Short film analysis.

About a girl; a short film created in 2001 by Geoff Boyle and written by Julie Rutterford. The genre of this film is known to be drama, comedy and social realism because of the serious day issues it deals with.
This short 9 minute 50 second film is a play on the title of the feature film About a Boy because this film was realised around about the same time and its trying to play up on a big blockbuster film and a not so popular short film. There is a massive contrast between both films being that About a Boy has an innocent culture about it whereas About a girl is gritty and not so innocent.
A clear view on who the target audience is going to be is set into motion within the first 20 seconds of this short film as its text language which is popular with the youth culture. We can again see this from the first shot we get of the main character, the audience begin to ask who is this person? This particular shot fonders on youth culture and the whole idea of having a dream and an ambition in life as a young child. The shot immediately represents escapism and happiness which makes the audience question what is she escaping from? What is her reality life like? The clouds in this first shot perhaps represent that something bad is going to happen due to the dull grey colours. The choice of song used shows that she thinks she growing up to fast and that maybe shes trying to make a confession?
It is at this point that we realise that our brains are going to be doing overtime at trying to understand this film, during a mainstream film the audience are 'spoon feed' with information and dont have to work that hard at understanding the dilemma of the film.
The audience identify with this character we are presented with because during some stage in a young girls life they would have practised singing and dance moves to themselves. Maybe she does this to help boost her confidence so she feels she is good at something. If the audience begin to feel that this girl could be something big whens shes older etc they are soon brought back to reality when they are presented with a close up shot of the young girl where we realise shes a typical 'chav' growing up on a council estate. We get a shot of her walking along with a brick wall behind her, this wall could represent her feeling trapped within her situation.
This girl has a strong accent, is certainly from a working class. We get messages that she feels pushed out from her family as she dont say much to them when shes with them therefore giving us the message that shes not very close with them. When we are presented with the first shot of her with her dad we realise that she doesnt have a lot of respect for her Dad which maybe says that she has a broken family and possibly resents her Dad for this.
The narrative structure of this film is defiently being played with as its very sharp, quick cutting and theres only 102 shots within the whole 9/10 minutes. The fact that the camera is mostly handheld throughout the film places the audience in this girls shoes. This is what makes the film more gritty and realistic, the fast cuts shows that her lifes fast and a bit of a mess.
Another shot with her Dad shows that maybe she spends more time with her Dad then her mum which again emphasises on her feeling left out, maybe her mum meet another man after her Dad and had children with him therefore leaving her feeling left out because its not her Dad shes living with its her brother and sisters dad. However, although we would expect her relationship with her Dad to be strong it isnt, its as if he doesnt even recognise that shes there and shes just a burden to him. We get the idea that her Dad doesnt work therefore dont provide for her. Despite all this we dont really feel sorry for this young girl because its almost like she accepts it as she does not show that she cares. The panning shot zooming out on her sitting on a bench watching her Dad play football emphasises on her isolation and we are reminded by this that she is only a child.
The colour scheme in most scenes are grey, dark and drainging. This girl has a lot to say, shes confident, she knows what she wants and we get a lot of references to pop culture. The last scene is when all the audiences hard thinking comes to a conclusion, as we see her throw the carrier bag in the canal the scene goes quiet and theres no talking which is the first throughout the film, everything goes dark and we realise why this girl is so messed up and we begin to sympathisis with her because we feel sorry that theres no way out for her.