Black Button

Textual analysis

I have chosen the short film called, Black Button by Dark Heart Productions.Black Button appears to be a phycological thriller style film. The main character, Mr Roberts finds himself awoken inexplicably in a white room. A man sits before him at a desk and in between them stands a black button. If Mr Roberts pushes it, he will receive a briefcase filled with millions of dollars. Or he can take the key to the door and leave penniless, there is a catch, if he pushes the button it will result in a human being killed.

I have chosen the short film called, Black Button by Dark Heart Productions.Black Button appears to be a phycological thriller style film. The main character, Mr Roberts finds himself awoken inexplicably in a white room. A man sits before him at a desk and in between them stands a black button. If Mr Roberts pushes it, he will receive a briefcase filled with millions of dollars. Or he can take the key to the door and leave penniless, there is a catch, if he pushes the button it will result in a human being killed.

The film starts with a two shot, of Mr Roberts and man sat at a desk. The shot has been used as an establishing shot as you see the room they are in aswellm, the room is a white plain looking room denoting the surrealnesss and loneliness Roberts feels. Roberts looks confussed he doesn’t know where he is, why he’s there or who this man is. The two men talk about why Roberts is there, shot reverse shot is used as the characters exchange words. Mr Roberts doesn’t find out what's happening but he is offered two choices. The shots are very basic and almost give the impression the Director is a GCSE student. But I think this has been done on purpose to reinforce the story line that Roberts has two basic choices to make. The director has not tried to used ‘nice’ or creative shot as this would over complicate the film, after all the the film is just two men in a room.

The film starts with a two shot, of Mr Roberts and man sat at a desk. The shot has been used as an establishing shot as you see the room they are in aswellm, the room is a white plain looking room denoting the surrealnesss and loneliness Roberts feels. Roberts looks confussed he doesn’t know where he is, why he’s there or who this man is. The two men talk about why Roberts is there, shot reverse shot is used as the characters exchange words. Mr Roberts doesn’t find out what's happening but he is offered two choices. The shots are very basic and almost give the impression the Director is a GCSE student. But I think this has been done on purpose to reinforce the story line that Roberts has two basic choices to make. The director has not tried to used ‘nice’ or creative shot as this would over complicate the film, after all the the film is just two men in a room.

The story line now takes a twist Roberts is shown a black button by the man, he explains that if that button is pushed some one will die! This grabs the viewer attention they want to know why, went and how this will happen. Roberts is still confused, he asks what's going on, is this a sick joke? The man carries on the explain that if the button is push some one will die but he will receive $10 million. Roberts tries to leave but the door is looked. He turns to the man and says “ you don’t know who you are messing with” the man responds by listing Roberts name, address, family and medical records. Roberts confronts the man saying “ this can’t be real”, the man opens a brief case and shows Roberts the money. At this point Roberts in given another choice, he is offered the key to the door but wont get any money.

Roberts seems interested in taking the money, he asks “ how do I know I wont die?” the man replies “ there are 60 million people in the word it’s a 1 in 60 million chance”. Roberts seems even more convinced and justifies pushing the button by saying “ there’s a lot of people in the world, people die every day” Roberts how many people die in car accidents a year, the man gives an accurate response of 457,576, who is this man is he god? We don’t know who he is this draws the viewer in as they want to find out more.

Roberts tries to find out more asking how will the person die? And what’s in it for the man? The man I very brief saying “maybe and accident I’m here to help you”. Roberts is still confused but is getting closer to pushing the button, but he gets angry with the man calling him a ‘sick son of a bitch’ the man doesn’t appear to care and shrugs it off.

The two carry on arguing, the man is now angry and says he will withdraw his offer he Roberts doesn’t hurry up. Roberts seems torn hes doesn’t know what to do, he gets upset,but he stands up and hits the button. Nothing happens, silence fills the room the two don’t speak for a few seconds, Blood starts running down Roberts face he’s asks whats going on, the man explains that Roberts is already dead it cuts to an external sequence of Roberts driving and crashing his car. Roberts breaks down and the man reveals that if Roberts had taken the key then he would of survived the crash as this is being explained it keeps cutting back to Roberts and hes getting bloodier and bloodier every time. The man packs his stuff up and leaves the room. It then fades to black and the film is over.