 9 which the audience were introduced to. As one of the audience, I assumed they were other rag-dolls that were effected by the monster machines. The ending to me felt rushed and didn't really feel like an ending that I would want to re-watch. I wished there was more emotion and detail to make it really stand out from other short films. Overall I loved the short film and super excited to watch the actual movie based off of this short film. I hope everything is explained and in depth from the characters to the plot of the film.

This is Stephanie signing off!