1. Textual Analysis of Existing Short Films

As part of the a2 course, in a group, I will create a short film, a poster to market it and a magazine review page. In order to gain a greater understanding of short films and the media elements within them, I watched many short films on the BBC Film Network website. Another short film I watched was by director Lynne Ramsay and called 'Gas Man', which helped me see what technqiues are used within short films and gain some ideas form my own short film. In this post I will write a textual anaylsis on the short film, including a detailed analysis on camera, sound, editing and mise-en-scene.

During the opening to the film there are close up of many differnet parts of the house such as someone cleaning a shoe, a suit being taken out of a bag and a boy pouring sugar over a toy car. This helps to connote the idea of the film being from the young girls memory because it picks out the key detail oif what she remembers from her childhood. This screen shot of the young boy pouring sugar over a toy car also helps to show that the short film is set in winter as it could symbolise snow. Another way that this shot could be viewed by the audaince is to show that the boy is isolated form the family and more of the parents attension is focused upon the young girl whilst the boy plays on his own. This idea is also shown in the long shot as the two young children walk along the train tracked and up a hill with thier father, the father is playing with the young girl whilst the boy is left to walk by himself.

 

There are also a lot of close ups used upon the characters faces. The close ups of the young girl help to show the audience that the story is shown from her point of view and helps the audience to sympathise with her as it shows her facial expressions which hint towards how she is feeling. The main place is which these are used are at the Christmas party when the other daughter is sitting on her fathers knee and the young girl is jealous, this close up in then followed by a point of view shot from the young girl which helps the audience to see why she is feeling this way. 

For most of the film, there is slow paced editing with just normal cuts inbetweeen shots. This helps to create versimilitude and make the film seem like real life. As the father is carrying the young girl along the train tracks, there is a blur around the edges of the shot. This connotes the idea of the short film being a memeory form the girls childhood. This idea is also shown in some parts where the shot is put into slow motion. This suggests that the girl can not remeber every exact detail about ther childhood and is confused about some parts of the story.



The short films opens with dialogue of a child screaming and a noisy household. This introduces the audience to what the short film will be about, the relationships within a family, and also connotes the idea of chaos and the family not being happy or having an ideal family life. Through out the film there is diegetic sound of christmas songs, such as Let It Snow, playing through the scenes. This helps with the setting as it shows that the film is set around christmas time. 

The mise-en-scene, particularly of the setting, adds to the story line and helps the audience gain a greater understanding of the life the characters have and the situation they are in. The setting of the family home in the first scene has a 1970's theme so shows that this is when the film was set, also the messy house and ironing board being house connote the idea that the family are working class and because of this they are very busy working and trying to raise a family simultaneously and they are struggling. The costume adds to the setting as all of the characters are wearing coats which suggests that it is cold outside and therefore winter. This is built upon through the man wearing the santa costume and also other aspects of the film such as the christmas music playing in the background. Setting the film around christmas time should connote ideas of childhood excitement and wonder, however in this particular short film, it could be seen that it is used to show how the young girl's childhood memories are sad even when the should be happiest. The character movement of the young girl when she sees another girl on her fathers lap is very slow and shocked, this suggests that she is unhappy at the sight and shows her disappointment. At the end of the short film, the father is walking all of his children home at night, in this scene, natural dark lighting is used, this shows the girl is unhappy and her memories of her childhood are not joyful as they should be because of her father's other family.