Textual Analysis of Short Films-Research-

Written analysis and exploration of a range of short films-

About a Girl:

Message- This film portrays how an innocent looking, typical teenage girl is telling the story of her troubled life. During this story, we understand that she has family troubles where she is ignored by both her mum and dad. Also she lives in poverty, so she does not have a high standard of living. There is domestic violence within the household which is shown to have taken an effect on the girl. This is seen through the mise en scene by her expression and speech when she is talking into the camera or to her parents. In the end, the short film ends up showing the girl talking about how she has managed to take a baby without her parents noticing. As she says this she throws a carrier bag into the canal which contains the girl’s dead baby.

This short film has many messages which it tries to connect with teenage lives. One message is that teenage lives are fast paced, and a lot of chaos happens in the teenage years. This is reinforced by the editing as there are many quick cuts and many shots are very short as well. Also the speech is very quick connecting with the shots to create the sense and feeling that teenage lives are fast paced. Another message is that children can become almost independent and left to take care of themselves when their parents do not take much of an active role in their lives. This can also be linked with when they live in poverty and there are family troubles.

Representation- In About a Girl the gender, age and class are represented to construct a certain image and to get the messages across to the audience. The genders are represented as the men like football, work hard and also don’t take as much of an active part in the children’s lives. It is shown that the women spend most of their time at home with the children. The teenage girls are seen to be happy and like pop music and spending time with their friends. This is linked with the ages as the girl acts the same as any teenage girl until it is revealed that she has had a baby, which although it happens is not stereotypical. They are also portrayed to be working class and this is shown through mainly the mise en scene, for example their appearance, the accents and their living area.

All of these things may be trying to show that the British people who especially live in the north are vulnerable to poverty and is trying to expose its most gruesome side.

Themes- The short film contains the main themes of poverty, teenage life and family issues. These are used to show some of the difficulties people face in today’s society. These difficulties can lead to all kinds of implications and in this case teenage pregnancy and death. Short films cover many themes and the ones used can be because of observations within society or past experiences from the people involved with the creation of it.

Style- The mise en scene in this short film and the camera work is used to create and show the different emotions and how the girls thoughts progress until the final scene. The film is shown in a way that feels like a documentary. This makes the film very gritty and realistic. Throughout the film there are many irony's that have messages behind them. One of these is when she is singing the Britney Spears songs, at the time she was a virgin and so there is irony between her and the girl.

From the start of the film, there is light in the many frames and this fades throughout the film. At the end of the film, there is a cold feeling as the colours turn mainly blue when she is holding the carrier bag containing the dead baby. However once the girl starts to walk off, more light comes into the shots to show new life and a fresh start. There is a high angled craned shot right at the end of the film which was used to propose judgement on the girl. The final shot is important as the girl is singing the same song as she was at the beginning. However she is singing it differently to show her sympathy for what she has done. Both the camera work and the mise en scene are used very effectively in this short film to show the girls feelings and how she is reacting to what has happened.

Institute and audience- The film was produced by Silver Films and distributed by Dazzle Short Film Label. It first became known through some short film festivals and its reception was very good. It won many awards like a BAFTA in 2001. The audience for this short film would mostly be people at short film festivals or people who are generally interested in media or short films.

Resources-

www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A19358229

Directors commentary over a DVD of About a Girl.

http://shahlaz.persiangig.com/image/Cinema16_British/about_a_girl.jpg

Cubs:

Message- Cubs is a short film which is about urban foxhunting. The film portrays how instead of gang violence or other crime which is anticipated by the audience, the teenagers in a more poverty stricken place are urgent to be chosen to kill foxes. This goes against the typical convention that fox hunting is an upper class event. It also presents the coming of age and how peer pressure can influence our decisions and make us do things we would not normally do.

Following on from this, it shows how teenagers feel the need to belong. The rituals involved in this, like foxhunting are the same in theory but different in other aspects.

Representation- Age in this short film is explored and shown to be a very important aspect in the short film. The time of being a teenager is shown to be a very hard time because of peer pressure, the feeling of a need to belong and your overall change of who you are. These aspects are represented to influence the decision to kill the fox by the main character and change the person who he really is. Gender is also touched upon as the main characters friend is a girl and as she tries to join the group she is looked down upon because they don’t think she would have the mentality to kill a fox. Therefore the short film is representing women of not being capable to commit a killing, not just on a physical side but also the mentality side as well.

Class is represented as being very important in Cubs. The mise en scene shows that the characters are in a rundown urban area. This makes the audience believe that there might be violence and gang activity. However it is revealed that it is urban foxhunting. This is a very good narrative because it takes the audience back and shows how fox hunting is not just an upper class event, and also shows its brutality. This takes the whole idea out of context and exposes issues in a new way. Therefore, the aspects of people and the culture that are represented in Cubs are not typically conventional which makes it a very effective short film.

Themes- The main themes were identified earlier, and they are peer pressure. This is a very big issue for teenagers as many are affected by it and do things they would not do if not surrounded by those other people. Another theme is the need to belong. This also relates to peer pressure and in this short film affects the teenagers involved. This theme is also very regular in teenager lives and has happened to mostly everyone.

Style- The director based this short film on a documentary about teenagers who do fox hunting, but not to the extent shown in the film. The location used in the film is a rundown area, which gives the audience the idea of what the narrative could involve straight away. Most of the film is filmed in darkness, which could be used to show the darkness in the event that the teenagers are going to participate in. During the start of the film all of the children are playing football which shows their child like attributes and how they are still only children. After this they are seen to run over to one man and from here many close up shots are used on him to show his power and authority he has, as if he were a leader to them.

The chase which entails and involves the fox being caught and killed is very brutal and shocking. This is very effective camera work in making the audience feel their raw emotions emerge. Also in this scene the teenager has to choose whether to shoot the fox. This is also very effective camera work as it shows the teenagers face in a close up and then the other surrounding teenagers almost forcing him to kill it. The mise en scene and the camera work are both used here to create an effective story of peer pressure and the brutality of the sport that people take part in.

Institute and Audience- This film was produced by Free Range Films and was funded £8500 by the UK Film Councils new cinema fund. It was nominated for the BAFTA film award and won the British Independent Film Award. The main reception for the film was that it was very good, however people have criticised it for being too graphic and hard to watch. The audience for Cubs would be people at short film festivals and people who are interested in short films.

Resources-

www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A16624334

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A15822317

http://www.filmlondon.org.uk/image_library/12/11/1769.jpg

http://www.specialten.com/media/database/00080.jpg

Gasman:

Message- Gasman is a short film from a child’s perspective, showing how this child discovers that her dad has another family and that her dad is not as special as he was before. It is set in an industrialised lower class area, which looks poverty stricken. The main message in this film is that children can detect what is going on, even though their parents don’t think they have an idea of what they are talking about or what is going on. Following on from this, it also explores dysfunctional families and the effects it can take on the children.

Representation- Age is the main representation explored in this film. As it is shown from the child’s perspective, we see things as if we were the child. It seems as though the children understand what is going on in the situation, but the parents are oblivious of this. This can be seen when the boy is playing with the sugar at the start and he says he doesn’t want to go to the party. This implies that he knows about the other family from last year’s party.

Class is another important representation in the film. It is seen that it is set in a poor area of Scotland and that the area is industrialised. This could mean that it was brought down through the Thatcher age as many industries were shut down. Therefore the area may have become lower class and full of unemployed people. Therefore the film may be trying to represent that in these hard times people become less family orientated and stray to other people; consequently leading to dysfunctional and hidden families.

Themes- The main theme is lower class families and the ignorance of parents of what they think children hear and understand. These are both explored in a way that makes us understand about how the children feel when they discover something that could ruin the rest of their lives.

Style- The mise en scene used in this film makes a very hard image of how families can be broken by one selfish member of the family. From the start we see the boy play with some sugar and a car to represent snow, as it is at Christmas. The film starts and is mainly like a child’s view and we do not see the adult’s heads for a long time. We only hear their voices and see their body’s; this creates a sense of how a child sees things that are going on and how their presence can be ignored. As the short film progresses, we see the children and their dad walking along some old abandoned train tracks. This then leads to the other family arriving and we see how the children look at each other with some confusion and hostility, especially the older ones knowing that they are related in some way.

The party brings some shots which show how children enjoy Christmas as one of the best things that has ever happened, but as the main girl is dancing, she sees the other girl get on her dads lap. This leads to the realisation of that the girl is her dad’s daughter which will change her life forever. The final shots show the pain and anger the child is going through.

Institute and audience- The film was produced by Holy Cow Films. It won four awards including the BAFTA Scotland award and was nominated for another two; these included it being shown at Cannes film festival. The reception was mainly good, using very good mise en scene and camera angle and shots to portray the desired messages. The films audience would once again be people at short film festivals or people who just enjoy watching short films.

Resources-

http://www.britfilms.com/britishfilms/catalogue/browse/?id=D5FD9B420eeaf2E8F5lQlKCEEBFE

http://shortfilmsblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/gasman.html
The film shown on a DVD with the directors commentary. http://www.britishcouncil.org/gasman420.jpg

http://www.cinema16.org/uploads/gasman.jpg

Summary-

These films do share typical conventions with other short films, such as all of them having a narrative which is constructed in a way to shock the viewer when the conflict or main aspect of the film is shown. Also, the plot's in these films are trying to portray a very strong message which is common for a short film as they are designed to deliver an exciting and sometimes disturbing climax. In all of the films there are many fast, hard cuts especially in Cubs and About a Girl as they are trying to show fast paced teenagers lives. This could be the style to their film and for our film, we plan to use a style of jump cuts. This although must be used with caution, should give a more shocking feeling and really show some shots in the film that need to be exploited to get their full effect. Gasman uses a lot of establishing shots which can also be true with Cubs and About a girl. This could be also seen as another convention of short films, but for My Brother Leon we are breaking this convention by not using any main establishing shots of the location, because we wanted to focus on the narrative so the audience doesn't get distracted by the stereotypes of certain areas. Production wise, Gasman seems to be more of a higher production than the others, that seem to be more up to the level of our production. This is most likely because of the budget that they had.

The credits and titles for the films all follow the same pattern as there seems to be a conventional way of showing the credits, title of the film and everyone who was involved in the film. In Cubs, there is the first shot of the film, then a title screen showing the name of the UK film council who were involved with the film. It then cuts back to the film and there are two more shots before the names of the main actors are shown. The title for the film then proceeds this and the full film is then shown. The credits occur at the end of the short film. In About a Girl, there is the name of the producing company straight away and then the title for the film. The film is then shown and at the end the credits are shown. Therefore the titles and credits shown on short films seem to follow a similar pattern and we could follow this pattern or break it to make the film different from all of the other short films. The font and style for the credits and titles will need to be chosen so that they look to be consistent with the film and the only way to find out this is to play around with different fonts and to see what looks best.

These short films have all given me information and ideas about what to do for the project and how some production techniques suit different scenes which could be useful to use. Aspects which I enjoyed the most were; the CU's and ECU's that were used in Cubs to portray the emotions and peer pressure the boy feels when he has to kill the fox. This was very effective in getting the emotions from the audience and the sympathy for the boy as he feels he needs to belong and the only way to do this is to kill the fox in a brutal way. Another aspect which I liked was the establishing shots and the mise en scene in Gasman; such as the showing of the abandoned train tracks and the entire area which is obviously deprived of investment and income. These, although will not be used specifically, have given me many ideas such as seeing Lily's emotions through her drawing and notepad that will hopefully capture the essence of what the film is about.

Solely watching these films and learning what their main messages were inspired my creative side on what to do for the production. They were a useful resource which could be looked at again when coming to decisions about the aesthetic side of production such as documents like the shot list. Their main influence has been on the production, as it has allowed us to look at our film critically and decide which camera shots, angles, lighting, sound and other aspects could be used to achieve messages and points such as confrontation and arguments between people. This has therefore hopefully helped me and my group to achieve a film that is aesthetically good and uses the variety of techniques it takes to make an effective short film.

Post-production has also been influenced by these films as they have helped my understanding of where cuts can be used to create the desired effect and what kind of sound levels build up the tension where needed. Continuity has also been recognised by myself as we will need to make sure we get this right to create a cinematic feel to the production and so that it looks professional to people who we are going to show it to. These aspects therefore can be looked at in a creative way, where we can relook at the films when we come to editing and share some conventions in transitional ways that will create the desired effect we are planning to have.

Also from this research, I have realised that you do not require a vast amount of money to get a message or idea across to the audience; as in particular, Cubs was created on a small budget and so for our project we should be able to get across our message as we will not have a large budget where we can spend on aspects such as acting and so forth. Also because of the developments in technology, people can these days get the equipment to produce films fairly easily, and platforms such as YouTube are a perfect place for these to be broadcasted.Therefore people can now produce films with ease and in the next blog, it is shown why these short films are made and how they are of such great use.