Key Narrative of Portals (Target Task)

Evaluate what the key narrative of "Portals" is and how it develops it.

In "Portals" the main key narrative is the twist at the end, which is a reversal fortune where the woman after all the hard work she did, training hard to gain strength, getting away from all the "prison" guards with the help of that portal gun, after all of that as she starts getting to the end and her finally thinking she will be free, she soon realises that she's not actually free and that landscape that she saw that she felt like it was liberty was actually just a screen with a gloomy-type of sound effect being executed to kind of show that it is "game over" like it's her doom. 

"Portals" creates a twist which is surprising since you expected her after all of that hard word and effort to escape the so called "prison" , you expect her to have a good ending and for her to have freedom, the twist is somewhat logical also as in the film the woman uses a portal gun, which is quite game-like so it explains why the woman touches a screen towards the end because she's actually in a game, not in a "prison". This also explains why when the woman was training and getting stronger she somehow like "unlocked" the portal gun.

(Target) - In "Portals" the mise-en-scene is very peculiar, as the music used in "Portals" is very serious and tense, this is used to show that the "game" is serious and that the situation of the woman trying to escape is intense and difficult. This music is also used to show the woman's journey as she trains daily to get stronger ("level up") . The lighting used in "Portals" is very grim at the start, but as the woman embarks on her plan to escape it gets lighter, for example at the very beginning the lighting was very dark, however when she begun to escape the lighting started getting brighter to mirror her freedom and that there is a "finish line" as if you're in a tunnel trying to get out and you see the end of the tunnel get brighter and brighter. At the end, you can see that the woman finally makes it outside and she thinks she's free, this is when the lighting is at its brightest, however once she realises that she didn't actually escape the lighting goes back to being grim and dark and the music is very tense and loud. The editing focuses mainly on the music where it shows the woman training and the music starts becoming more and more tense, the editing focuses in showing what the woman is doing and what she looks at or obtains, i.e food.

Overall the use on mise-en-scene is quite fitting to the short film and it composes it well.