No Escape

The short film "Portal: No Escape" starts out with a woman experiencing something that I'm sure all of us have experienced as a nightmare. She wakes up in a dark room with no recollection of who she is, where she is, or how she got there. Instead of breaking down or panicking though she keeps calm and prepares herself for whatever this new life might bring. She makes her escape with the help of a sci fi portal gun (this is a fan film based on the video game Portal) only to find out that she is just as trapped as she ever was.

With no dialogue in the film, the use of easily readable signs is very important. From the first 10 seconds it is very easy to "read the room" and get an idea of what is happening. Cold florescent light, cement walls, ratty cot, and standard issue clothes all read prison cell. It is also interesting how the position of the subject changes during the film. She is obviously below the guards at the start, but then rises above them midway through, but then realizes that the whole time she was below someone else.

This film's real "argument" is to take a standard archetype and break it. There is media everywhere talking about escaping from ones captors, but fewer people look into what it is like to just be trapped somewhere, whether physically or emotionally, with no power to control things for yourself.