operator- Caroline Bartleet (2015)

operator is about an emergency phone operator, that is trying to guide a mother and her son through a house fire. The short film accurately shows a realistic series of events. It is almost solely driven by the operators performance, as we don't see the other side of the phone. The film creates tension through keeping you half in the dark, which aligns you with the operator as she frantically tries to save the mother and child. You feel for her in an almost frustrating way, because although she can guide them, she cant physically help them which adds an element of the unknown, this creates the tension. There isn't much, in terms of other micro elements, to comment on. This because it is hugely focused on the actor's performance. Though the lightning comes from just the computer screen, which creates a dark-blue over tone that contributes to the tension and severity of the situation. It is also very dialogue heavy, with fast flowing very natural sounding dialogue which gives the film a a fast pace. I really like how performance driven this film is, very effective for building suspense. I would like to do something similar in my own short film, creating that can be driven by how characters act and react.