The short film starts off with the title of the film; ‘About a girl’. From the title we can gather some idea of the film might be based around. The font is in a mobile phone text style. So the audience immediately makes a link between a teenage girl and a mobile phone. So the audience gets the impression that the girl included in the film is maybe in her teens. The first shot is a ciliate of a girl figure practicing dance moves singing to Brittney Spears. So immediately this shot relates to the title of the film because the title is ‘About a girl’ and the girl still remains a mystery so this gets the audience intrigued to find out her identity. The fact she is practicing dance move brings a innocent element to the girl and gathers she wants to be a pop star.
When the main character appears and her identity is revealed the audiences get a first impression from her which is parallel to what the audience thinks of her in the first shot. The girl isn’t sophisticated we gather this impression through the way she speaks and dressed. She thinks being a singer is the highest position because she says ‘If Jesus was alive he would be a singer’. From the location and background we can tell she’s from a poor background and hasn’t been raised well because she swears a lot. In flashbacks we see that she doesn’t have a good relationship with her mother and family in general and her parents are divorced.
The film is shot in a documentary style which adds a lot of realism to the film and creates a realistic atmosphere throughout the film. The camera seems to be hand held which emphasizes the documentary style but also adds a British gritty look to it.
In the first opening 2 minutes of the film we as an audience gather a lot of background information about her and also get a sense of what type of character she is. She reveals her age and makes it out she’s old enough to be independent this shows that she is naive and is at a young teenage stage where she wants to be all grown up. She also makes a lot of witty remarks about her family and their ambitions like their ambitions are so out of reach and in fact hers dreams of being a pop star is realistic. So when her family says things to her she never believes it and wants to question everything this implies that maybe she was lied to a lot growing up. Often she plays on the audience perception of the situation because she says that her dad buys her drink and packet of crisps after his football match so the audience think that her and her dad bond afterwards but in fact dad buys her a drink and crisps and seats her outside the pub whilst his inside spending time with his friends.
The girl constantly practise her dance moves and singing. The singing and dancing is her way to escape from reality. She is very ambitious about her career and what she wants to be. Every time the camera cuts, she changes subject or topic which makes her seem very chatty. She thinks the highlife in things we see as ordinary or average things. For example she says when she makes it big she going to be drinking the best drinks in the world WKD. So it shows that she is less unfortunate. The audience also realise how bad the relationship is between the mother and daughter when she says she would leave her mother behind if she ever got famous. It seems throughout the film she refers to her dad a lot more positively over her mother despite this the dad doesn’t seem to show much interest in her. Throughout the film it is set in a dark grey location that creates a dull atmosphere. Throughout the short film there isn’t any music which makes add a realistic element to the film. The only soundtrack is her singing ‘Britney Spears – Stronger’ which is a significant song and relates a lot to the narrative.
The shock ending where she throws the dead baby into the river is a really horrific scene and the way she is so calm is very disturbing. Throughout the film you feel for her and her character grows on you and you start to like her and then all these feeling about the character suddenly change which puts the audience in an awkward position. She actually makes a joke when she throws the baby which is dark humour that makes the ending even darker. The lighting changes from dark to light when she throws away the baby that may represent her getting rid of a problem or the baby was a burden and stop the girl pursuing her dream of become a pop star. The baby was thrown away in a plastic bag which represents the baby was disposable a like a plastic bag.
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