Bradley Mills: Two Cars One Night (unfinnished)

Bradley Mills

Two Cars one night

 The movie begins with the title credits appearing over a camera shot of the sky which has been edited in order to show that time is passing, The camera then tilts down to reveal the location of a bars car park, this leads well into the opening scene and the title two cars one night. The establishing shot gives the audience further information about location and time and this is relevant to the preceding shots .

(The Boys sitting in the car)

The audience are first introduced to the two boy characters who are sitting in the front seats of a car, one of them is holding the steering wheel and the other is reading a book, this shot is challenging to the generic stereotypes the audience expects from young boys of this age because there are young children who are being left on there own in a car late at night, this and the condition of the car could suggest that they are working class background.

The next shot in this opening sequence shows the car and that more time has passed without the boys or the car moving, there are several cuts between short shots of the boys and longer shots of the environment, In these shots the boys do not appear to be interacting, this creates an enigma about what they are doing and why they are there amongst other questions for the audience to consider.

This calmness is interrupted when a car pulls up alongside the boys car, the camera tracks to the side of the car in order to show the boys reactions to the car, there is an interesting camera shot that tracks from behind the car looking through the windows which obstructs the view of the audience to what the boys are seeing but we can see there reactions, This suggests that the director wanted to prologue the enigma of the scene, and because of the sudden change of camera angles and movement of the boys this suggests that what they are looking at will become significant to the plot.

There is a point if view shot that shows what the boy is looking at, it reveals a young female character in the opposite car who is looking back at the boys car, this creates an 'awkward' moment and both characters try to pretend that they are both not interested by turning there heads away.

The female character is shown gazing at the 'Romeo' the boy character as he is pretending to drive, the female character is shot at a slightly higher angle suggesting that she is a less dominant character than Romeo at least in this sequence.


Romeo is playing with his seat, this allows for his brother to be able to see the girls car, the younger brother then says ''that girl keeps looking at us'' this is the first time we hear the two boys communicate, the accent gives the audience more idea to what the location is being a regional accent, it also shows that the little brother looks for protection from the older brother this is reinforced when we see the older brother shout ''having a good check'' then aggressively winds the window up closed.


Romeo proceeds to say ''don't look over here'' this suggests that he is either being protective of his brother or he wants to enforce his authority, and then he starts to become personal insulting her and calling her 'ugly'.
The girl Character Responds by retaliating to these insults by swearing at Romeo, this is interesting because this is extremely challenging to the upper middle class young girl stereotype that many people expect of the 'be seen but not heard' traditional view, it is also significant because she challenges Romeos status and enforces her power in the situation.

Camera work

This shot from the establishing sequence of the film is particularly interesting, it displays the two cars as almost as borders placing them in symmetry with each other, which suggests to the audience that these two cars have relevance to the plot it also draws the attention to the 'hotel' in the middle. There is low ambient light which shows that this scene is set at night time. I want to try to incorporate this bordering effect in my own film as i feel that it is very effective visually and it also creates an emphasis on the image in the background.

This shot of the girl character gazing towards the boys is also interesting it is almost as if the car window has framed her, she is staring directly at the camera although this is generally not used in film, in this case it is powerful because this is a point of view shot from Romeos perspective this creates a more intimate relationship between her and Romeo and is a good way to develop the characters relationship.


Although Romeo does not respond well at first to this 'gazing' and calls her 'ugly' we later find out that the two characters become quite fond of each other.

Further Notes

• The Boys Status/role model _ _(the tattooed guy in the car)
• Challenges the generic conventions of children
• In some way reinforces them (‘’hey ugly”)
• Interesting relationship between the older and younger brother (The older brother seems to be more childish than the younger sibling)
• The film challenges  the role of the female and how the male character interacts with her
• The ‘’gay’’ little boy, is a unique concept in film challenging the sexuality of a child

• Equilibrium at the beginning with the car sitting there still
• Equilibrium is interrupted when the girl’s car enters the scene and is ‘looking at the boys’

• The Equilibrium is shortly re-established when the boy and the girl start to get along before quickly being separated.

• - so in some ways this film could be seen as ending in disequilibrium which is unusual in ‘romance movies’ apart from in Shakespeare ROMEO
• ‘Romeo and Juliette’ they are separated by death, in ‘two cars one night’ Romeo is separated from the girl because her dad drives her off (family coming in the way of romance) like in Shakespeare