Short Film Research: About a Girl

"About a Girl" Brian Percival 2001


* About a Girl is following the life of a girl from a working class family in Manchester. The piece is shot following her as she walks by the canal speaking to the camera. However It cuts between her own flashbacks and memories.

* The structure of the piece works well as it manages to condense the vital parts of the girl's life into a beginning, middle and end.

* The first shot of her dancing and singing displays the girls dreams and ambitions; to be a singer and dancer like her idol; Britney.

* The middle shows her relationships with her friends and family.

* The ending as she walks by the canal is a shocking twist as the carrier bag she has been holding throughout the whole film is thrown into the canal.

* The canal shots are shot chronologically as she goes from one place to another but her flashbacks are not made clear if they are chronological and could be random slices of her life from given times in her life.

The titles appear like a text to enforce her cultural background and that she is a teenager.

* The use of sound (much like WFTEOTW) is mostly ambient to reflect the social realism of the piece) In the beginning titles as the words "About a girl" appear they are displayed like how they would on a mobile phone text. Making the sounds of a phone as well to enforce her background.

* The camera work is objective and only shows events how they are as there are no point of view shots which would effect the objectivity of the film. However once she has thrown her carrier bag into the canal she is filmed from a (possibly crane) high angle shot to impose how small she is in a massive city and how her life is only one of millions and her insignificance.

* Editing also helps to display the realism in the piece. The film only uses straight cuts and no other transitions. This displays the objectivity and realism of the female protagonists situation.

* Similar to 'Bulb' there could be evidence of desaturated colour in the film added in the editing post production to put across the girl's bleak life and the miserable Autumn/winter scenery around her.

* The film addresses the themes of class, the working class backgrounds in cities like Manchester where problems like the girl's may be common yet hidden in society.

by George Smale