Another short film we watched today was About a Girl by Brian Percival. It depicts the story of a 13 year old girl who talks about being a pop singer, as well as rambling non stop about whatever comes to mind. She talks about being in a band with her friends, as well as her relationship with her family. The chatter is interrupted with cutaways to show how her life really is. About a Girl ends with the girl throwing a carrier bag into a river, which is revealed to have carried a baby inside.
The editing within this short film, like Wasp, is quite interesting in that it suits the events onscreen.
Cuting
The cutting, for the most part, is fairly rapid especially when the girl is talking as she walks by herself. This is because she has a new, random sentence to ramble with each cut; including the pauses for thought between each line would have been awkward and long winded. The quick cuts adds interest and makes the video funny to watch as she says new, out of context sentences for the audience to listen to.
Some long takes, with no cuts, are shown, like at the start when the girl dances and sings to Britney Spears, and when she's in the cafe with her dad. This is done because it gives us a visual-heavy glimpse into her lifestyle. This drastic change between types of cuts and their correspondence to the action onscreen show similarities to documentaries, as interviews are usually cut up to interesting parts of the conversation with cutaways to activities the interviewee takes part in.
Sound
Sound in the video is mostly clearly recorded dialogue, and the Foley of the footsteps etc. The dialogue was edited in by using audio files recorded with a boom mic; the in camera audio would have been unclear and low in quality. Also, her thick Mancunian accent would have made it even harder for her to be heard of they were to have used in cam audio. The Foley allows the audience to get a proper sense of what the characters are doing at a clear volume.
Colour
Colour is mostly dull and mute, and this is possibly done to reflect the hard, poverty-led life that the girl lives. This is similar to Wasp in that the same effect is done for the same reasons. At the end of About a Girl, when the girl drowns the baby, the colours gradually fade into a higher and higher saturation. This could have been done ironically as the bright and happy colours juxtapose the death of a child, or it could have been done to reflect the happy mood of the girl at the end of the film.
Techniques
One action match is seen in the entire short film; the camera starts with a high angle of the girl dropping the bag into the river, then cuts to a close up of the bag upon making contact with the water's surface. This emphasises the action onscreen, making the audience think more and more about what she has really done rather than dismissing it and deeming the action as uninteresting.
About A Girl is interesting in the way it has been edited, making it unlike most other independent films. It's quite experimental in the way it has been cut and this is what makes the film intriguing.
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