Post 1 - Researching Existing Short Films Part A

For our coursework we are to produce a short film. Therefore, we watched a short film 'Gas Man' by Lynne Ramsay in order to gain a greater knowledge of short films and the techniques used to produce them effectively. Therefore, I am going to write a textual analysis of the short clip including sound, camera, editing and the mise en scene. Doing this will ensure that I have an insight to the ways that a short film is produced including all the relevant elements that allow a film to be effective and allow me and my group to be successful when producing our own,  

Camera
The camera around the edges of the short is slightly blurred and focused more in the middle. this connotes that the short film is in fact a memory that the young girl is reciting. The camera angle is at the young girls height and focused on her. This suggests how it is her memory and that she is the main focus of the short film. The short film also uses a lot of close-ups, especially during the beginning of the film, including a boy playing with a car and a woman unzipping a suit. Also a close-up is used when the four younger characters meet the close-up's show the two girls and their resemblance that is later revealed that they're sisters.Also the close-ups of the characters faces allow the audience to see their facial expressions and emotions of the scene. For example when the two young girls are fighting we see the confusion and anger on their faces as to why they are sharing their father.

Editing
The film consists of a slow pace edit as it is a memory being revisited by the young girl so the slow pace gives it a sense of realism as it is seen to be in real life time. A slow motion edit of the Father Christmas and a girl dancing during the party scene is used, this edit also gives a sense of a dream or memory being reenacted. The blurred edges around some of the shots show the idea of the film being a dream because it has a main focus which is the action happening and not particularly the things around it and that the girl doesn't remember all of the details as they're 'blurred' out.

Sound
There is diagetic sound of  a Christmas song in the background called 'Let it snow' this reveals the time in which the film is set and that it is perhaps a happy, loving atmosphere. Also dialogue is used at the beginning from the young girl "there's no place like home" which also adds a lot more emphasis on the idea of 'family' and that they're all together at an important time. On the tracks we hear the father and the other Mother speaking to each other however, their conversation is slightly muffled and this suggests that the girl may have possibly not heard everything being said during that conversation therefore enhancing the idea the short film is a memory of her childhood.

Mise en scene
The mise en scene of the house gives us an impression that the film is set in the 1970s because of the theme of the furniture. For example the wallpaper is a brown and yellow abstract pattern which was highly popular during the 70s this gives a sense of realism to the film because its an accurate portrayal of a 70s house. The house seems to be rather chaotic and messy due to them running about and having to take care of the children. This again suggest the 'family' image and that they're a working class family because of the mess and the extra emphasis on family and togetherness. We discover that the film is set at Christmas time because of the boy playing with a toy car in fake snow and because of the party they attend which has a man dressed in a Santa Clause costume and a range of Christmas decorations spread out around the setting. This emphasizes the time period and that the girl can recall moments which happened around a 'happy' season however when revisited she can see that at the time she didn't understand that they weren't such happy times as she expected them to be.