Analysis of Short Films

Cubs - Tom Harper
This short film directed by Tom Harper, explores an aging message, placed in modern day context. The aging message is that of fox hunting, and this film was created around the time when fox hunting was first banned. By placing the film in modern day context, it also is able to comment on the issues of peer pressure and gang crime, as the protagonist does something he is clearly not comfortable doing, for the benefit of his reputation within the gang.
The film is set amongst the backdrop of lower class urban Britain, to reflect the theme of gang crime and street violence within this country. The mise en scene is gritty; the setting being the streets, embellished with graffiti, the lighting during the first half dim and dreary, and then in the second half being lit up by fire light to portray the excitement and danger of the gangs “sport.”
This film is a disturbing and hard hitting look at what is typically known as a sport, commonly associated with royalty and the rich, which has been placed on the streets to convey the similarities between the sport itself and street violence.
Cubs won the Best Short at this year's Rushes Soho Shorts festival in London and has also screened at prestigious festivals around the world including Edinburgh, London and New York.

About a Girl - Brian Percival
Directed by Brain Percival, this short film comments on the neglect of teenagers in society by parents, domestic violence being seen as the social norm, and the ever-common issue of teenage pregnancy.
The film is made up of short and abrupt cuts with fast paced dialogue, the intention being to reflect a teenager’s typically fast paced life. The fast paced shots filled with dialogue are intertwined with longer, quieter slow paced shots, for example of her sitting alone on a bench outside a pub where her dad is. This highlights the issue of neglect and the underlying sense of loneliness. The film has the gritty realism of a documentary, making it seem all the more real.

The film uses intertextuality to convey the irony of the piece. The protagonist begins singing ‘Stronger’ by Brittany Spears, and the film ends with her singing the same song as she walks off. Both times we hear her sing this, are in very different situations with different atmospheres.
About a Girl won a BAFTA, and was shown at the Edinburgh film festival, where it won best British short, London film festival, Manchester international short film festival where it won best north west short film, and at the Raindance film festival.

About a Girl uses short and snappy shots filled with dialogue, a technique we will use in our own short film, to portray the teenager’s fast-paced life, and also to depict a sense of the young girl, Ashleigh, in our film, being thrown into this hectic, fast life when she’s not mentally, nor physically ready. Also, the fast pace will represent how fast young children are growing up.
Similarly to About a Girl, we will supply the audience with a sense of reality and normality within the dialogue we create. In Percival’s film, the impression of typicality and realism is created in the protagonists dialogue, as she talks as any thirteen year old would. We want to create that same impact of the essence of every day life, as in About a Girl.

Gas man - Lynne Ramsay
Directed and written by Lynne Ramsay. This is shot from a children’s perspective, and this is evident throughout the opening, as the audience do not see the parent’s faces at first, and only their bottom halves are seen. The theme of the film is introduced via an image; the young boy is playing with a toy car in the opening of the film, and he crashes it into a bowl of sugar – this insinuates his knowledge of the adult world as violent and adverse.
This short film also uses intertextuality to convey the theme, as the little girl taps her shoes together and repeats “there’s no place like home.” This reflects the theme of a child’s innocence and naivety concerning home, when they are blind to what is around them – as the young girl in Gas man is unaware and confused about the situation her family is really in. Ramsay uses the image of old train-tracks as a continuous motif of a journey – the journey of which a family travels. Throughout the film, Ramsay uses close ups of certain objects and actions to highlight particular things that children notice; for example, the small physical contact between their dad and an unknown woman. This accentuates the fact that the film is from a child’s perspective, and how it comments on the effect and confusion that a situation can have on a child.
Gas man was shown at Cannes film festival.

Gas Man uses the technique of using close ups of certain objects, to portray the idea that the film is shot from a child’s perspective, and the close ups are objects, actions, expressions, insignificant to an adult, yet noticeable to a child. We will use this same technique in our short film, especially in the scene where the characters are placed in a busy social situation, (like the party in Gas Man) to depict the idea that the young child may appear completely comfortable, yet is still noticing things any young child would, which are peculiar or new to them. This highlights the girls age, even though she does not show it.


Home - Morag Mckinnon
Home is directed by Morag McKinnon, written by Colin McLaren, and is a comment on an unconventional collection of people, unnoticed situations, and looks at the hidden depths of a person. The director used non-actors to portray the characters, with the intention of the film seeming as realistic and as honest as possible. The director said her intention was to make the film be a “hymn to the world we are looking at,” and a beautiful and cheerful insight into the homes of the unconventional, rather than visiting peoples misery. The film uses bright colours and Jewish wedding music, giving the film an almost Middle Eastern feel to it.
The mise en scene of the film is gritty, as the setting is unclean and uncared for, as shown through cracks in the paintwork and litter on the ground; however, the bright colours and upbeat music give the film a cheerful and positive effect rather than a typical negative one.
McKinnon’s Home also won a BAFTA, and was shown at Aspen Short fest, Edinborogh Internation Film Festival where it won best British short, Oberhausen International short film festival, Palm Springs International Short Fest, where it won best live action under fifteen minutes, and at the Uppsala International Short Film Festival where it won the Grand Prix.

This short film has been slightly influential regarding the production of our film. It uses natural lighting, for example, upon the council worker's entrance into the blind twins home, there is natural sunlight streaming in though the gaps in the curtains. I, personaly liked this idea, as it conveyed a sense of realism. We will use this method of lighting in our short film, to similarily portray a sense of realism, and give the audience an idea about time of day.