Short Film Research

Key Concepts

1) Fight – Lewis Metcalfe

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p005h7xw

CAMERA: There are a lot of close-ups on the students eyes to exaggerate the single characters emotions at a time and the thoughts going through their heads before the fight.

EDITTING: The film used a lot of focus pulls to single out characters, showing that your own actions don’t just affect you but a chain of people after. There is also a focus on the boy’s knife which could represent the power it has and that it is controlling his mind at that point, he was acting on impulse rather than thinking his actions through.

MISE-EN-SCENE: The film is set in a school with all the children wearing uniform however one of the boys involved in the fights wears a black hoody, this could connote a stereotypical role of youngsters in hoodies using violence but being ashamed and hiding their identity under the hood. SOUND: There is not a lot of dialogue other than the students chanting “Fight! Fight! Fight!”, this highlights the

representation of peer pressure leading kids to violence. Near the end the repetitive, alternate sounds of the

kids hitting the bin and fighting with diagetic sound of kids playing in the background and the church clock

ringing portraying the idea that it is normal for these fights to go on un-noticed as people and time pass by.

1) Fence – Matthew Murdoch

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p004tzrd

CAMERA: The close-up taken through the fence of the boy and then the mid shot of all the pupils through the fence staring at him are effective in creating his sense of loneliness and being outcasted.

EDITTING: The panning along of all the other students faces through the fences with serious looks on their faces exaggerates how many people are there against him alone.

MISE-EN-SCENE: The film is set in a school and the fence connotes how it can be like a prison where you are trapped as a child. The fence is a metaphor for seeing his life in two different ways, the part where all the school children are facing him like an army seems surreal as if the idea has been exaggerated in his mind and this is what he sees but is not the true reality.

SOUND: There is little dialogue in the film, the boy does not say anything the whole way through to emphasise at first his nervous feeling towards starting a new school and then his isolation amongst the other school children. There are lots of diagetic sounds of the other children playing exaggerating that he is alone and they already happily settled in with their own friends leaving him out casted.

1) School of Life – Jake Polonsky

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p0058x2j

CAMERA: The majority of the scene in the classroom is filmed using a two shot of the two characters; the bully and the victim. This shows the relationship between them in the best way as we can see both their facial expressions at the same time.

EDITTING: The camera follows on a trolley behind the protagonist as he runs through school passing classrooms, occasionally swapping to scenes of him running toward the camera and straight past it to exaggerate his long journey.

MISE-EN-SCENE: All of the children are wearing the same school uniform suggesting a sense of collective identity however under this we can see that there are differences. The bully is shown as scruffier with his top button undone which fits with his aggressive, rebellious attitude.

SOUND: Continuous ticking clock type of music that speeds up as the characters pace moves faster, a crescendo which builds up the tension as he runs through the school. The fact that the music resembles a ticking of a clock could connote a sense of time in being forced to grow up.

The film starts out simple and typical of a film about youths in school as one boy chooses to go to class but then the surrealism of the teacher’s lesson changes the style slightly. His journey past the classrooms to the staff room represents him as an individual and how he deals with his problems but in the end he learns that sometimes you can’t rely on your elders and you have to look after yourself when growing up.

1) The Ends – Justin Edgar

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p005g5pd

CAMERA: The film starts with wide-screen establishing shots so the audience can recognise where the film is set – in urban London.

EDITTING: Slow motion is used as the first girl is shot to create dramatic suspense and then changes to very fast paced editing as the people around her are shocked and the chaos of the aftermath begins – one person with one single act of violence affecting so many around them.

MISE-EN-SCENE: The clothing worn by the violent youth in the film is stereotypical of what is heard on the news. They are wearing tracksuits and hoodies, clothing that has become recognised in society for being trouble so automatically they look like the people that use violence before we even see the story. The film is set in an urban run down area in London also connoting a stereotypical area of violence.

SOUND: The language used is aggressive with lots of shouting to coincide with the violence being used. However, the last shot finishes in silence with a slow song questioning “why do these things happen?” in the lyrics, beginning as the credits start. This provides a meaning for the film, the question being is violence really worth all the trouble it causes?