The film starts out with an establishing shot, which is a medium shot of a couple who are sat at a bench. The diegetic sound in the background of the scene suggests that the couple are at a train station, as the audience can just hear announcements. The positioning of the shot shows the manner of the two characters, with emphasise on their hands, with both characters with their hands in their lap. The female character is sat facing the male character, and the way she is holding her hands, as she fiddles around with them suggests that she is very nervous or scared about something, however male character is slouching against the side of the bench, and appears much more with a casual attitude, which could convey that he is not as bothered as the female about the conversation that they are having.
The title sequence for the film is very simple, and appears in sections at the beginning of the film. During the various bits of the title sequence, non diegetic music plays, which is used to give the scene an emotional vibe, as the short film is about a couple who break up at a train station. After the first title sequence, there is a two shot of the couple, in shallow focus, and we see a subway train speed along in the background. Both of the characters glance down at times, however the female character continues to appear more upset, as she bites her lip, which could suggest that the male character is breaking up with her, as the male character only glances down. The scene progresses with them talking over each other, with the shot still being in shallow focus, to emphasis the situation that they are in.
There is then a close up shot of the female character, in shallow focus, to emphasis on her emotions, in which we see that she has tears in her eyes and doesn’t always make eye contact with the male character. The camera then focuses on her hands, where she is continuing to play with them, and she announces to her partner that she is really going to miss his hands. This highlights the plot line of the short film, which could suggest why she is constantly playing with her hands, as this is the only thing she has from the relationship that is breaking down. The characters then share a fun moment, after the female character announces that she will miss his hands, and there are close ups of both characters expressions, which suggests that they did have some good moments in their relationship. As the male character is explaining that he hasn’t had many good sleeps in the last two years of their relationship, there is then an eyeline match, from the male character yanking on her hand to demostrate why, in which her phone is thrown from her hand, to seeing the phone slide across the station pavement. As he picks the phone up, the camera pans to the characters, who are now standing up. The non diegetic music from the start of the short film begins to play again, which could emphasis the emotions of the female character, as throughout the film, she has appeared to be more sad than the male character. There is then a mid two shot of the characters, with them holding each others hands, as they talk about the situation they are going through. The female character continues to press about the situation, however the male character feels less fussed. The non digetic music continues to play throughout this scene, to really emphasis the emotions of the female character.
In the background of the scene, there is diegetic sounds of a train approaching, and there is an eyeline match of the female character worryingly looking, which suggests that there is so much more that she wishes to say to the male character. She proceeds to grab him into an awkward hug and whispers something in his ear, which he doesn’t hear, due to the fast approaching train, which she seems upset about, conveying that what she wants to tell him is quite important. Just before she leaves to get on the train, they awkwardly share a final kiss, and the female character says goodbye to the male character, who we now know is called Jack. The next shot is in shallow focus, with a close up of the character’s hands breaking away, which is a very significant shot for the short film, as this emphaises them finally breaking apart. The female character seems as though she longs for his hands as she continues to reach out as their hands break away. It then cuts to the final title sequence, which is a black screen with ‘Your Hands’ in a large, white font.
In the next scene, the female character is shown in a close up shot of her playing with her hands, as she slowly stumbles through the train carriage. There is then non diegetic music that plays, which gives the scene a mood that conveys the sadness of the scene, as she has finally left her partner behind. The camera then pans up, as she pulls her hands up to her upper chest, with tears forming in her eyes, suggesting that she is heartbroken, and is struggling to keep her emotions together in public. She is shown in a medium close up, with tears forming down her eyes, as she is trying to come to terms with what has just happened. As she glances to the side of her, the non diegetic music comes to an abrupt stop, as she realises that her ex partner has got on the same train and is looking in her direction, and they awkwardly say hello to each other. The two characters then are forced to have an awkward exchange of conversation as he explains that his friend wants him to join playing dodgeball. The conversation is shown cutting back and forth between the characters in close up shots, which allows their emotions to be seen more clearly. It can be seen that they both feel quite awkward about the encounter just after they have broken up at the station, particuarly Iris, the female character, who has just been seen by her ex partner crying on the train.
As the awkward conversation comes to a close, Jack proceeds to sit down, and Iris is seen in a medium shot, panning over the train carriage to find somewhere to sit. The camera pans over to Jack, who has sat down next to a conventially attracted female, who is wearing bright pink lipstick, revealing clothing and is playing with her hair. As Iris awkwardly tries to ask someone if she can sit in an available seat where someone’s bag is, there is a shallow focus close up of her hand pointing to the seat, which continues to convey emphasis on hands throughout the film. There is then an awkward stare off with Iris and the person next to her on the train, and mise en scene becomes important within this next scene, as behind the other person there is a matchmaking dating advertisment that says ‘It’s never too late to find love’. This could emphasis that when a person breaks up with their partner, love seems to be everywhere when you no longer have it.
She is then seen in a shallow focus close up to emphasis on her emotions, before the camera cuts to her playing with her hands, and then it goes back to her face, in which there is an eyeline match, as she looks over at her ex partner, who is then seen also playing with her hands, which could suggest that he is dealing with their break up too. As this is happening, there is also non diegetic soft piano music playing, to convey the sadness that she is feeling. There is then a series of eyeline matches, in which the non diegetic piano music ceases, as she glances around the train at other passengers. There is a clip of a woman, who is seen wiping her nose, with snot on the side of her face, the camera then cuts to a child, who waves at her, and she smiles back, before it cuts to two athletic men, who are using the hand rails as gym equipment, and having a weird conversation about their diet. The non diegetic soft piano music begins to play again, as she goes back to playing with her hands, and is seen glancing over to her ex partner again, who is shown in a two shot, with the conventionally attractive female, who is sitting next to him. Mise en scene is conveyed as being important in the next shot, as her attention swiftly moves to a young couple further down the train, who are holding on to each other and showing public displays of affection. Behind the young couple is another poster, which says ‘Love is all we need’, with the word all underlined, which could show that Iris doesn’t have the love in her life, and that she is lost without it. There is then a close up of the couple, as they are playing with each others hands, and Iris lets out a small cry, before adbruptly stopping, as this is something that was incredibly important to her in her own relationship, and she has lost it.
After this encounter, the camera then cuts to her ex-partner and the conventionally attractive female, who looks over at Jake, and smiles at him in a suggestive flirtatious way. Unable to deal with what she is seeing, she proceeds to stand up from her seat, and accidently almost falls, when she is caught by a man, who catches her by her hands. The conversation is shown with over the shoulder shots, two shots and close ups, as at first, he appears to be quite flirtatious with her, and complementing her. However, the conversation takes a strange, comedic twist, as he goes into a sexually inappropriate rap, and Iris is seen in close ups, showing her reaction to the rap, which is none the less, a confused one. The scene then turns distorted, through camera angles, and the diegetic sounds slowed down and changed. When Iris glances around the train in a dazed manner, the various passengers are seen in a strange way, which could be used to represent all her emotions that she is currently feeling. The scene then goes back to normal, as Iris looks visibly upset and confused, and is unable to compose any sentence. As she turns around, she enters the dazed stage again, in which there is an overweight man, with mustard in his beard, who burps at her. The camera distorts around, as the lights flicker on the train, and more passengers are seen being sexual or violent at her. As she is trying to get her balance, there is then abrupt flashbacks to the scenes at the train station as they break up, emphasising that this is what is playing on her mind, conveying what she will miss the most, which is his hands, as she is manically playing with her hands in the present, and during the flashbacks, the hands are emphasised.
The distorted scene then comes to a halt, as she looks up, in a close up shot, and there are petals falling down, as non-diegetic fairy tale-esque music begins to play. She smiles, and as she looks down back to eye level, there is a magician next to her, who was the one throwing the petals up in the air. He then begins to do a slightly flawed magic act, as she stands there, looking so what confused and awkwardly smiling about the encounter. During this scene, there is a significant talk between the magician and Iris, about her breakup, as non-diegetic slow piano music plays in the background of the conversation. The conversation allows her to come to some sort of realisation, as the magician tells her that she needs to figure out how to smile again. He then hands her a paper flower, before announcing she should get a labradoodle, in a much less serious tone.
He then ‘magically’ vanishes, and in replacement of where the magician is stood, is a poster that reads ‘Enjoy the freedom you deserve’, which suggests that she should try to find something positive within her breakup.
She then pans through the busy crowd, and looks at Jack, and proceeds to walk up to him, with a serious look in her eyes. The camera focuses on Jack, as she approaches him, and then pans up when she is there, to convey Iris having the power in the conversation, as she is looking down at him. She asks him a variety of questions that the magician asked her, in which he appears confused and answers no to.
The scene then appears in a familiar style to at the train station, when Iris attempts to tell Jack something, and he doesn’t hear her. Jack grabs her hands, and begins to tell her that he had so much fun in the relationship. However, she seems to simply ignore his words, kissing his forehead and telling him goodbye. There is then a significant shot in which she lets go of his hands, which could convey that she is ready to begin to move on from the relationship. She announces that she is going to walk the rest of the way, and gets off the train when it stops, and is seen in a medium close up, as the train continues its journey. As the train speeds away from the platform, she takes one final look, and then smiles as she walks away. Then, the end credits roll, as non-diegetic upbeat music begins to play, giving the film a positive end.
The genre of the short film is comedy, and this is seen throughout the film in certain sequences, such as the rapper scene and the magician scene. The genre allows themes within the film to be explored as the main character deals with her breakup in public, and the different people she encounters while she is trying to do so. While much of the film has quite emotional vibes, the genre of the film ends up giving it a positive light, as she finally feels she can move on and forget about the thing she was missing the most; his hands.
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