About a Girl

In this lesson we watched the short film 'About a girl' filmed for the BBC and produced by Janey de Nordwall.

The opening titles are done in a mobile phone text style already allowing the audience to pre-conceive ideas about the film. As mobiles are quite modern and texting is associated with young people the film may be targeted or surrounding young people/teenagers. The title is also a contrasting connection to the mainstream, high budgeted 'About a boy' film.

It opens up with a young girl silhouetted standing in a field. As she's in an isolated field by herself the audience asks themselves 'Where are her parents, Why is she alone while it's getting dark?'She is singing Britney Spears - Stronger giving the impression that she is just a young innocent girl. However the songs she is singing 'stronger' may have underlying meaning to the film.

In the next shot there is an instant change in how she is portayed. She shows a hard exterior and through the location and costume we see that she is from a poor background as she's wearing cheap looking clothes and is walking through a council estate. She's shown to be not as naive as previously portayed when talking to the camera about her dad looking for work and claiming to be grown up because 'I'm 13'

Whilst sitting with her dad the audience can see through their body language tqowards each other that it is a forced relationship on her dad's part. Through her voiceover and cutaways this is reinforced as she's neglected and ignored yet still idolises him.

On the bus with her friends she subtle insight is given into what may happen when she claims that she isn't innocent.

It isn't until right at the end of the film that we see where she is walking to and throws the plastic bag into the canal. The shock of seeing a dead baby shows just how much she has gone through in her short life and that she is a product of her envirionment following her mother's actions of drowning the dog. The camera films the plastic bag being trapped symbolising her and that she will never be able to leave her environment despite her dreams of being a singer.
Reflecting back on the title it is clear that the film is about girls all over the world who fall victim to the vicious circle and become products of their environments.

Prophetic fallacy is used because throughout the short the weather is grey and dull and for the first time the sun comes out after she throws the baby in the canal.

I thought this film was very effective as it was able to portray a message about society whilst still keeping the audience engaged. Although we gathered that she had come from a hard background and had to deal with quite a lot at such a young age, the ending was still a complete shock.