British Film Institution Trip, Otherwise Engaged. 

The Short film I saw at the BFI called Otherwise Engaged was directed by Alicia MacDonald. The genre is comedy and romance. The themes of the film are love and social networks.   It is about a man proposing to his girlfriend to get married and how they post it online before celebrating it. 

I believe that the micro feature cinematography is very important for setting the scene and it gives a sense to the audience that they're actually there. The camera is hand held for most of it. Creating the sense that it is from a person watching point of view. This helps the audience connect better with the characters because they have been positioned neutrally therefore not scaring the audience away from the characters because of a low angle shot or not putting the audience in a dominant position. There are some high angle shots such as when he kneels down to propose but its not an extreme high angle. The shot where The man pulls out the ring is a great establishing shot. It creates a sense of beauty and adds to the context which is the man proposing. This establishing shot appeals to the directors audience which is females aged between 35 to 17.  

I believe that performance is one of the biggest of micro features in this short film. With out the performance this film would be nothing. The part where The man is down on his knees and just about to say the words will you marry me. The woman suddenly interrupts him by getting out her phone. This instant event from the female creates a comic effect. It then cuts to a mid shot of the man kneeling down again and his facial emotion shows and tells the audience that man is confused and bit embarrassed. This facial expression adds to the comic affect. The woman tells him to start again nagging him by saying "just go" and at this time she is filming him with her phone. The line "should I look into the camera" is very well timed because the audience is still thinking how is he going along with this and then his question comes out. This supplies the comic effect a huge amount. I believe that this was the funniest line through out the short film simply because of the timing and that he continues the proposal looking at the camera.  

In conclusion I believe that these two micro features are the most important to the film. The performance creates the comedy which is crucial to the genre and the cinematography allows the audience to connect with the characters.