The Stairway by Alex Torterotot is a french short film made in 2011 which lasts 4 minutes. It tells the tale of a an presumably returning home from work late at night. When he is just arriving to his door, he is suddenly transported to a stairway. Confused he climbs the stairs and is again transported to a different stairway, he keeps trying to reach the end of one of the stairways but is constantly teleported between the two. Eventually, he reaches the top and sees a little girl who tells him 'The swallow sings during the day, the owl sings during the night.' He then is transported back to a different staircase, which looks to be back to reality.
This film is similar to ours, firstly because it is the same genre. It follows similar conventions, such as the main character being an innocent civilian (It is assumed that the main character is innocent) and the villain is playing games with the main character, presumably to cause him pain as in the end he looks extremely tired and worn out, as well as emotionally damaged too. The main way our film will differ from this short film is that we will offer the audience more of an explanation as to what happens, whereas the story is left to the audience to interpret in The Stairway.
Analysis
The film starts with this long shot of the main character walking into his apartment building. This shot demonstrates the normality of the situation. The way he casually walks through the door suggest it is very routine. The music is all diegetic so this reinforces the idea of normality. The main character is highlighted in this shot because he is central in the shot.
Because he is in a suit, the assumption would be he is returning home from work late at night, which many of the audience would be able to relate to. The bright lights in the building give the impression of safety, especially when compared to the darkness of the outside.
As he closes in on the camera, he scowls at something and begins to walk off screen. As he leaves we are given an eyeline match of a sign on a wall which reads 'OUT OF ORDER', implying that the elevator in the building is broken. This suggests a disruption to the equilibrium of the main characters life, countering the mood given by the first shot.
The next shot shows the main character arriving at his door. This is a medium shot to include the door in the shot to demonstrate the action of unlocking his door, however as he goes to put the key in the door, the screen quckly fades to black and then just as rapidly fades back in, however he is in a different location this time. A graphic match is used here to make it believable that he has been transported to this place.
This next shot shows his initial reaction to what has happened. It is a medium close up to show his confusion and fear at this unknown location. The shadow on one half of his face may indicate that he is hiding something and that he may know more about his circumstances than the audience.
As he begins to walk up the stairs, the camera pans to follow him. It pans to this shot hwere we can only see his silhouette, and a light he is walking towards. This suggests that he is walking towards a better place that is safe and that he is leaving darkness and evil behind him.
He then emerges onto this much lighter part of the stairway, again implying safety. However this mood is countered by him being teleported again to a different stairway. This shows that he cannot get to safety. This shot shows him small in the camera and is a high angle shot, suggesting that he is powerless to stop what is happening.
The next shot shows him in the new staircase, again looking confused and disorientated. This shot is a low angle shot, which implies that he actually does have the power to stop these events, but perhaps it may be very difficult for him to do.
This shot demonstrates the feeling that he is trapped as the bars on the stairs are made to look like jail cell bars,
As he goes down the stairs, This birds eye view shot is shown. This again denotes powerlessness, and the darkness at the bottom of the stairs indicates danger, or that he is going the wrong way. Because it showed upstairs as a good place earlier, this suggests that the way to safety is up.
This low angle shot of the main character after he is teleported back to the first set of stairs again demonstrates that he has the power to break the cycle, but he must go up which has been implied for a lot of the film because upwards is always shown to be good.
After he continuously attempts to go up and down each set of stairs unsuccessfully, we are shown this shot of him looking down the spiral staircase. The darkness at the bottom implies that down is dangerous, which is contrasted by the light at the top which implies that at the top of the staircase is safe.
This next shot demonstrates his realisation that he has to go upstairs. The close up shows his determined expression, illustrating the difficulty of the task, implying a physical/mental battle to climb stairs.
As he begins to climb the stairs, the camera angle changes from a high angle shot to a low angle shot. This implies that he is gaining power as he ascends the stairs.
Lots of jump cuts are used in the next 20 seconds to speed up the arduous and ultimately boring act of walking up the stairs. As these two shots show he clears a large amount of the staircase in just a few seconds. The fact he is getting higher again denotes power .
More jump cuts are used in quick succession after this as well, which creates a more frantic and desperate mood. The angles alternate between high and low angle, which provides a contrast between the powerlessness of himself when faced with whatever is making this happen to him and the power he is gaining by climbing the staircase and trying to beat the forces that are keeping him on these staircases.
These shots show him agonisingly climbing the stairs, with his mental and physical health draining rapidly, until he eventually collapses to the floor. The camera also goes out of focus, suggesting he is feeling tired.
This shot shows when he has finally given up and collapsed on the stairs. After this, the lights turn off and the whole screen goes black except for his face. This may suggest that the dartk force which has trapped him has descended upon him, or the spotlight on his head could signify that he is being judged or on some form of trial. The high angle shot fully demonstrates his weakness.
He then walks to this long dark corridor, where this over the shoulder shot shows a little girl dressed in a white dress. The darkness in thos room suggests she is bad.. The white dress and the fact it is a small child signifies innocence, which actually implies that she is the good, whereas the main character is actually the bad. This could mean that she has trapped him on the staircase to make him change his ways and be a better person.
The girl then says 'The swallow sings during the day, turns the light on and says 'The owl sings... at night!'. The ambiguity of this leaves the moral of this story to be left to the audience, however it is assumed that this is supposed to cause some sort of epiphany. The light switch being turned on could represent realisation, or it could be juxtaposing the idea that she is a bad guy and actually show that she is good. It also shows that she holds a lot of power over the main character because she controls the lights.
Next, it shows a white feather landing in his hand, which could represent freedom. We are then shown this shot of him appearing in what is presumably the normal world, further signifying his freedom from the staircase. He is smaller in this shot, signifying weakness or humbleness due to his epiphany.
