analysis of the short film 'the shift'

1. THE SHIFT
Short Film Analysis
Psychological Thriller

2. THE SHIFT
This short film is based more around sci-
fi/thriller but I thought that it may
interesting to analyse something
different compared to my own short
film. The Shift is 8 minutes long and it
portrays the typical life in 1964. Joe who
is the male character comes home
expecting his wife to be cooking dinner,
however she is not, her body is replaced
with an alien that disguises as Joe’s wife,
Betty.

3. CHARACTERS
Joe – a middle aged working class white
male. Lives the typical American life during
the 1960’s. Dressed smartly which implies
that in fact he may work in a big business
such as accounting or sales person. Seems to
be very family-orientated and believes that
women should stay at home and do the
household chores.
Betty – a middle aged white woman who is the
typical representation of women in the 1960’s.
Appears to be passive, stay at home wife who does
chores and looks after the kids/house. Nonetheless,
the alien who is inside her says the rules are going
to change, I will not clean after you or cook for you
or have sex with you anymore, implying that maybe
the alien wants women to escape this stereotype
that is inflicted upon them.

4. CAMERA ANGLES/SHOTS
Within this close up shot Betty dominates
the camera as she is appearing to be above
Joe. He appears to be helpless and very
small compared to Betty. This may portray
how the gender roles had started to change
and women were becoming more powerful
and independent. And because this is the
alien who is in charge of Betty’s body it is
trying to reverse the gender roles meaning
that the movement of feminism was seen
as something peculiar and challenging the
minds and attitudes of people just like we
are always questioning if aliens exist or not.
In the second shot the camera is tilted just
above him portraying that he is weak and is
unable to argue/fight against her.

5. CAMERA ANGLES/SHOTS
In this medium shot, it shows the
real Betty and her friend Nancy who
are dead. Joe attempted to run away
but instead the alien out ran him and
murdered his and Betty’s friend.
Majority of the filming is done free-
hand because it is very shaky making
the audience feel as if they are there
experiencing the moment. It also
shows the setting which makes it feel
unusual as it appears to be very
clean and welcoming because of the
lighting and warm colours, which is
very strange for a thriller, because it
challenges the typical eerie setting.

6. EDITING
In this scene, we finally see the real
alien who is disguised as Betty. As the
audience we see this through the
viewpoint of Joe. The alien appears
very quickly and disappears, implying
that it can transform whenever it likes
without being suspected by their
neighbours. The editing of the alien is
done very well with detail that gives
an uncomfortable feeling because of
the sinister appearance that it holds.
This is also psychological because from
Joe’s point of view it may seem to him
as if he is going crazy and this is not
real because we only see a glimpse of
the alien and this may be portraying
the thoughts in Joe’s mind.

7. EDITING
The quick jump-cuts of when Joe was trying to runaway add a more
unclear and disturbing image. The sound effects used together with
this creates the feeling of haste, indicating that the alien is quick and
it’s impossible to escape it. This puts the audience on edge because
after we see Betty’s face the screen goes black, making us wonder
what happened to Joe. I would consider it to be a psychological thriller
because it does include aspects of psychosis through the eyes of Joe,
this may be his imagination or it may be the idea of freedom and being
able to do what you want whilst attaining power just like the aliens.