Last Train Textual Analysis
Last Train is a short film about a couple’s dull wait for a train late at night, interrupted by some loud lively teenagers. The character Jay slowly becomes paranoid by the presence of the boys, however by the end of the film we realise the boys were really no threat to the couple. The storyline of this short film is very simple and creates a strong sense of dramatic tension for the audience.
Last Train is set in a train station and with a natural low lighting throughout the film as it is filmed in the evening. The natural lighting and realistic setting adds to the realism of the film. The scene begins with a close up camera shot of the couple’s hands besides each other as they walk towards the station, the mise-en-scene of the characters gloves connote to us that is a cold night and what time of the year it is (winter). The genre of Last Train is a drama so there are no abstract camera shots throughout the film, as this keeps the film as realistic as possible. Extreme close ups are used to show the paranoid emotion of the character Jay and deep depth of a field shots are also used to simulate the images of the human eye, as it keeps both the foreground and background in focus.
Majority of Last Train consist of diegetic ambient sounds throughout the film. This again keeps the realism of the film, as it is very quiet showing how late at night it is. The tone of the diegetic speech between the couple Jay and Vicky reveals the tension between them which is also backed up by the mise-en-scene of their body language towards each other and also the proxemics between the two. It is obvious to tell that the diegetic speech and laughter coming from the boisterous boys is making Jay more and more paranoid by the use of the close up camera shots to show his facial expressions.
The mise-en-scene of all the characters clothing (padded jackets, hats, scarves)
convey the time of the year, as the gloves did at the start of the film.
The colour of clothing in differs in characters as well. The couple are in
khaki green colours whereas the boisterous boys are in black,
in the night black can be an intimidating colour as it is difficult to
see a person who is wearing black in the night so this could represent
the boys as being intimidating. Towards the ends of the film we see the
character Jay stands up and we begin to hear a non diegetic crescendo
of a whistle which builds up the tension of the scene where we then see Jay lash
out at his girlfriend shouting “Just go your own way”.
The editing becomes faster when we see Jay walking away from his girlfriend before bumping into one of the boisterous boys and knocking his phone unto the floor. This scene makes the audience feel on edge as he has finally come into contact with one of the boys who were making him feel uncomfortable. The editing becomes slow again and the audience are shown shot reverse close up shots of Jay and the boys face, showing the facial expressions of the two. This builds up tension for the audience as it makes them anxious for what to expect next.
Last Train works as it is based around a scenario many people have certainly experienced on late night journeys home. Tension is mastered for the duration of the film and the sequence of events works well and is well observed with the shifty glances and paranoid actions of Jay.
