What is a
short film?
A short film
is a "slice of life", a vignette, or an opportunity to offer a window
into another world. A short film is defined as “an original motion picture that
has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including credits” according to the Oxford Dictionary. A short film often
highlights directors skills and allows them to exhibit their creativity.
Codes
& Conventions of Short Films
1)Characters-
‘Short films’ tend to stick to 2 or 3 main characters. Due to the short
duration they don’t have time to create deep back story or history for
the characters, therefore character numbers are kept low to allow the audience
to relate and understand the characters in a small amount of time.
2)Twist-
Short Films often feature a ‘Twist’ which is used to make the short film more
interesting despite it's short length. Without a Twist in a Short Film the
storyline would be less interesting.
3) Budget-
Short Films typically have a low budget due to the directors being independent. Therefore they keep their budget down by sticking to
one or two locations and only using minimal actors.
4) Length-
Short Films usually have a max length of 35 minutes but are typically around 5
– 10 Minutes long. If these ‘Short Films’ were any longer they wouldn’t be
classed as ‘Short’ and would be named Feature Length.
5) Situation-
Short Films usually take an everyday situation that the audience can relate to
but present it in a slightly different way. This allows the viewer to relate to
the Short Film, but at the same time create a interesting narrative.
Discuss
the narrative and the restrictions that come with
a time-bounded project?
A time-bound
project follows hard deadlines and has minimal duration therefore directors
have about 10 minutes to tell a story, this means heavy
mise-en-scene etc is needed to provide background to enable the audience to
understand the narrative and get a sense of the characters.
What is
your reaction to the short films?
In my
opinion, short films capture interest immediately as they jump
straight into the narrative, there is no build up and the audience feels as if
they are also thrown into this story world. Both narratives in Lynne Ramsey's "Gasman" and Andrea Arnold's "Wasp" focus heavily
on childhood and aim to show perspectives from both parents and young
children.
Textual Analysis: Short film comparison
The short
films- ‘Wasp’ directed by Andrea Arnold and ‘Gasman’ directed by Lynne Ramsay-
both share similarities within their representation of childhood.
The story of
‘Gasman’ addresses issues of adultery and deceit, with the father of a
working-class Scottish family living a double life. The film raises many
controversial issues, including poverty and unemployment. Whereas the
story of ‘Wasp’ represents a typical council estate lifestyle, it tells the
story of a mother who hasn't yet accepted her responsibilities of motherhood
and still wants to go out and have fun.
Both films
have a strong sense of regional identity; ‘Gasman’ portrays a traditional
working class Scottish family whilst short film ‘Wasp’ represents a single
parent living in East End London. Both films make their locations instantly
recognizable through the mise-en-scene of the setting and accents. Both
directors rely on accents to translate to the regions and deprivation of the
characters. However in short film ‘Gasman’ the shot showing famous Scottish
landmark “Red Road Flats” conveys the location to the audience. Similarly the
shot in “Wasp” showing the mother and children poorly dressed and unkempt gives
the impression of living in poverty and deprivation. (PICTURE)
Lynne Ramsey
is known for her unusual style and ability to explore different cinematic
techniques. For example the beginning of the film ‘Gasman’ uses
multiple close-ups of individual members of the family getting ready for
an important occasion/event, suggested by the smart clothing. These
close-ups focus on various different body parts for example one shot focuses on
the young girls legs. This creates suspense surrounding the main
character's identity. Therefore this means the audience will continue to watch
until a main character is established. Throughout the opening, diegetic
music of the Christmas songs ‘Let It Snow’ and ‘Winter Wonderland’ are played,
therefore suggesting its Christmas time in which the film is set. These
cheerful Christmas songs juxtapose with the sound of arguing and
shouting. Morever in ‘Gasman’ Ramsey uses intertextuality. We see the young girl click the heels of her shoes and say, “There’s no place like home.” This mirrors the character in the film ‘The Wizard Of Oz’, suggesting the girl’s innocence and vulnerability. The mise-en-scene of the house/setting suggests the family live in a underdeveloped/poverty stricken area, grey lighting is used to represents the lack of money to afford to decorate the house.
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Shot from Gasman: Young girls legs
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However Andrea Arnold on the other hand focuses on realism
and in depicting narratives and representations. For example we are first introduced to the mother
during the scene as she runs down the stairs with her children shouting for
them to follow her, this immediately demonstrates her irresponsible parenting.
She runs through the street holding her half naked baby with her three scruffy
looking children, the mise en scene of her clothing shows her disorganisation as
she appears to not even be dressed and wearing only her night gown with no
shoes. The hand held camera throughout the opening helps to emphasize the
desperation/frantic feeling felt by the mother. (PICTURE)
Arnold uses natural
lighting throughout the film, to give the impression of reality and realism. The use of ambient sounds add to the
impression of a realistic gritty lifestyle the characters live in. The sounds
used include car noises and the baby crying, neither are pleasant sounds,
showing what a stressful lifestyle the characters have. When the mother Zoe
meets an old friend David she is quick to tell him that they are not her
children, this highlights the lack of maternal instincts Zoe has and the shame
she feels about being a young mother this mirrors the shame the father feels as
he keeps his second family a secret. As the characters arrive home the
mise-en-scene of the house suggests the poverty they live in, they only have moldy
bread in the cupboard and as a result of this Zoe gives the children a bag of
sugar to share. This shows bad parenting, the poor diet of the children is a
motif frequently shown in the film as they only seem to eat "junk
food" such as chips, crisps etc.
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| Screenshot from Wasp: Eating Sugar |
In Gasman, we see the
family walking along an abandoned railway line through slow tracking shot this gives a sense of infinity and hopelessness as these tracks appear to never end. In this over the shoulder shot the girl is backlit which creates a viewpoint so that we can see people walking away from her, she drops the stone she was holding. This connotes the anger she had felt has now dissipated. This creates the message to the audience that life is too short to feel negative emotions and that we have a lot to learn from children. (INSERT PICTURE)
We then meet the other family who we assume
to be the man’s mistress and their two children. The mise-en-scene of the
children's clothing presents them as dirty and unkempt, similar to the representation
in Wasp, this is emphasised when one of the other children’s says “Look at the
clothes they’re wearing, they look like tramps.” The simple, dirty clothing the
children are wearing suggests poverty and how the father is unable to provide
for both families. Similarly in ‘Wasp’ throughout the film Mother, Zoe,
is shown to always shout at her children every time they talk about food that
they want, this is because alike the father in Gasman she is unable to provide
for her family.
The family
then arrive at a pub where the camera pans to show the father at a table
full of men drinking, taking us into a drinking culture where kids are
forgotten about also an issue addressed in Wasp. One of the children sits on
her father’s lap, the other child immediately notices this and attempts to pull
the girl off her dad’s lap saying “That’s my daddy” repetitively.
The girls begin to fight with the quick cuts and editorial pace showing
aggression and loss of control. Shortly after the family leave the pub, and the
film comes to an end as both families return home. The idea of drinking
culture is also addressed in Wasp as Zoe leaves her children outside a pub in a
very grotty area while she goes inside to meet David, her date, this is an
example of her poor parenting. The safety of the children is questioned as they
run around in the road screaming while the sound of traffic is foregrounded. (PICTURE)
