Short Film Analysis- Gone Goodbye

Film: Gone Goodbye

Director and Producer: Keith Rivers and Sam Nuttmann

Writer: Tyler Wilson

Gone Goodbye is short film with a linear narrative structure; it also has a circular narrative in terms of the voice over (which is heard throughout the film) but the sentence at the beginning “Dear Catherine, I’m leaving you but I want you to know the trust in the Privacy of your own space” is at the beginning in the letter said by the balloon and also repeated by the character in a diegetic, synchronous dialogue at the end, circular narratives are common in short films.

 There is an element of surprise because during the film the audience would expect the character in the car and on screen to be saying the monologue however at the end we realize that it is coming from the balloon which has a letter attached to it.

The film is subjective because we see the point of view from one prop/character which is actually the balloon and we do not see/ find out any information about the character on screen. Furthermore it is also restricted because we only see things along with the character which also helps to surprise the audience.

The techniques are throughout the film there is a voice over and there is very limited dialogue (only one sentence) which would have been recorded on set. The editing is very simple as we see a fade where the sea fades into the sky and a few cuts and there is mainly continuity. The camerawork throughout the film is still (there is no hand held/kinetic movement) because we see it mainly through the view of the balloon therefore it is always above everything high above the ground.

The titles come at the beginning with only the title of the film which is overlaid, is it very small on the road, the road could perhaps represent the road to leaving (therefore the ‘Goodbye’) and then there are the credits at the end which have a non- diegetic, asynchronous score which is soft and gentle (this is also played throughout the film).

The theme of the film is privacy.

The purpose of this film: To create a film in 100 hundred hours for the Film Racing Grand Prix 2009 competition. It won the award for the Best Film, Best Direction, Best Writing, and Best Cinematography (in that competition)

The good points about the film are that there is only one character on screen (as an actor) and that we hear a monologue in the background, it engages the audience because it feels as though the character is talking to us and there is not much happening on screen so it focuses the audience to listen carefully. 

I think that this film is quite interesting because the monologue is actually from the balloon, as when we listen it says there are sentences like “I was always over everyone’s head”, “Sometimes, I feel as though I could explode” and “You said, no strings attached, but there are always strings attached”. Therefore almost every sentence is said through a balloons point of view with the feeling of a real person which is something that makes this film quite unique and interesting.