2AM The Smiling Man

2am The Smiling man uses a dark street location, that is empty and dim, the low use of light makes it dark making the overall feel of the film feel creepy and scary, this is because people feel uneasy in dark atmospheres. The story involves a young man walking along an empty street where he comes across a man walking in a very strange way, at first the guy seems drunk and isn't paying any attention, later its soon revealed that the guy may not be a funny drunk after all, and looks like he wants stalk the main character. This plot is simple yet effective I feel, no heavy plot elements just a light suspenseful thrill ride. The main characters choices felt a little too unnatural and scripted, his actions I feel wouldn't happen in a real life situation, they seem a little silly and prompted. The acting is fine the antagonist does an awesome job of displaying really creepy unnatural movements that make the audience feel uneasy, however the main protagonist seemed a little to over exaggerated with his emotions at times, definitely felt like he was following directions. The film also uses music to help add suspense, the music starts with constant lows and increases to higher louder pitches to add more and more tension to scenes, the music is used quite cleverly as when the scene relieves the scary imagery it takes away the music with the images, to relieve all feelings of tension. It also uses sound effects quite intelligently for example, the sound of the footsteps is used for a scare, when you can hear the footsteps run towards the character, this is quite a unique use of sound techniques to scare the audience. The duration of the film I felt was appropriate, it didn't drag at all, as 4 minutes is quite a short efficient time, also it didn't feel to rushed either. Close-ups are used effectively to add claustrophobia and add more tension visually to the film. Overall I think the film is successful in making the audience feel the suspense and tension of the film, I really like the fact that there is minimal dialogue and most information the audience receives is visual, this adds a huge amount of mystery to to film. Also depth of field is used effectively in this film, the focus is manipulated in a way to reflect on the characters mindset, but also they blur out the background when you can see the antagonist which then get the focused onto him, this is a great way to tease the audience. Also when our character is running away in a panic handheld shaky cam is used briefly and effectively to display the character adding the feeling of panic to the scene. An issue I have is some of the sound effects sound a little over the top and a bit fake (E.G the footsteps), another issue is the last scare I felt was a little silly and not very scary visually, another small issue is the lighting isn't always great sometimes it seems a little to dark and not well lit enough.