Hello, Friend! - Graham Linehan

“Hello, Friend!” is a short film by Graham Linehan which tells the story of a customer, John, a large hardware corporation, 'Praemus', and the emails between the two parties about a faulty product. The film's theme centres around the concept of customer support and the general attitude of companies regarding their products. This can be linked easily to British identity – something British people are universally well-known for is complaining, and the idea of poor customer support in a consumer society like Britain's is common – the film exaggerates this with an automated response system. The short film also addresses the effect of consumerism on people, as the main character and his friends slowly lose control of their lives due to the Praemus product.

The film's narrative is told through the emails sent between both parties, narrated by either the main character or the automated response (and at one point, the wife of the main character). The film visually accompanies the letter by illustrating each point of the letter with an appropriate clip – for example, when he complains of being burnt by the symbol of the device, we see the character screaming in pain and holding his hand out. During Praemus' narration, the clips will contradict the narration, so as to add humour and to show the unreliability of the customer service. When John suffers a mental breakdown, the film's narrative is played out in real-time and becomes more surreal, with John playing the piano by hitting his keyboard, and the computer appearing with a pop-up listing his life problems. This scene can be considered unconventional when compared to the rest of the film, however generally the film follows a conventional narrational system.

In order to convey the passage of time, the film utilises several things: first, John's office becomes more cluttered and poorly maintained, while he starts dressing increasingly sloppily – he begins in a suit and ends wearing a stained vest. The film also utilises methods to distinguish the emails; the Praemus emails are identified by the clean, empty offices, female voice and high-key lighting while John is identified by more subdued, realistic lighting, male voice and his house, which uses a lot of wooden furniture. The film is edited into a montage of clips to reflect the compilatory nature of the emails, only becoming linear during John's breakdown, to show the audience that the story was building up to that point. In addition to this the cinematography during the breakdown sequence changes, with the lighting becoming more low-key and the use of dutch tilts to suggest the unreal. When showing the Praemus product, the use of low angles and the quiet droning noise make the viewer feel the device is controlling, almost as if it is mind-controlling the user – the droning noise could suggest monotony, as the user has to sit by it constantly. As a result of this we get the impression that the object is the villain in the story, which is quite unconventional for a story to have an inanimate object as the villain – as such, it is not taken too seriously and uses this fact for humour.

Titles in this film are generally conventional – they all appear over black in a fittingly themed pixelated font. The credits appear to glitch, and are transferred in using an effect that looks as if it is loading. The title of the film is shown in-universe, something which is very unconventional – it appears as the Subject of the first email of the film. Titles also appear in-universe as an infomercial for Praemus life insurance, which is a running joke throughout the film.

The purpose of the film is a commentary on technology and the impact it has on people's lives, while also being a commentary on customer support and the lack of interest of corporations to help. It also commentates on how technology can affect people negatively while others benefit. The film is, however, meant to entertain first and foremost, as shown by the humour and light-heartedness of the whole thing.