Portal: No Escape Analysis- Emily Ferguson

Portal: No Escape

-Media language

-Narrative

-Genre

-Audience
-Representation

Portal: No escape is a live action film directed by Dan Trachtenberg. The genre of this short film is sic-fi, this can be recognised through the micro and macro elements. For example: the cinematography is made to fit typical science fiction conventions within a film. 

Portal: No Escape is has a chronological and linear narrative, the director would have chosen this to express their creative vision effectively without generating any confusion for the spectators. By applying Todorov's five stage narrative theory, we can identify the clear equilibrium form the start, as we are in a isolated setting, clueless of where the woman is located, although this is not presented as normality, the setting and props are used to create semantic codes in terms of Rick Altman's genre theory, enabling us to signify that this is realism in ski-fi. The small isolated room she is held in also gives away that she is the protagonist, not your typical damsel in distress and it also shows that the people who have locked her away are the antagonists. These characters can be applied to Rick Altman's genre theory too as they are typical characters of a certain genre, these are called syntactic codes. 

The shot that most commonly presents science fiction at its best would be the frequent use of medium-shots, making spectators to follow the protagonist and also allowing spectators to both experience and be positioned into the protagonists perspective and also recognise the setting around her. There is no opening title scene in this short, instead it begins with a close-up of a background, no characters or any information of what is about to take place. After a few seconds, we hear a diegetic gasp as a woman bolts upright and stares in front of her. The close-up reveals her facial expression; shock and anxiety, which then generates enigma codes as we are unsure what has happened to her. Other questions from spectators generating enigma codes could include:

Where is the room?

How long has she been kept in there?

Who put her in there?

What has she done to be kept in there?

When or will she escape?

 However, the directer has carefully used this close-up to present the type of mood he would want spectators to feel; anticipating the next shot. 

A long-shot is used to show her standing up from when we woke up, this is effectively used to show the setting and noticing how isolated she is. The decor, dull colour and low-key lighting are all significant micro elements that help us identify the genre; sic-fi. As we track the woman, she notices blood on her hospital gown, generating an enigmatic response from spectators, questioning why she has blood on her gown and neck. A match on action is used when she smashes the mirror to get a shard of glass to check her neck, match on action is used to help the flow of continuity editing, allowing the shots smoothly cut, therefore does not look disjointed. A close-up of her neck reveals a bar code that has been imprinted onto her. 

The imprinted bar code on her neck generates a sympathy response from spectators as we put ourselves into her position, making us feel scared and trapped inside that isolated room. A high-angle extreme long-shot is used with a live camera filter, this is representing the idea that she is being watched by guards. As she recognises the CCTV, we begin to see a high-frequency of cuts of her exercising, parallel to this would be the non-diegetic soundtrack as it crescendos matching her actions in the scenes. This builds intensity through the shots, cross-cutting is used to show two different situations, her exercising and when she is eating her food that the guards give her whilst she reads the wall, all encoded with lines of numbers. This acts as the recognition of the disruption according to Todorov as we can notice how she is solving some sort of puzzle. This is shown through the camera tracking her allowing us to clearly understand her actions, also close-ups to identify certain facial expressions, for example: we she comes closer to escaping, she has sudden smirks and grins. 

The codes and lines on the wall could identify with the barcode on the back of her neck, making it a way out of there. The code on her neck could be the code to escape. Pull-focuses has been specifically used to put the desired object in focus, for example: the woman is put in focus in a medium close-up to enable engagement between her character and spectators. Over the shoulder shots are also used to position spectators, for example: when she is almost studying the codes on the wall, the camera is placed behind her, pull-focusing from the wall to her, putting us into her position as if we are there with her and looking at the same wall as her making us more involved. 

Finally she finds an opening in the wall using the codes, a medium-shot of her holding the portal gun is shown as if we were in the wall being positioned to look at the woman and engage with her achievement and sense of hope of escaping. The portal gun is a vital piece of visual iconography that associates itself as a prop of part of the ski-fi genre. This can be applied using Rick Altman's theory of semantic codes, as the portal gun would be a semantic code to the genre of sic-fi. 

Medium-shots are used to show her body language and facial expression and she begins to figure out what the portal gun does. She points it towards the wall and pulls the trigger. A large orange coloured circle appears on the wall, a medium close-up is used to represent her facial expression full of amazement and astonishment. She slowly enters her hand into the hole. It then cuts to a long-shot to show her pulling the trigger onto the other wall creating another portal which is blue reflecting high-key light into the setting, emphasising a sense of achievement. She enters her hand into one hole noticing her hand come through the other, at this moment she realises it is a portal gun; meaning she can go anywhere. 

As her next meal was served, she pulled the trigger when the door was opened by the guard allowing her to export herself to the 'outside'. Tracking is used to create a sense of following her and running away with her, as it generates a sense of relief from spectators, connecting more with the protagonists identity. Low-angles from then are used frequently to represent her as a protagonist and more superior to the guards chasing her, each of the guards fails to do so making her the most dominant character of all. 

The final scene shows that she has now escaped and in the outside, however the director tricks us and he inserts a plot twist into the narrative. This is created by making the setting look realistic as if she were outside, but as she goes to put her hand out, a medium-shot explains how she cannot put her hand out, as the setting is actually a screen. This generates a shock value response from spectators as hope would have been built and a sense of relief, then we are back to the start, a feeling of isolation, entrapment and confusion. 

The concept of this short film inspires me as the way in which they use portals to portray sic-fi is interesting and not a typical convention of sic-fi films, however it is very much sic-fi as micro and macro elements represents iconography and semantic codes of the genre, allowing us to identify with the themes of the short film. I would like to include sic-fi as a genre in my short film as I would love to experiment with VFX and improve my knowledge of it too.