The Heist: Analysis

Narrative is created to appeal and entice an audience and to maintain their interest. From the start of The Heist, the audience is already enticed by the short due to several narrative techniques and codes.

At the start of the short when the 2 guys are pitching their idea, the film seems to be of a normal structure and chronological code, as they are stating what they want to do where they want to do it. It is when they begin telling the man how they want to do it when the film switches to an anachronic structure, as the viewer sees the different back-stories of every character, each weirder and more detailed than the last. Since the genre of this short is comedy, it is significant that it doesn’t strictly follow Todorov’s narrative theory, as this be seen as comedic. There is an equilibrium, yet it is becomes more disrupted as the film progresses. At the end of the film, the equilibrium is at it’s most disrupted, due to the paradoxical image presented. The equilibrium is not reinstated, and every time there is an attempt to reinstate the equilibrium it is quickly shut down. Furthermore, this narrative features a lot of Proairetic codes, such as phrases like “we also got” The pitchee is also moving the narrative along quickly through his phrase “who else?” used multiple times.

Strauss’ theory of narrative conflict is lightly applicable in this short film. The narrative is driven by a constant conflict, yet an unorthodox one. As the men are pitching their idea, the opposition is the pitchee trying to stop them as he is confused and looks for clarity about this insanity being pitched to him. However if following his narrative theory, this short is left on a sort-of cliffhanger, as the conflict is not resolved at the end yet only heightened.

Symbolic code is also used effectively in this short, to subtly convey to the audience the premise of the film. As the two men go through the list of people the ‘got’ the audience can see the people getting more and more farfetched. This can be seen through the man's confused facial expressions and his confused actions, such as stuttering and hand movements.

The verbal code in this short film is one of the most important factors in getting the creators’ specific point across. From the first line, we can convey that the two men are “crazy” yet when the men say “we don’t wanna hit featherstone’s joint. We wanna hit all 7 of them. At once” The juxtaposition between the characters at the start and the characters at the end is significant and partly conveyed through the use of language. The first character is known as “Jimmy Hayes” and is a getaway driver, which is a common character for a heist. However further on the language becomes more complex and convoluted to show to characters getting weirder, like “our father and son who switched bodies due to a cosmic accident” which is oddly comedic in itself, helping to add to the genre.

Several aspects of editing and camera work in this short has shown how technical code can be applied to this narrative. At the start, idyllic diegetic sounds along with minimal cuts creates a peaceful atmosphere that the audience can clearly notice. However it begins to gain speed which can be seen through the quicker cuts and the upbeat soundtrack added. As the other characters begin to appear in the film, cuts become quicker and more frequent. Different and more unorthodox edits as the film progresses add to the comedic genre trying to be conveyed, such as a change of music, the diegetic sound of the guys screaming and the match on action shot of the wiggling fingers.

The most important part of this film is the characters, as that is the whole premise of the film. It plays on the idea of Propp’s 7 character types as there are many more abstract and oddly detailed characters that feature in this film. The two men could be seen as the hero/protagonist and the other man as the villain, or even the man as the enabler, as he questions these men, inviting them to explain their plan.  However I believe the creator’s of this film utilized Propp’s theory to create a parody-like plot based on abstract characters. Character types such as “Chow Wung, the tiny Asian,” “A crusty dean who wants to outlaw parties” or paradoxically use themselves by saying “we need two very good looking, well dressed con-men PITCHING their heist team to a super rich older jewish guy” as that is what they’re doing.

In conclusion, I believe that this film is made in such a detailed and intricate  way that all of the narrative theories and codes can be applied to various parts of the short film, The Heist.