Short Film Review 3 - "Cool Unicorn Bruv" (Ninian Doff)

Cool Unicorn Bruv is a short film created as an entry to the 2013 running of the 'DepicT!' short film competition.

 The short opens with a long-shot of two of the characters, one of whom is describing the features of a bike he intends to sell to his peer.
 We can immediately determine the setting by looking at the architecture surrounding them, and their strong accent; this short is set in London.
 We then see an over the shoulder shot of our salesman further describing the features of the bike; specifically a little bell that goes "ping".
 With the other character saying "I like that...", we cut back to the long-shot, this time they kneel down to better observe the lower portions of the bicycle. We then cut to a medium shot, with the potential buyer asks the salesman "What's with the shocks?", referring to the shock absorbers on the frame of the bicycle. The salesman responds by saying "Imported. The best. You can't even get 'em here!", the buyer then replying "Niiice!".

 We then hear the sound of horses hooves landing on pavement, to which the pair then turn their heads to above the camera. The horses hooves acts as a sound bridge, because we then get a motivated edit to a medium-long shot of a man walking a unicorn down the road.
 The potential buyer asks this stranger "What you got there?", we then get a shot-reverse shot in which the man replies "Its just a unicorn innit?!", to which the buyer replies "Oh yeah!".
 He stands up to get a closer look at the majestic beast and proceeds to ask questions such as "Can it fly and sh*t?", "Can  it go really fast?" and "Can it grant wishes?". The man gives answers such as "Nah that's Pegasus", "I can draw the energy out of the universe, ride the frequency of the cosmos and that, and travel the fourth dimension" and "Of course it grants wishes man, its a Unicorn". Our salesman buts in, stating "Yeah well this has got like, ten gears so...".
 The salesman is not happy with the appearance of this stranger, as it is distracting his potential customer from the transaction. He attempts to regain control of the situation by aggressively barking "Alright thank you... See ya later yeah?". The stranger leaves with "Alright. Safe".

 We cut back to the long-shot of our two main characters, with the unicorn exiting shot on the left. The salesman then asks his peer "So do you still wanna buy the..." during which his peer interrupts him with "Naaah!"; exiting shot.
 The short then ends with a long-shot of the man walking the unicorn down the road, with a pull-focus to the salesman who calls the man an obscene name.

 My favourite aspect of this short is the juxtaposition of these young, London men and the majesty of the mythical creature; you would not expect to find such an animal in a borough of London. The characters also seem to act abnormally calm during the interaction, as if unicorns are commonplace in the world.
 As well as that, I appreciate the great cinematography and acting throughout the piece, making it feel like a real TV-drama