Echo

Directed by Lewis Arnold, Echo is a short film about a young girl scamming people with a phone call of her father being in a motorbike accident, presumably based on a real experience for her.

The opening scene of the film deceives the spectator into being on the side of the young girl, and feeling sorrow and pity for her as she receives this tragic phone call in public. The shot is a long take of the actions unfolding, with the actor's movements increasing in speed as the call progresses as she becomes frantic with her emotions. The camera also focuses on her face and her initial reactions, paying little attention to the man helping her. This entices the reader into thinking her story is believable, and not a scam. Furthermore, her tie is very visible and subtly focused on, aiming to highlight the fact that she is still very young, and so further causing the spectator to feel pity for her.

However, another long take of her in the taxi changes our thought and point of view, as although she is placed on the right hand side of the frame, our attention is drawn to her and her performance. As she calms down and looks out the window, we become more and more suspicious, until eventually she gets out the taxi and looks at her money. 

There is a visual motif of smoking/lighters, which can represent danger and risk, representative of the actions she is doing to strangers. In the image of her smoking we also watch her behind the wooden bars, foreshadowing that she will be caught out by someone. We also receive many close ups of her face, as the film is very focused on the narrative of the story it can be seen that her progressive emotions are very important in how the story is portrayed, and so we are left to examine her face clearly and decide which of her emotions are real and which are fake.

This POV slo-mo shot of her brother turning the corner with the car going past clearly forms a connection with her father's accident, and as the car is also unexpected for the spectator, we also feel a sense of fear. Match on action is used to view her reaction to this, and we see the fear and sadness in her face.

The ending of the film links back to her performance at the beginning, however we feel more connected to it and somehow believe that this is the real phone call. Low angles are used as she looks down, and her facial expressions seem just slightly more heightened than the start. Sound is also lost at the end as she cries, which displays a more powerful feeling of dread and fear.