It started with a light switch...

The Stairwell By Shane Meadows
‘The Stairwell’ is shown to audiences through disoriented shots and angles in the space of 40 seconds. The dark,gritty, environment is typical to Shane meadows’ style of filming and contributes to the behaviour of characters.
It is clear that a journey is being shown, the title explains that really. As a mobile phone camera is used it instantly gives off the realistic vibe of the environment. The ‘steadycam’ like movement emphasises the movement of the characters as if you’re moving with them.

As it’s such a short film we as the audience have quite low expectations, as we know there won’t be any major development or understanding of the characters or narrative. However the audience are introduced to the first character from behind, this already creates a sense of mystery about the character, and we are able to start building ideas about who this character is. Also disorientated angles could reflect the feelings of the character. The shot of the character’s face also has dark lighting; shadows, which adds to the mystery, maybe even creating a bad feeling towards him because your able to find out who he really is. It’s as if he’s trying to hide something, like he intentionally doesn’t want to be seen by anybody.

The introduction of the second character shows her in a brighter light in comparison, this could indicate her innocence within the film. This could mean that because of the lighting difference that the female is good and the male is bad.

However the female’s facial expression slightly contradicts this, as she looks more intense as if she is determined to be somewhere. This is in comparison to the male character’s softer expression and indifference in his face, as if he doesn’t know where he’s going or he’s just walking for the fun of it.
By this point the film catches up with the audience trying to make assumptions about the characters, and they meet on the stairs in a collision. It ends here with no more development, just what the narrative and background info the audience has made up for themselves.

Youtube - (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5wMvyVJYlg)