With in the Social Realism genre a number of texts focus on stories which revolve around a young protagonist. This is often because of the story that can unravel for young people, due to lack of experience, naivety or vulnerability, and can often embody all three. As such I have also decided to use this convention in my initial ideas for my story and synopsis. However, I am going to look at the ways that other texts have not only used a young protagonist, but made this fit with the themes and issues with in their films. To see whether it develops or hinders the plot I am going to critically analyse and compare the short film texts: About a Girl (Brian Percival), Most Beautiful Man in the World, and Gas Man (Lynne Ramsay) judging how they convey their issues through young eyes and to what effect this will help me create my desired effect on the audience.
The opening of Gas Man transports us instantly to a home in Scotland. With the first line, with in seconds of the opening, from the mother in Glaswegian regional dialect, we automatically understand the surroundings we are in. A number of other clues begin to help us piece together the family’s living situation, a man polishing his shoes, a young girl running round the house unclothed and shouting the song “JIngle Bells” and the murmur of Frank Sinatra’s “Let it Snow” playing all help us to understand not only the time of year, but also their depravity. However, it is the shot style through the opening sequence which most intrigued me, not showing any of the characters faces and focussing solely on their actions, conveying their unstimulated household. This is also complemented by the close coverage, as it creates a sense of claustrophobia as it does not give space for the shots to breathe and as such makes us detached from the characters and focuses our attention on the situation. As I am looking to create a sense of monotony in my film at the opening, to show my protagonists lack of stimulation, I feel that it could work well in this way, as by not showing the protagonist and slowly revealing their character and situation through actions, the audience develop the themes and issues in their mind. With in Gas Man this is of a broken home and its affects, with in my film it will be the affect of disability and illness.
This also occurs in Most Beautiful Man In The World as the protagonist is revealed, not quite as slowly or in the same way with the shots, but so that we again can gain an understanding of the characters surroundings and situation, before the plot begins to unravel. In the opening shot the camera pans up the young girl. Through this slow motion of the camera, we are able to fully take in her dress, which is inappropriate for her age range and automatically signals to the audience one of the films main issues of childhood innocence and naivety. The sound of the TV in the background, similarly to in Gas Man, shows the girls lack of stimulation with in her surroundings, creating a sense of unease, which is conveyed further by the dark lighting showing that she is confined and again like in Gas Man, creates a sense of confinement. However, with in both Most Beautiful Man In The World and Gas Man, whilst the two films show a sense of confinement and claustrophobia, this is created through long length shots, as they run for a long time on one frame. This I think helps to create tension as we are able to soak in the uneasy atmosphere, and create for ourselves an understanding of what we believe the household, characters and situation to be like.
This is different to in About A Girl in which throughout the film there is a rapid editing pace, which takes us through different size shots and lengths creating a tension in a more disjointed way, as the reason for the ambiguity is the lack of time a viewer is given to form images. However, the opening uses yet again a similar style, in which we are shown a silhouette of the protagonist dancing in a field next to a motorway, to Britney Spears “oops I did it again.” This like in the other two films signals the girls age and situation, showing the teen obsession of Britney, from the 90’s when she was an icon to many teenage girls. However, the connotations and symbol of Britney is one which Percival uses purposefully to raise the issue again of childhood innocence, as the controversy surrounding Britney’s debut where she starred in a school girl outfit, but dancing in a seductive way created a surge in childhood stars being viewed in a very different way to before. The way that Brian Percival used the popular icon to convey added meaning, and parallels to his protagonist interested me, and as such I feel that I will include this with in my film, by using the film Apollo 13 and its main protagonist Jim. This is due to the fact that Apollo 13 never made it to the moon and instead endured great hardship to attempt it. I want to convey these conflicting emotions with in my own film.
The idea of symbols conveying deeper meaning occur with in each of the films at the beginning. With Gas Man, the younger brother is playing with a toy car filling it with salt and then creating mimicking sounds of it crashing. This interspersed with the father getting ready to leave and awkwardly kissing the mother shows in a more literal sense the phrase ‘A marriage like a car crash’ and so helps the audience to gain a better understanding of both the narrative and one of the key issues of the film... adultery. In About A Girl though, I feel that the symbol is far more pivotal to the film and through its use in different scenarios and situations shows the complications of childhood, and the longing of the protagonist. However, it is not only the symbol of Britney which conveys the protagonists difficult situation, this is also conveyed through the setting and location of the film. This is shown through the constant location of the canal, by which she says her monologue which narrates the film. Surrounding her is the industrial docks of Manchester and so shows the harsh living situation which the protagonist is faced with. This is also heightened by the disjointed structure which, by creating a constant setting interspersed with flashbacks, shows not only her disjointed nature, but the lack of structure with in the girls life and helps convey the uneasy nature as you cannot tell the direction of the film.
This is in ways similar to the structure of The Most Beautiful Man In The World as it is also difficult to tell the direction of the film. However, instead of rapid editing the film uses long length shots to raise elements of tension, but through the use of stylish shots it means that we are made to create our own understanding to the film, due to the way we combine elements of each shot. With in the film I feel that the structure is made to allow it to be constructed by the viewer allowing multiple interpretations depending on your own background, experiences and views. This is something which I want to take in to my film, as I feel by allowing each age group to gain their own understanding the film becomes more personal for the audience member.
Whilst I feel Gas Man is a personal film it is not a film to relate to it is instead a film to empathise with. Lynne Ramsay used elements of her childhood and experiences to create the film Gas Man and as such it creates more realism as it feels organic. The film gains a greater sense of empathy because of this, however, unlike with the other two films it is not as ambiguous and instead makes you look at the situation and uncover it rather than look at your own situation. This being said the realism that is created from it being based on true events helps to give the film a more beautiful quality as none of the events feel out of place or over-exaggerated and they allow the audience to be guided through a snapshot of Glaswegian life of that time. This is why I have based my film on an autobiographical event as I feel that it creates a better connection with in the film and enables an understanding for me of where my film is heading.
I think that all three films help to highlight their issues in different ways. Whilst they all share a common issues of childhood innocence I think that they all deal with it in slightly different ways. The common use of the young female protagonist helps to gain an understanding of vulnerability and naivety from the start, however, the way that things are unravelled to them creates different conclusions for each, but all showing a different consequence to the development of innocence or the loss of innocence. I feel that this is something I will convey, however, I do not want to conclude my protagonists journey, instead I want my audience to create how they feel it will end, as I feel this will both make it more personal and more tense as it leaves the story open as to the parental difficulty of how to tell a child that ‘it’s all just pretend.’
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Textual Analysis Notes