The Selfish Giant Analysis

“The Selfish Giant”, a film directed by Clio Barnard in 2013 is about two young white, working class boys who risk their lives to create scrap metal to make money so that their parents can pay for rent or furniture. The film shows the hardships families go through in order to survive, which makes the genre of the film ‘social realism/drama’ as the director takes the audience to a place they would not, or would be too scared to go to, which in “The Selfish Giant” is a council estate in Bradford, Northern England. The film is also a drama, as relies mainly on realistic character development. “The Selfish Giant” explores themes of poverty, violence, trust, friendship and trauma.

Mise-en-scene in a film is very important as it shows everything in the frame and creates meaning within it.

In “The Selfish Giant” mise-en-scene is an important role as ‘weather’ is a part of this, which conveys much about the 91 minute film. Throughout majority of the film the weather was dark and gloomy, showing rarely any sun, this represented how the two protagonists in the film, ‘Arbor’ and ‘Swifty’, do not lead a life full of happiness and peace but the complete opposite as they are surrounded with negativity constantly.

When ‘Swifty’ passed away it appears that the weather got worse, Arbor is shown sitting outside of ‘Swifty’s’ house in pouring rain which may have many interpretations, such as; ‘Arbor’ never being able to have a bright or happy day again now that ‘Switfy’ has disappeared from his life which the rain symbolises Arbor’s immense sadness, reflecting on what has happened.

Another interpretation may be that as Arbor is constantly outside of Swifty’s house he is feeling guilt and blame for his death, which are two themes also explored within the film.

Another micro-feature that is important in film is cinematography, this is important as the different use of shots, all reveal different meanings and have the power to make the film more realistic.

Throughout “The Selfish Giant” it is noticed that there were many long-lasting establishing shots of the countryside’s showing sheep’s and horses. This showed a different image of safety and peace which the protagonists of this film would escape to in order to be away from the loud, urban environment they are forced to survive in. The establishing shots which would suddenly cut to shots showing the dangerous, noisy machines was a drastic contrast which re-enforced the genre of social realism, taking the audience to get an understanding or a view that what these children go through to support their families in financial deprivation was indeed very dangerous and a contrast in itself as a child whom pure and innocent being thrown into illegal work force to make money for their family definitely shows another life to what the viewer may know.

Clio Barnard makes it clear that the protagonists do not lead that of an ‘ordinary’ life, which is expected of them so keeps the narrative real throughout the film to reveal to the audience there are no ‘happy endings’ in such a danger-driven full of poverty world.

Cinematography within the film “The Selfish Giant” revealed foreshadowing by the ending with the use of the shots showing the electric wires, this may have been to inform the audience that a key event was going to happen.

Overall, I enjoyed “The Selfish Giant” as it was realistic and gripped the whole way through. The narrative was believable and strong, reaching the unexpected and dramatic climax at the end. I believe the micro-features helped create the meaningful piece of work.

Film Role: Writer, Producer and Director.. Mel Gibson

Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson (Mel Gibson), born January 3^rd 1956,  is an American actor and film-maker, Gibson has written, directed and produced many films such as “Braveheart”, “The Passion of Christ” and “Apocalypto”.

Mel Gibson was born in Peekskill, New York but moved to Sydney, Australia, with his parents at the age of twelve where later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art. Gibson was a part of the Australian Film Renaissance of the 1970’s and 1980’s, where his acting career began with a role in the TV series “The Sullivans” before starring in the film “Mad Max (1979)”. In the late 1980’s Gibson commenced acting in American films, such as “Lethal Weapon (1987)”, “What Women Want”.

When Gibson was established as a successful career as an actor he then made his directorial debut with the 1993 film “The Man Without a Face” which Gibson also produced.
The second film Mel Gibson produced was the 1995, Academy Award-winning “Braveheart” in 2004. Gibson also directed and produced “The Passion of the Christ” a controversial yet successful film portraying the last hours in the life of Jesus Christ in 2006. Mel Gibson directed the film Apocalypto.

Producers have the role of controlling every aspect of a film’s production. They bring together and approve the whole production team. A producers main responsibility is to create an environment where the talents of the cast and film crew can flourish.

Film directors are in charge of making sure every component of a film runs smoothly, the film director’s have a say on how the scenes unfold, what props are going to be used, how the characters should look and play specific parts, directors also work with the individuals who manage lighting, scenery, writing and so on to make sure that all the elements mould together perfectly. 

Fatima- Short Film for London Film Festival

Me and my brother were involved in a short film for the London Film Festival.
Written and directed by Mariam Abou-Ouf.

The Sixth Sense Opening Scene Analysis

The Sixth Sense written and directed by M.Night Shyamalan, the genre of “The Sixth Sense” is horror-psychological thriller supernatural suspense drama, explores the themes of afterlife, ghosts, courage, trust, faith, fear, grief and loss.
I think mise-en-scene and sound are the most important micro-features within this film.

Mise-en-scene is important in film to set the tone and mood of the audience as it captures everything within the scene. In the opening seconds of the scene within the film a light-bulb is seen directly through the use of a close up shot. The light bulb gradually gets lighter suggesting hope growing stronger for a character.

Sound is important in film as it has the power to create illusions in the viewers mind, sometimes subconsciously makes the view feel feelings or thoughts to come into their minds.
Within the film “The Sixth Sense” during the opening scene a mysterious and pretentious sound begins to play. The sound is in sync with the credit titles as when a name fades away the music lowers and becomes higher when another name appears. This idea of non-diegetic sound is exposed as it is not natural with the film.

Lovely Bones Opening Scene Analysis

Lovely Bones was originally a book by Alice Sebold, and then in 2009 Peter Jackson directed a film on the story. Lovely Bones is a drama fantasy thriller as Susie, the protagonist, terribly dies within the film. The film would be classed as a fantasy as the young girl is believed to be waiting in the ‘in between space’ between life and actual death, to move on. 

The two important micro-features which make the film so amazing and grips the audience in is sound and mise-en-scene.

The non-diegetic sound that plays at the beginning when Susie is a young child is very slow, soft and peaceful which reflects the life she is living, the sound however does have a creepy feel to it which may foreshadow something that happens later in the film.
The film is narrated by Susie who tells her story of how she died, at times she says certain things which again, foreshadow what happens next, such as “He is stuck in a perfect world.” When talking about the penguin in the glass.
As the scene changes to another time period the music also changes to a faster paced tempo showing how happy life was for herself and her family before she died.
The final music change in the opening scene is as Susie says “It’s funny the memories you keep.” The music is slow and has a creepy feel to it, maybe symbolizing the locations importance.

Mise-en-scene shows the moving through time through the parents of Susie, at the beginning of the film the parents are in bed and are shown to be young through their actions and costume. The photo on their bedside table is of Susie when she is young, then the picture changes to a more recent in time photo of Susie to show time has moved on.
Photos are an important prop in “Lovely Bones” as they are being taken a lot during the film, which represents the memories Susie is narrating on, almost like the whole film is a memory to Susie.
When the family are at the farm Susie seems to be quite detached from what is going on, maybe foreshadowing to the audience that later on in the film the family will be a tight family unit again without Susie there in walking life, however watching over them. 

"Soft" vs "Wasp"

 “Soft” is a short film written and directed by Simon Ellis, which is about a father and son who are bullied by other young teenagers. “Soft” is a film with the genre of social realism as it shows many realistic aspects of contemporary London.  Crime is another genre within the short film, as youth delinquents cause great trauma and fear to a vulnerable family. The film explores many themes, such as fear, pride, role models and humility. The director uses these themes to create tension and a sense of discomfort for the viewer.

“Wasp” is another short film, written and directed by producer Andrea Arnold, whom also wrote and directed the film “Fish Tank” which is very similar to “Wasp” and “Soft” in terms of genre and themes. The mutual genre between all three films is ‘Social Realism’ as all three films show how life is for different people.
“Wasp” is about a single mother who struggles to care for her four children due to poverty. An old potential lover re-enters her life, which enforces the ‘versus’ element upon the single mother, as she is torn between her old lover and caring for her children.

Both “Wasp” and “Soft” are similar in terms of cinematography, both short films were similar as they both purposefully used poor quality filming to show each of the characters’ struggle, which helped emphasise them.
Hand-held camera was used in “Wasp”, creating unsteady footage which could be perceived as the family in poverty.
In the short film “Soft” the camera work was also Hand-held, making the film more realistic to the audience and allowing the viewer to feel as though they are there with the characters.
The Hand-held camera in which moved speedily from the father to the son to the troublesome teenagers which were causing the problems, created tension for the viewer.

Another similarity between the two short films is that the parents in both films are portrayed as ‘bad’ parents, however in their own ways they are also people struggling with parenthood.

Both films were interesting to watch, I was eager to find out how each character would overcome their struggle.

"Otherwise Engaged" Analysis

The short film “Otherwise Engaged” written and directed by Alicia MacDonald is a Rom-Com of a couple who have forgotten the traditional idea of proposal and emotional intimacy. Instead the couple post photos and videos of themselves becoming engaged on to social media.
The two most important micro-features within this short film are mise-en-scene and performance.

Mise-en-scene is valued for helping set the emotion, tone and meaning of the shot as it captures everything within the frame. Of the short film “Otherwise Engaged” the set of the film is in a running-field where the couple exercise after jogging together, the outdoor and open-air set of the film may signify that marriage is a pure and innocent commitment that a couple makes, ‘breath of fresh air’ for some couples. Proposal is a very intimate action between two people, and the ring is usually what signifies this loyalty, however in this short film MacDonald has used the prop of a telephone to be seen as more important than the ring itself, during this moment of “intimacy” this may reveal to the audience that in modern day society, it is more important to share personal happenings with more than one person, such as Social Media as the woman in the film appears to do.

Performance is another important micro-feature in film, as the characters’ ability to show and make the audience feel as though the acting is flowing and believable to make them feel as though they are engaged with the film.
Within this short film, performance is important as the facial expressions and body language allows the audience to get into the mind of the character to understand what is happening on the scene and why the actors are acting in that way.
For example the facial expressions of the woman when being proposed to showed excitement, however the fact that she was looking into her phone while videoing the proposal happening showed she was more concerned with the viewings of others than the actual proposal itself, which added a sense of comedy to the film, the film was something that the audience would not expect therefore confusion was caused and the emotion that the audience tends to let off when confused is laughter.