The Ellington Kid

 

The Ellington Kid

    The Ellington Kid, directed by Dan Sully, tells the story of a stabbing in London, narrated by 2 young boys in a kebab shop. This narration of the story from their perspectives adds a comedic sense to the film.

    The micro elements work well throughout the short film to accurately portray the dark, gritty streets of London at night, and create a sense of foreboding and fear. This can be seen from the very first shot; a close up of the kebab shop owner sharpening his knife, and then chopping up a slab of meat. These 2 shots foreshadow the violence to come and immediately create a sense of uneasiness in the audience. 

    There is also a contrast between the 2 times that can be seen in the short film: the 2 boys telling the story from the kebab shop, and the London alley and kebab shop that the story is being told about. First off, a contrast can be seen in the mise-en-scène such as the costume of the characters. The boys in the kebab shop wear a leather jacket and a bright blue and yellow stripped top which contrasts to the dark grey and black tracksuits worn by the others. A contrast can also be seen in the setting and lighting; the well-lit colourful kebab shop in day compared to the dark, barbed wire alley at night where the stabbing takes place. The intercutting between the day and night adds some comic relief from the intensity of the story.

When the stabbers enter the kebab shop, eerily lit with a very artificial white light, they are shot from a slightly low angle to appear more powerful and threatening as they appear larger in the frame. In the shot below, the knife is being pointed at/just past the camera which creates a threatening feeling and breaks the 4th wall as the audience themselves feels threatened and involved in the action.

As the stabbers get surrounded and locked in the shop by the workers becoming more and more afraid and worried as seen by their performance becoming less threatening and aggressive and more fearful and worried, a close up of one of the workers holding their knife is used, in a manner very similar to the shots of cowboys holding their guns in the Western genre. This shot indicates the violence that is about to occur off screen and also calls to the name of the film, The Ellington Kid, which is reminiscent of Western films with names such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Billy the Kid. We can see the worker holding his knife and then, out of focus in the background, one of the stabbers suggesting some sort of violence will occur between them.

Non-diagetic sound is used to build tension and suspense as the danger increases and the situation develops. The piece is intense and eerie and creates a sense of unease and fear in the audience as they imagine the events that are about to occur but which are never seen. However, the non-diabetic sound suddenly cuts as we cut back to the boys in the kebab shop in the day. This removes us from the tension that was built up and leaves the audience to speculate about what happens next. It also creates a sense of relief from the dread that the sound and other micro elements slowly built up. 

    The short film follows a simple 3-part structure. We are initially introduced to the setting of the kebab shop and to our narrators Nathan and Beefy in the set-up. The first plot point is the stabbing of the Ellington Kid and his subsequent escape to the kebab shop. The second plot point is the kebab shop workers standing up against the stabbers, grabbing knives and locking the door. Finally, we can assume a fight takes place because of the build up made by the other micro elements but all of it takes place off screen and the only indication we receive of it having happened and of Nathan's story having any truth is a smirk of one of the workers in the final shot of the film.