About A Girl is a short film by Brian Percivial, made in 2001. It depicts the story of a young girl from Manchester, walking along a canal talking about her life, with a shocking twist at the end.The genre of this film is social realism. It aims to shock the audience and tell them of the 'real world'.
This film uses the ideas social realism to make the shocking twist at the end more power full.
The film could be seen as a 'slice of life' movie, however there is a definite beginning middle and end to the protagonists story. In the beginning when she is singing we get to see a young girls aspirations; to be like her idol Britteny. in the middle of the film we see the girl progress into her life, giving the audience an insight into her happy, and sad, moments. The shots of the girl when walking are all linear, its only the cutaways that we see that are non linear. At the end of the film when she drops the baby into the canal we see the end to one part of the protagonists story, the end of a difficult nine months. Yet she walks away singing, which brings the audience back to the fact shes a young girl with dreams.
One of the most power full uses of sound is over he shot of the girl walking away form the canal. This shot uses the digetic sound of her singing. Again its shows the audience her dreams. However the uses of her quiet singing and no other digetic sound gives the film an eerie end. Sometimes silence is the most power full sound tool of all. There is no non digetic sound track so the viewer is forced to listen to the sounds of Manchester suburb, which again links back to the social realism of the film.
The repetitive use of the tracking Steadicam filming her as she walks along is at eye level, giving the audience the impression on normal human viewpoint, and further integrating them into the protagonist story. The last shot, a VHA shot of her walking away, shows her walking away from her problems that she dumped in the canal. It also shows how alone she is. Mise en scene is used well. The Northern urban streets become the naturalistic settings in which the protagonist roams. The use of lower class setting, and what may be considered lower class props, costume and makeup also provide the sense of lower class normality the this young girl is struggling to get through. Desaturated colouring also gives the setting a drab and lifeless feel, further accentuating her plight for a better life.Cutaways are used frequently to show what or who the girl is talking about. This allows the audience to see into her life, and eventually why she throws the baby into the canal.
The film represents the struggle of young people in today's lower class system. the audience is make to feel shocked, but at the same time sympathetic towards the girl. Whilst the stereotypical 'chavvy girl' is used for the protagonist, through the film we see that she has a deeper side; the is mor to her then just another teenage girl.
Overall chloe, this needs a lot more if you aspire to level 4 generally. You write well and clearly understand, you just need far more depth. Use particular scenes to demonstrate how meaning is constructed and what you particularly liked. The idea of this is that you identify particular things that you want to incorporate into your own work.
Overall low level 3.
Use hyperlinks as well to link to definitions of key terms and don't overlook editing as you have pretty much throughout!
Overall chloe, this needs a lot more if you aspire to level 4 generally.
ReplyDeleteYou write well and clearly understand, you just need far more depth. Use particular scenes to demonstrate how meaning is constructed and what you particularly liked. The idea of this is that you identify particular things that you want to incorporate into your own work.
Overall low level 3.
Use hyperlinks as well to link to definitions of key terms and don't overlook editing as you have pretty much throughout!