Short Film Analysis- Amy

Goodbye Mr Bogangles- Ximon Gray (AUCB film production student)

I found this short film on Virgin media shorts, it is about a little boy and girl who I think are brother and sister and the loss of their hamster that has died, I feel that it shows a lot of age and maturity as the brother even though only a couple of years older than the sister seems much older as he is being the responsible one.

Representation

This short film was showing the social group of children and how they think and act around each other, the children are in a nice clean house so I would say that they are middle class, they are polite so this shows that they have been brought up well. They are both white, and clearly British because of the way that they speak. I think that this short really is representing the bonds between siblings, the boy is being the stereotypical big brother, by protecting his sister and being the older more responsible one, he does this by talking to her and comforting her, he also flushes the hamster, this is him taking control and showing his dominance, perhaps suggesting that he is the man of the house. The short deals with the issue of when a Childs first pet dies and how they have to learn to deal with loss, as the boy is older it shows that he can deal with it better than the girl can because he understands more, I know that he understands because he is explaining what he understands to the little girl.

Narrative

The storyline in this short is that the children have a hamster, called Mr Bojangales and he dies, they are going to flush him down the toilet when the girl runs off crying because she is upset and doesn’t understand that he isn’t coming back, so the older brother comforts her and explains to her how the hamster is gone, then they have closure and he flushes the hamster away, then it shows how the hamster is in a better place. The plot shows pretty much everything expect from when the hamster dies, them finding him etc. This is all the audience needs though as it is made quite obvious very quickly that it is a dead hamster even though you never see it, this is good because even though we don’t know the characters very well you feel for them as we have all had to deal with a loss at some point, most likely of a small animal. So it connects with the audience. The narrative is linier and I think that Todorov’s theory fits this short very well.

Stages:

· The Equilibrium-

This part of the film is where the characters are introduced, we learn a little bit about them like here were as the little boy says ‘Mum’ It shows that the two children in the shot are most likely brother and sister, the brother is being older and responsible for the little sister by talking, we learn that they are young because of the way that they speak to each other.

· The Disruption- I think that the disruption in this piece is the little argument they have over the flush, the girl gets very upset and we realize how the characters have developed, the boy being older seems much more able to control his emotions and is much more grown up then the younger girl. This means that their usual happy chatter is replaced with a very upset tone.

· The Confrontation- The confrontation here is the part were the girl is upset and the boy comforts her telling her that it Is all going to be okay, he is therefore sorting the situation out and even though the hamster is dead he is showing that they need to move on, this also shows his maturity.

· The resolution- The resolution here is when the boy flushes the hamster down the toilet, he issolving the problem but at the same time it is showing that the girl and boy are moving on from the Mr Bojangles.

· The New Equilibrium- I feel that the last bit is the new equilibrium, they show a short animation of the hamster floating in a bubble t to heaven, this means that he is going to a better place and everyone is moving on and happy.

Genre

The genre of this film is a family film, I think that it is an inspiring one and is like a real life one as you could really imagine this really happen, as it has probably happened to us in our own past, for instance having a small animal die when we were children. I think that the Altman genre theory fits this short because we as the audience know that there is only one outcome, that hamster is going down the toilet. But we still want to watch it to see how it develops and how the characters develop, we are also hoping for a surprise in the short. Short films usually use genre in a very relaxed way, using a lot of hybrid genres. They do this because as they are short their wouldn’t be enough time to properly build up a whole story for instance with a thriller you need suspense and a build-up, but in shorts you seem to just dive straight in there. The topic of having a‘drama’genre is a rumour, no film is a drama, and people try to not use this term as it suggests that it is more of a theatre production rather than a TV or Film production.

Audience

I used the website virgin media shorts to find my short film, I would expect to find other filmmakers watching the shorts or people who are looking to hire or find some good upcoming talent, I think that other people that would watch shorts are people who stumble across them as I feel that they are not that well known or heard off compared to feature films, and I also feel that people may not know where to find them if they did want to watch them. I think that the audience enjoys the quick unravelling of the film and the way that the problem is usually resolved by the end of the short, the short film that I choose can only be found on the virgin media shorts website, it has not won any awards yet but it is in the website competition.

Media language

I think that the most interesting thing I found in this short is the camera movement, there is always a slight up and down motion, this connects with the idea that it is about children as they never stand still. And how the camera is very close to the boy’s face shows how children can be very close and in your face a lot of the time.

This ending shot also is very interesting to me as it makes the boy look like he is older and more powerful than someone his age would be.

 Protect myself (Click here for link to the short film)

By Kreirsiewert

Virgin media shorts

 

 

This short film is about a couple whos argument got out of hand, I really enjoyed it and I like the way that time manipulation is used to create distortion in this short film.

I like the way that the whole short film is silent and has this ongoing non diegetic soundtrack going on, it creates the illusion that it is hiding what is really going on. There is also a lot of different shots and the pace of them is incredibily quick, this makes the whole thing seem disorentated and makes the audence feel excited and wound up, I think that they do this to make the audence feel as the characters might do as the characters are angry and probably not thinking straight.

 

This is one off the first shots in this short film, the characters are arguing, you don't know what about because there is no dialouge as all you can here is the non diegetic music soundtrack, this song has meaning though as it may show some off their culture,  The silliouetting off the shot is also good as in the background you can see a city, this also sets the scene for the short film as you get an idea of the area and type of enviroment that the characters are living in. The sillouette may suggest abuse and you are seeing the characters body language so this is the main focus of this shot. The shot is a long shot and this shows that we are looking in on them and may not understand there reasoning for arguing this may be because the short film is not about the reason but the people themselves.

 

 This shot starts with a non diegetic  bass drop sound that is usually found in dubstep songs, so its setting the age for these characters that is quite young as dubstep is mainly listened to by younger people. The make up on the girl is all run and dried, this shows that she has been crying so it shows her emotion as she is upset. The shot is in between a big close up and a mid close up this is because they want you to feel sorry for her and to see what she is going through, this will connect to the women or people who live with abuse, so this will make people understand some off the situation and attract more audences to watch it.

 

 

This next shot is the title shot, it shows some setting as you can see that it is in there flat, you can tell that it is there house as they are quite young and modern as is there house, they are sitting away from eachother and showing very negative body language, this shows that they are prehaps not happy with eachother but they are both to immature and stuborn to make up with eachother, this also shows their age.

The title is interesting because the word myself is big and bold, this shows that they may be selfish people as they are thinking of themselves. The shot is from a slight high angle, this is to show that we are looking down on the situation adn prehamps reminds us of when we were children and our parents would tell us off as they are sitting down and the point off view is from someone who is standing up, they are both looking in different directions away from the camera so this shows that they may be avoiding the problem.

 

This shot is a tracking shot from behind he main male character. The shot is filmed in a handheld way this means that it is slightly shakey and shows that the man may be being followed, I think that this is an effective shot as it can show how the man may be feeling as it is disorentated. The colour in this shot has a blue tint to it, i think that they do this to show that he is alone, it also creates the illusion that it is cold so isolates the character. The man is walking quite slowly so is trying to clear his head and get some fresh air. This does however show that he is running away from the situation as he is walking out on the woman, he may feel trapped and needs his space to escape the arguments.

The next seres of shots are very quick and are ficking back and fourth between the characters, this is showing what they are doing at the same time, the woman is imagining beating up the man and acting it out were as the man is feeling the pain and reacting as if she has actually hit and kicked him. The shot is once again from behind so it is showing that the audence cant do anything to help him they are just an outsider looking in at the situation. The pace off this sequence is very fast to create confusion in the audence and to make them feel as the man does as he can't do anything to defend himself as it is too quick and to disorentated for him to defend himself.

They use shots off the couple being happy to show how it is hard because they do love eachother they just can't seem to get along all off the time. The lighting in this shot is very warm as it has an orange glow, this shows love as they are happy and comfortable together. But then straight after this shot it flicks back to real time off them, so this shot is a flash back and prehaps a memory that one of them is having.

Then it goes to the last shot off them huggign and making up, this shows that the moral is that even if you argue with someone and sometimes you feel like hurting them at the end of the day you love them and your going to care for them if they get hurt. The deaph off feild in this shot is very shallow so it is showing that they are the main focus and that nothing else matters but them. And there body language is once again welcoming and loving towards eachother so its that old saying that love conquers all.