Rules of the Game by Tom Daley

This short film follows a groom as he walks around a large country house sharing his thoughts with the camera.  The use of a dirty, ordinary car and minimal cast members, suggest a low budget film.  In the opening scene, the woman the protagonist talks to appears in a hurry to escape his company.  He then spends the rest of the film by himself, which suggests that he feels alone.  As soon as he’s on his own he begins to talk to the camera, which makes the audience feel like they’re involved in the film.  The film has few characters as he describes his plans, which are acted out by himself to show that he is completely alone in the plan process.

The use of the words ‘you may already know it’ makes the audience think that the story will be predictable, which contrasts to the actual outcome.  The story is described positively until you hear the front door creak as he enters the house, which is dark and empty to capture the mood of the rest of the story. The house is used to describe things which have already happened in the past, which gives a visual to his narration.  The use of the loud splash of water and the underwater shot, followed by his sharp intake of breath, represents the paranoia he felt at the time being described.

When he speaks of confronting his fiancée he’s in a dark room, but when he admits that he hasn’t confronted her he opens the doors and goes outside, which shows that what he wanted to do remained in the dark recesses of his mind and was a big contrast to what he actually did.  The fact that he didn’t know what type of dance classes his fiancée did shows that the affair wasn’t the only thing he didn’t know about.

The repetition of the fact that his fiancée was having an affair with his best man enforces how hurt he was by this, even though he doesn’t show the emotion much whilst telling the story.  The intensity in his voice when describing what he wanted to do to his best man shows the audience how much he wanted revenge on his best man, rather than showing aggression to his fiancée.

The sound of the bell highlights the key point of his revenge, and the long description of why he had chosen that moment told the audience how much he had been thinking about and planning this.  He shows sadness in his face when talking about his fiancée, but hardens with aggression when mentioning his best man.  But when he talks to his best man on the phone he shows no sign of his feelings in his voice.  When the crossbow is revealed, the audience immediately realises how much this situation has hurt him, even though he hadn’t shown a lot of negative emotion during his narration.  The intense look on his face when he looks at the camera and says, ‘see you soon’ to his best man, tells the audience how serious he is about what he’s going to do.  The use of the song at the end of the film, with the first word ‘hopelessness’, enforces the hopelessness of his situation.