Textual Analysis of Short Films - Research -

I then went onto look into short films currently on the market and if they won any awards. I watched many short films, which include About a Girl and Gasman. I annotated these two films and also watched commentary of the films from the director’s view which stated why certain camera angles, actors, themes, locations were used.

Analysis and exploration of short films
About a girl
About a Girl is by Brian Percival and is about teenage pregnancy and abuse. It is set in North England and revolves around the journey a 13-year old girl goes through.

It represents her teenage fast paced life with the quick cuts that move closer and further away from her. The camera walks along with her as she walks down the street which makes it seem as if you are travelling along with her in her story so you begin to sympathise with her as she gets to the canal in the final scene and you realise that she had a baby but got rid of it.

The director of the film said that all the dancing and singing was actually improvised which gave a sense of reality. The songs that the girl would always dance and sing to were by Britney Spears who was picked carefully as she went through a teenage pregnancy just like the girl did.

The shots are always quite low lighting as the weather isn’t very nice, but this represents her life in being dark and mysterious, almost as if she’s always hiding something, which she is, the pregnancy. She opens up in front of the camera because it’s obvious to the viewer that the family never listen to her and she just wants someone to do this. You rarely see the family as this shows the girl has many other things in her life that is always on her mind rather than her family.
After she has visited the canal, the colour turns darker and when she sings the Britney Spears song again, it is sung in a different way symbolizing that she realises nothing is going to be the same again. When the viewer does realise what has happened they sympathise with her and there is a sign of a loss of innocence.

Janey de Nordwall part-financed the film when she sold a percentage of her company to raise money for About A Girl. She got money from her own money the company she was working for, North West Vision, sponsorship and product placement cash. She made her sponsorship money from her contacts in the gaming industry, the company, 3D0. They were interested in how gaming crosses over so many other forms of technology including film. It cost £35,000 to make. It won a BAFTA for Best Short, won a Kodak award, Granada Award for Best North West Short Film and the City Life Best Short Film Award, Best Short prize from the Official Short Selection at Raindance. It was part of the Edinburgh Film Festival, Manchester Short Film Festival and London International Film Festival.

Reviews have said that the film has an unexpected ending and that many people have to re-watch the film as they miss important parts or do not fully understand it first time.

Gasman
Gasman is set from a child’s point of view and shows life which a child goes through when a father has a separate family. The director, Lynne Ramsay shows a car crashing into sugar, representing this as what the girl sees as adult life. Her family is very dysfunctional as her parents lead very different and separate lives, and this is seen by Lynne as it shows little of the parents at first showing that she doesn’t really have much to do with them.

When she looks into the mirror to look at herself, she says "there’s no place like home". This is an important part of the film as it represents her life in being like a children’s film, a bit surreal and makes her seem like every other kid, that they like being at home with the family because it makes them feel safe.

Steven, the brother is reluctant to leave the house, it’s as if he knows something bad is going to happen or that he knows already what is about to happen. The camera fades out to her looking out of the windows with shutters crossing her face, which could mean that she might feel that she is going to find out something or today is going to be a bad day.

They walk along train tracks representing the Scottish poverty that they don’t have any roads and the trains are no longer working. The conversation that the father and the mother of the other child have is almost like a child conversation, slightly awkward. The children all become really separated once they have met each other because they are unsure of who each other are and aren’t willing to find out which hurts them because they know something has happened which their father hasn’t told them. The girls find it easy to communicate over the dresses they are wearing. This shows how easy it usually is for children to get along.

Lynne’s brother makes a joke that she looks like the other girl which shows he might know something and he’s implying that they have some of the same genes so physically they look similar. The father is on a work night out, which he takes the children along to and the dancing at the party is all improvised to give a sense of reality. The other girl sits on the father’s lap, and as Lynne realises what is happening she expresses her anger and represents how violent children can get in situations that they dislike.

As they walk home, Lynne tightens her hand to be horrible to the other girl. As they continue to disagree, the father picks them up to symbolise that he wants everything to be okay, and just for him to forget about everything, but he knows that this will never be forgotten by the children. The children have no explanation and they realise that they can’t do anything about. This represents her life being out of her control and the life changing things children deal with and how they cope.

Gasman won Best International film at the Atlantic Film Festival, won a BAFTA at the Scotland BAFTA awards, won Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and won Best Film at Locarno International Film festival. It was also nominated for Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival and nominated Best Film at the BAFTA's.

Conclusion
The audience are those who use the internet a lot especially those using MySpace or YouTube as it reaches a wider audience. They also promote their films at film festivals and get nominated for awards. If they win, they receive money as an award.
Short films take something current or something the director has been through and shoots it through their point of view. There are no typical features of a small film. On the other hand, the ones I’ve watched are all very fast paced and you don’t really get to know all the characters very well. The locations become very important in these short films because they represent the characters lives and make the audience believe the story being told. The scripts are usually very well written in these shorts as they tell the story without concluding it. None of the shorts have a huge cast because they have little funds.

Primary resources
Watched the three films on DVD and notes that I took.
Watched commentary by the directors.
Secondary resources
The internet:

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1350979/index.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122498/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A19358229
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=z4yWr9LzBeAC&pg=PA152&lpg=PA152&dq=about+a+girl+short+film+production&source=bl&ots=6C-eDdYAog&sig=U8YkGDtwjCUtmsc224H7n7vEMXc&hl=en&ei=I8DFSo-qH8S2jAeq-YQ8&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2#v=onepage&q=about%20a%20girl%20short%20film%20production&f=false

What makes a good short film?

To produce a product that is going to be popular with an audience, I need to know how to make a good short film so that people will actually watch it and be interested to pass it on to other people.

Short Films
When looking at other short films, I found that there were certain codes and conventions to shorts. As a group we will have to decide which codes and conventions to go with and which to go against with justification.
I found that in most shorts that there was one main event focusing on one main character. I didn't really get to know any of the characters and the stories are usually a emotional journey of one's life. As the stories are fast paced there is usually an immediate build up or consequences to an event. Some of the stories were based around a familiar event such as Christmas, the first day at school, a wedding which gives a fixed time frame adding to the realism.
Short films are usually less than 30 minutes in length.

Our Short Film - The Character and the problem
We answered several questions that made sure our story was going to be strong enough to make into a film.
Who is the main character?
Lily, who is the younger sister of Leon. The camera will follow her life, her emotions and reactions. She is 12 years old and lives with her brother and mother. Her Dad has nothing to do with either Leon or her.
What is their problem?
The problem is that she is worried for her brother, Leon who seems to be getting himself into trouble, by coming in late, getting more aggresive and angry and pushing his family away. Lily will hear various things happening such as arguements between Leon and his mother, and between Leon and a friend. Lily keeps looking at Leon for comfort and to let her know that everything is okay, but doesn't get a positive response back.
How will the audience recognise the problem?
Lily will have hardly any speech or none at all to show that she is thinking about her brother and what is going on. She will be a shy character that Leon "shoves" around. There will also be arguements between friends and family so this will also show the audience the deterioration of Leon.
Are the stakes high enough?
I believe so. There are films such as Kidulthood and This Is England which show the response of gang violence from the actual person involved perspective. We are going to turn this idea around so that it shows how the family are affected as there have been families out there who have seen their siblings/son's/daughters one day and they are gone the next. It's a delicate matter for the families involved and we want to represent this through a film. We don't want to conclude it though, as we will let the audience wonder what happens to Leon. This may mean that the audience remembers our film.
Are we telling the story from the best point of view?
We are telling the story from Lily's point of view, the sister to Leon, who is getting himself into trouble. Films have been made before that are from the point of view to the person in trouble so we want to create a short that is from a younger siblings point of view. The younger siblings are normally the one's that get left behind, the one that gets forgotten when the other sibling has all the attention.
What does our story mean?
It makes families aware of how siblings feel in difficult situations such as seeing a brother get himself into trouble and how the trouble gets back to the family home. It also makes teenagers aware that what they do has an effect on their younger siblings, after all we all look up to people who are older than us to know what to do and how to do it.

Institution and Audience - Why are short films made?

I wanted to find out why short films were made to get a better understanding about why they are so popular.



Short films are made to introduce a film director and new actors so that they are noticed within the film industry. They are shown in film festivals and art houses to target film enthusiasts. They reach their target audience by researching and finding out what film enthusiasts and financial backers want to see. They also use past experiences and themes they feel strongly about to put their personalities across. Many directors face troubles when producing short films, they can include budgeting as they usually use a low budget or no budget. They can receive financial support from companies willing to lend money for the film such as the UK Film Council and other financial backers. The locations used are usually of a local place to them or someone in the film's house, this then reduces costs while still being able to make a story.