1. Textual analysis on short film
Russian Roulette - Directed by Ben Aston
http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2014/04/02/russian-roulette/

2. Genre/narrative
• Russian roulette is a short film comedy about a lonely young girl who
lives in London. The young girl (Lucy) finds herself on chatroulette
hoping to find some company. She comes across a libidinous
cosmonaut who she finds very interesting because he is travelling
space.
• Lucy is portrayed as a very lonely and sad character. This is seen when
she pleads for the cosmonaut not to leave “don’t, please” and how
she hates London because its “so cold and depressing” and how
“everyone else is depressed”.

3. Camerawork
The film begins with a close up of
the laptop showing the people on
the website. The camera then
zooms out showing the audience
the name of the website
“chatroulette”.
The camera then makes a
mid shot of the protagonist
Lucy. This shows who the
person behind the voice is
when the camera is focused
on the website at the start.
Throughout the film, there is
a number of shot reverse
shots. This is used to show
the people on the chat

4. Mise en scene
• The mise en scene in the short film is very limited. The setting is in a
bedroom, with the main character Lucy sitting on the bed. The scenes
show her laptop which she is using to communicate with other
people on the internet.
• The protagonist (Lucy) is dressed very casually and her make up is
very minimal; giving off a very naturalistic look.
• The film shows the cosmonaut that Lucy becomes interested in is
placed in space; the man shows Lucy where he is through a small
window.
• The cosmonaut is shown wearing a simple polo top, casual clothing
like Lucy.

5. Editing/sound
• Russian roulette started off by editing in a voice over and an
instrumental sound of a piano being played. Diegetic sound.
• Many shot reverse shots through the scene to show facial expressions
on both the person on the website and Lucy.
• Low key lighting is used. The bedroom looks pretty gloomy to
represent the characters feelings which is depressed and lonely.