The two short films being compared and contrasted are “In The Fall” and “White Paper”. In a monochromatic world, 6 coloured children are isolated by their families and so leave their homes for being different. The young outcasts become a community and change their world from a grey oppressed world to a colourful and accepting world that accepts people of all colours and tones. "In the Fall," an animated short film by Steve Cutts, is a quirky take on falling to your death. This short film focuses on accepting death when it comes instead of fearing death.
Every element that is part of the design of a stage or a set (carpets, wallpaper, costumes, etc.) impacts the overall colour perception. A director can choose for instance to have every element in pastel tones or in bright colours, and that will obviously create a very different feeling. Every element has an impact on the overall composition. Colour is the most instantaneous and wonderful means for delivering and communicating messages and meanings to the intended audience. Different hues and saturation levels can convey elegance, creativity and seriousness, while others convey experience, excitement, vitality and dependability. In “White Paper”, everything is in shades of grey and black, all except for six coloured characters. These six coloured characters are red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. All these coloured characters are extremely bright and draw much attention by the audience. These coloured characters are different; when they are alone in each house with their families, they feel alone and isolated, but when they all came together to sweep away the storm clouds, they united like all the colours of the rainbow to make their world colourful. As “White Paper” is dedicated to coloured people, the use of colour was extremely important and had to be used correctly to convey the meaning it had achieved. In “In The Fall”, the world is also monochromatic, and the only two coloured objects were a banana peel and a leaf. These two coloured objects were what killed the main character as the character first slipped on the banana peel and almost fell off the edge of the building, After this, the wind blew and just as the character has balanced himself and was about to step back, a yellow leaf blew and landed onto his arm, weighing him down and causing him to fall off the building and to his death. Colour is an important element in film and is used in a way that the audience will be able to understand the meaning behind it and how it impacts the short film.
The use of sound helps convey meaning in each film as sound is related to editing and provides continuity across different shots. A filmmaker may use the same music across different shots to imply that these shots are connected. Sound effects can also be used to create continuity. In the short film “White Paper”, the opening scene’s music is windy, gloomy, eerie and dark; the environment mirrors this as the world is dark with tones of grey and black. The setting is a living room where two parents are sitting on a couch (both are grey), one young character is grey, sitting on a single seat couch and one yellow character on a single seat couch sitting across from the grey character. When the yellow character creates a thought cloud where a grey character is equal to a yellow character, the grey character sitting opposite also has a thought cloud above his head where a grey character has a tick on it and the yellow character has a cross on it. The parents become furious with the yellow character and the yellow character’s thought cloud shatters to pieces like glass, falling to the ground. The parents then crossly point to the door as the yellow character softly sighs, slowly walks off as his heavy footsteps can be heard. The most significant sound used in the short film is after the storm has cleared and scattered sticks have been left on the ground. The yellow character picks up one stick and magical music is played,