Elefante Pablo LarcuenElefante is a non-English-Language award winning short film by Pablo Larcuen. The plot is: Manuel is stuck in a monotonous job, has only one friend that he cannot stand, and his family despises him. Everything will change when the doctor diagnoses him with a rare disease - Manuel is going to turn into an elephant.

The piece prior to the diagnosis attempts to illustrate the extent of the monotonous nature that surrounds his occupation and life. This representation has been given predominantly through the use of editing. The editor of the short film uses colour grading in order to dull the mood, in the piece it appears as if the shots have been tinted grey in order to present the dingy feel to the audience. The representation of repetitiveness in his lifestyle is also enforced through the use of mise-en-scene. The stereotypical cubicles of an office are enforced upon the audience though the use of establishing shot, this gives the representation of uniformity and tediousness. Clothing and makeup along with the colour grading imposes the grey dreary nature of Manuels life. The clothes that he wears are predominantly grey and beige which give the representation of simplicity and conservativeness. The depression is transferred from the plot to the audience additionally through the use of dialogue, I doubt he sees me as a father and I lost my wife ages ago.

I believe the audience for the short film Elefante was adult males aged 30-40. The director Pablo Larcuen targeted this audience through the use of the protagonist fitting in this age group. His lifestyle matches the stereotypical routine of a male in this age group, two young children, one boy, one girl, a wife and stuck in a dead-end office job. Through using this as the protagonist, audiences that match his profile will be more likely to view the media as according to Blumler and Katz Uses and Gratifications theory 30-40 year old men will watch and enjoy this short film as they will be viewing the media product for personal identity. Conversely the secondary audience to Elefante could arguably the Spanish as it is a short film spoken in Spanish. Therefore it can be assumed that according to Stuart Halls theory of reception that Spanish would more likely take the preferred reading because the ideologies would be more likely relatable and the meaning of the script wont be lost in translation.

Elefanfate delivers the ideologies that people should try and break free from the normal, standard, stereotypical life. This short film in my opinion challenges the stereotypical life of human race, it brings questions as to whether we should try and change the process of school, then work, then love, then marriage, then children, then retirement and finally death. This ideology is portrayed throught the use of the plot. In the beginning Manuel is a man who hates his life, one that he has lived parralel to the expectation (school, work, marriage, children). Through a life changing event he breaks this pattern and in the end loves his life, despite the fact he is now an elephant.

Media language has been used throughout Elefante to demonstrate and exercise Pablo Larcuens ideologies. Firstly he uses many greys and beige colours to show the extent at which Manuel hates his life. The use of greys connotes depression and the use of beige connote uniformity, combined implying his hate for his life is on going. During the shot reverse shot sequence between Manuel and the doctor, the doctor acting as the donor from Propps stock characters theory. He is one of the few characters wearing white and gives the elephant diagnosis to Manuel. As he is the donor and wearing white it connotes that he is giving Manuel his purity again. The colour red is only used once in this piece. Manuels wife is wearing red lipstick in the scence in which she betrays Manuel and cheats on him with his best friend. Red typically brings the connotation of evil. In the short film his children are lead to believe that its his father who is evil yet Pablo Larcuen challenges this belief through the use of the make up.

The institution behind Elefante is a Spanish production company called Escandalo which specialises in short films, such as Elefante. Conversely this film production company concentrates on producing romantic short films, such as I love U. In these previous romantic short films the contradictory ideology is portrayed, that the ultimate fulfilment from life comes from school, job, love, marriage, childen, retirement and death.

In this short, it appears as if Manuels son acts as the heroin, whereas everyone else acts as his Binary Opposition (Levis Strauss). This has been created by getting the audience to root for Manuel and how every one else darkens his life. This story is set in the suberbs of a Spainish town which relates closely to the ideologies conveyed in Elefante. The narrative in the short is linear, the events are in a chronological order, implying that the preffered reading would be for us to follow Manuels journey and understand the events as they happen and how it effects Manuel.

The genre of this short film is naturalism, ironic considering it stars a man who turns into an elephant. Elefante follows the conventions of a naturalist piece, it portrays the common values of an ordinary individual such as the typical path of life and realistic struggles that a 30-40 year old male could face, therefore is depicts believable every day reality. Conversely some could argue that this short falls under a fantacy, as this is a story about a man who has to cope with turning into an elephant.