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.

BFI London Film Festival: New British Shorts

On the 7^th of October, the AS Film class and AS Media class of Coulsdon College were invited to the British Film Institute, also known as The London Film Festival which is the United Kingdom’s largest public film event. 

We watched a variety of short contemporary films showcased at the BFI in Southbank, London.  Within the South Bank film complex holds screenings, lectures and exhibitions, with cafe-bars and river views. There was a ‘Mediatheque’ which offered over 1000 hours of free film and TV, libraries were open to visit, along with two of Southbank’s finest restaurant and bars.

The trip was exciting to be on, the films were interesting to watch and the seats within the cinema were very comfortable, it was fun being with my AS Film Studies class and sharing these experiences of learning new things with them.

The following day on the 8th of October the same two groups of AS Film and Media went to the Cineworld Cinema in Haymarket, London, to watch a full length film called Ayanda. This film with the genres of romance and drama explored the themes of love, friendship and growth of relationships and emotional and mental well-being, by the award winning Sara Blecher. 

Ayanda tells the story of a single-minded young Afro-Hipster Ayanda (Fulu Mugovhani) who has the talent of bringing neglected pieces of furniture “back to love”. Ayanda does everything in her power to keep her late father’s prized auto-repair garage to hold on to as her legacy but in his memory.
The film was amazing; the micro-features were very delicately used in the correct places to make the film realistic for the audience, feeling as if they were a part of the film. For example the setting in mise en scene of the film showed a very contemporary South Africa. The warm saturation effect of the film showed the warmth of the environment, in terms of people and relationships formed.
The Cineworld Cinema itself was not that different to a local Vue or Odeon cinema that I would regularly visit, however the outside of the cinema screens had a strong purple theme which gave the Cinema a different and a more richer air.

Get Off My Land Analysis

“Get Off My Land” by Douglas Ray is a short film filled with suspense shown through the genre of crime.
The themes of death, ownership and pride are apparent in this film.  The theme of death is interesting as the elements such as sound help create an unsettling feel to the film, giving it a deathly feel.
The film is of a young couple who fail to follow a public footpath resulting them faced with a deadly conflict.

The entire setting in mise en scene of get off my land is that of open countryside, this is effective as the ideas of mystery and adventure are enforced.

The lack of sound in the film is very effective as it builds great tension, and allows the audience  to feel the awkward silences, for example  whilst the man and woman are walking, the tense silence when the man and woman are confronted by the landowner, and the deadly silence when the man and woman had been shot.

Nearly all sounds within the film were diegetic, such as the sound of the woman crying, the gunshots and the tuck pulling up, this creates a more real affect within the film, allowing the audience to feel as though they are with the characters, without the multiple background sounds as other short films consist of. 

60 Second Video

This was very awkward

Fish Tank Analysis

Fish Tank, directed by Andrea Arnold, a UK director, in 2009, follows the story of a troubled teenager, protagonist, Mia (Katie Jarvis) who seems to be struggling to survive in a world where it seems that she has no one but herself. 

The title of the film came from Arnold creating and bringing to life the sense that there is often a lot of life within a fish tank despite it being such a small space. The opening scene of the film is a room that Mia breaks in to and does what she feels best doing, break dancing. The room she dances in looks to a view which may be a metaphor for Mia as she has so much potential and life that she has yet not discovered, much like a fish in a fish tank.The macro-features of Fish Tank is shown through the genre of the film which is Drama/Social Realism; Fish Tank focuses on giving its audience a true indication of what life is like for the characters within the film, it does this by exploring the different themes of crime, which is shown by a number of things such as underage drinking and smoking, underage sex, adultery and child abduction.

Cinematography is used to show the scenery, revealing reactions and emotions of characters and narrative views to piece a story together.
The shot taken from behind Mia shows she is looking towards her future and foreshadows her leaving and going to explore the world, leaving her “fish tank”.
We can also see through this shot of Mia’s body language rather slouched revealing from the very beginning that the protagonist of the film is Mia and her mood will be the mood of the film throughout. This shot also suggests to the audience that this film could be about her or based on her life.
The use of two long establishing shots also suggests her character to the audience implying that she is a big character to the film.
The movement of the pan is hand-held, giving a sense of realism to the shot and allowing the audience feel like they are there with Mia.
In all shots of the opening sequence, the angle of the camera is the same level as Mia, possibly signifying to the audience that Mia is on the same level as everybody else, and her stereotypical “Chav” attitude does not make her any higher or lower than anybody in terms of feelings.
The landscape shot taken of the surrounding is an establishing shot. This effectively shows the audience the location of which the film is set. This is an effective shot as it shows the urbanised area within which Mia lives in.
Furthermore showing the contrasting visual imagery of binary opposites by showing the natural scene in the foreground and the urban location in the background.

The shot where Mia is in the car with the diegetic sound of California Dreams plays in Connors car while driving is very effective and visually appealing as it is a close up of Mia. The entire shot is blurry which conveys the mental state of Mia effectively. The blurred shot represents Mia’s confusion as to which path she should take in life. The blurred trees behind Mia represent the distance between herself and her primal roots.

From the beginning of the film, the audience can only hear diegetic sound. The opening sequence which starts with the title ‘Fish Tank’ is accompanied with the sound of Mia’s heavy breathing and a far away background noise, of which seems to be busy roads suggesting the typical urban area. This raises the enigma code for the audience as it raises the question of why Mia is out of breath. The sound of Mia’s heavy breathing while the film title is being shown, shows to the audience that the film may be full of tension and a sense of frustration, giving the film a different edge. This is similar to film ‘Wasp’ also directed by Andrea Arnold, as the opening scene is of the diegetic sound of violent footsteps of bare feet, raising the questions to the audience of why the woman, who is shown bare foot which may signify that she is the protagonist of the film, is walking so angrily. The hand held pan creates a sense of realism and makes the audience feel as if they are walking with her. Similarly to ‘Fish Tank’ where Mia’s footsteps are heard by the audience on the balcony, again making the audience feel like they are with Mia. A diegetic sound of a man shouting “What’s going on?” in an aggressive tone is heard, just like in ‘Wasps’ where a scene of violent shouting and a fight occurs, which matches the location in both films of a busy, rough and urban area, where violence may be the norm.