'Otherwise Engaged' - Analysis By: Unknown 2 comments

Otherwise engaged is a short comedy, romance directed by Alicia Macdonald and produced by Helen Grearson which was released in the UK in 2015 and has a running time of 4 minutes 32 seconds. 

It follows the story of a young couple; Meg and Dave who, in just a few 'filtered moments', find themselves looking towards the future of married life together, but not before 765 of their closest friends and colleagues have to make the engagement official by liking their announcement post. 

In short, the film is about the way that technology and social media our increasingly consuming more and more of our lives, and plays on the idea that nothing is official unless it's documented online. It also touches on the themes of love and relationships.

The film begins with a long shot, as seen below, which establishes their setting of a public park, on top of a small hill surrounded by beautiful scenery. Although they are a good distance away from the rest of the passer bys and dog walkers, the fact that the proposal takes place in a public setting also reinforces the idea that in order for such an event to be official there must be some degree of an audience, be it in person, or online. 

In terms of Meg's reaction to the proposal, although made realistic by her initial gasp and the light in her eyes, within seconds that is replaced with the compulsive need to have to share it with the world, whilst Dave is in mid speech. 

An interesting use of cinematography here is when we view Dave through Meg's phone, just like one their 765 friends. This suggests that perhaps Meg herself is watching him through her phone rather than in real life, again reinforcing the idea of how distant we have become from even our own lives through the ever increasing use of technology and social media. 

Like wise, this constant use of phones as a prop is used effectively, as part of the mise en scene of the film, in order to reinforce this idea. Their bright clothing, along with this almost constant use of technology also juxtaposes with the beauty of the scenery and the proposal itself. 

At the beginning of the film we can also here Meg's diegetic music playing through her headphones, again suggesting the distance between not only her and Dave but also her and the outside world. Other than this the only other sounds we can hear are the characters voices and their use of vocie over during the credits. 

The use of a from above shot here is effective as it shows who holds the power in the relationship which quite clearly is Meg. 

The actors' performance in the film which is what really brings home the 'social media' theme, particularly on the line when Meg says; "Can we just enjoy the moment for a minute, before having to make all the phone calls?" Without even looking up from her phone. This unintentional hypocrisy, along with their mixture of excited and doubtful reactions to each other's suggestions for the big day makes their relationship very naturalistic, as of course unlike their portrayal in many Hollywood romance films, the average couple isn't actually 'perfect'. 

For example, we can see here from her displeased facial expression as his suggestion of 'actually attending the church on Sundays' that they also don't always agree on everything. 

There isn't a particularly complex use of editing in the film and it is mainly low speed throughout. 

Finally, at the end of the film it is interesting to note that rather than using moving image whilst the credits rolled, they chose to use still image 'selfies' here. This is effective as again, although in these images they seem really happy in the moment, we know that in reality Meg was actually worrying about 'fat face' and it being from the wrong angle. 

This, along with many other of the micro featural choices made in this film help to reinforce the idea that  nothing is official unless it's documented online... and liked by your 'friends'.