About A Girl

About A Girl

Since watching short films "About A Girl" was by far the most hard hitting and skilled short.

At the begging of the film the title came up like a text message insinuating that the film will be based on something that is happening in modern society. It also helps you to start thinking about what the protagonist will be like, with the title being a text it’s a massive clue that the main actor / actress will be young as there seems to be use of technology but we soon release there is no role for technology in this film.

With the name “About A Girl” you instantly think of the mainstream film “About A boy”. You wonder if the narrative will be similar or will it be a short Imation but using a girl.

The first shot makes it hard to identify the character you can tell she’s young. Makes the audiences a tad more gripped as your dying to find out. From what your shown you come to believe the character is young, sweet, talented and ambitious, but you don’t know for sure until the next shot when she is revealed. When she is shown you see that she is young, northern and from a working class background. From the way she describes some of the recent events that happened within her family you fell they may be slightly thick ‘thinking that dental floss where worms’. The way she speaks to the camera makes it seem like a documentary there’s eye contact and her speech is delivered directly to the camera / the audience.

In the next few minutes more and more is publicized like that she lives on an estate, that her dads gone off the wall at points and both of her parents have signed on. Along with this the audience realise that she is often ignored but seems fine about it, her family treat her with little respect immediately after this it cuts to a shot of her on a bus with her friends who are similar to her in appearance and class. She enjoying herself and yet again is talking about her singing career. This shows the contrast of her personality and attitudes when she’s with her friends rather than when she’s the family loner.

Yet again more is exposed and the audience see that she has a lot more common sense than we thought she did at the begging of the film. We also come to understand that she’s is more hostile towards her mum than she is to her dad, this is shown throw the camera as it often cuts away as some as anything personal happens between her and her mum. The majority of time the mise en scene is gritty when showing the mother.

The camera helps show off her big ego by shooting her from slightly below eye contact so she seems bigger yet when we see her with adults the audience realise that she’s still just a girl. Pathetic phalicey is used constantly as the weather is always grey until the end when her problem is solved and the clouds clear.
It also comes across to the audience that her personality is her protection. She just wants to be loved yet she has no remorse. Throughout the short film no music is used thus making everything more drastic and shocking.

I feel the bag represents the baby suffocating and when the baby falls out of the bag in the water it symbolises the girl’s freedom. The bag represent the girl as the baby came out head first also the bag is disposable consequently making the audience think is that the same with the girl is she to be thrown away, worthless? Then the bag floats away and gets caught in a fence promoting the fact that she’s trapped in her environment there is no escape from what’s happening to her or around her.