Lights. Camera. Action.

This is a short film from RoosterTeeth, a company well known among the internet community for making execllent Halo machinima.


Because it's just dialogue between two static subjects in a single scene the shot types for the first 34 seconds are restricted to mainly just close-ups and over-the-shoulder shots. One shot at teh start does pan a little as a way of introducing one of the characters. The camera also physically swivels between which subject it's pointing to. This gives the viewer the effect that they're physically following the dialogue as it bats back and back and forth between the characters. At the end the viewer focuses on the cup as the subject because the camera tracks it instead of the original two characters.

It has been edited with quick cuts, each shot follows on to the next with no transition. Even the beginning and end are simple cuts to black.
The set design is the RoosterTeeth office so they were working with what they had, this is still useful as it's they wanted to portray an office scene anyway. The room is well lit with natural light. There's a halogen light above but it doesn't show because the set is all equally lit with no major imbalances.
In terms of costumes the character of the manager wears a shirt (it's smart, befitting of an office manager) whereas the laid-back employee has a t-shirt (casual clothing). Each character's costumes anchors their role.
The sound is sometimes non-diegetic as the character dialogue continues when shots change but otherwise it's mostly diegeitc. The volume stays constant and there are very few sound effects and no music to keep the dialogue clear as the main focus. The sound doesn't seem distant, perhaps it was captured with a shotgun microphone on a boom above the conversation. The sound stays the main focus because the dialogue is important to the story of the short, the producers want nothing to distract from it. There's also normal 'atmospheric' sound included to smooth out jarring periods of silence.