Fridge (1995)

On the second day of the Lens Based Media exploratory stage we looked into film and how stories are told - and the 'universal' structure that most films follow. The short film focused on the story of a dysfunctional community and the struggles that two people face in order to save the life of a young boy trapped in an old fridge. The story starts with a group of young boys trying to scare a homeless man (with burns) with a match - the two protagonists are then introduced when they help this homeless man. As a result the young boys get into an argument with the man and woman protagonists. And because of this they get angry and decide play a trick to lock one of their friends into a fridge (when the man 'Rudy' shouts to let the boy out because 'Alice' asks him too) they kick the fridge to rebel against Rudy. Throughout the rest of the short film it shows the struggles that Alice and Rudy take to get the boy out, some of these include: not having a telephone, none of the neighbours opening up, their addiction, arguments among each other, homeless man and the boy not being able to breath.

 

When watching the short film I felt constantly involved within the story and the characters especially when they faced an obstacle. None of the characters were all good or all bad, for instance Alice and Rudy are both alcoholics however they still try to help this boy even though his friends were arguing with him - furthermore when Alice is being attacked by the homeless man (that they helped at the very start of the film) Rudy comes back and beats him up but stops before any real damage is done. 

The camera angles helped create tension and to give more depth to the story. Such as the image below which shows how the fridge is a metaphor of how Alice and Rudy are trapped within there own struggles as no one offers them help - the building apartments are boxed around them like their own fridge.

image taken from: craigarmstrong.com 

 

My Notes when watching the short film 'Fridge'