LO1.1: Analysis of a short film

Short films are social realist, they are kitchen sink dramas. This means that narratives and representations focus on the working class and the under classes.

About a girl: Dir. Brian Percival (2001)

The short film begins with the girl, who is the main character, singing a Britney Spears song which shows she is just a regular girl doing what girls do. This also highlights that she is the centre of attention during this short film as it begins with a silhouette shot of just her therefore she is the audience's first seeing in the film. Then, throughout the film the girl is shown talking about her life and mainly her parents and that they aren't very wealthy for many reasons. This is all done while she is walking to a location unknown to the audience creating an enigma code Roland Barthes which is creating mystery for the audience. As she mentions some characteristics of her parents, some short scenes are used to show the audience the reality of what happens so they have an idea of how things look. Towards the end the of the film, the girl stops at the edge of a canal and throws the bag she had been carrying all video into the canal. Shockingly, the bag contained a baby that she had at a young age through being uneducated and irresponsible. This shows the lack of parenting she faced from her mother who seems stressed 90% of the time and her dad who is rarely present. The structure of this film is the they by Tzvetan Todorov where there is an equilibrium, distruption and then a return to the equilibrium. In this case, the equilibrium is a girl just casually living her teenage years but there is a distruption where she becomes pregnant and has a child at a very young age. The equilibrium is returned when she throws the baby in the canal as that was the solution no matter how cruel it may be. Also, the cause and effect theory by Pam Cook is used as the being brought up in the working class means you don't have the privileges of a wealthy family therefore you maybe more likely to fall pregnant at a young age.