‘The Most Beautiful Man in the World’
The short film, ‘The Most Beautiful Man in the World’ (directed and written by Alicia Duffy) explores the issues of child neglect and with it gives a representation of age. The issue of child neglect in this film is prominent, creating a range of ideologies in relation to this issue. The film is centered around a young girl, who is shown to be bored in her homestead and as the film opens, there is no mother or father figure represented. The child is obviously neglected as she is shown to be in front of the television most of the time that she is indoors and her mother never talks to her within the whole duration of the film. The issue that is created here allows for different ideologies to be constructed. One of these ideologies is that the mother is to be blamed for the neglecting of the child whilst this ideology can be contradicted by the ideology that the mother is on her own, obviously receiving no help as there is no father figure present within the house and no other helping figure such as a member of the social services. Although the film centres around the issue of child neglect, different ideologies can be created at different parts of the film, for example, the beginning of film creates the ideologies highlighted before whilst as the film continues and the setting changed to outside, the ideologies then created can be that although the child is being neglected as children should no be alone; the difference in the stimulation and excitement of the child creates the ideology that the girl is better off being left alone as she becomes more motivated. The issue of child neglect is explored and created through the use of camera, sound, mise en scene and editing, allowing these ideologies to be created clearly.
The film opens to show a single character, the little girl. The girl’s mother does not enter frame within the setting of the flat although her voice is heard. The weak voice of the character creates the feeling that the mother is depressed with low self esteem, probably a result of the mothers low means (indicated through the mise en scene.) The character code created relates to the issue of child neglect. Ideologies developed from this are the ideology that the mother is not the only one to blame. Her poor parenting may be a result of her depression and therefore those who aren’t present (the father and social services) may be as much to blame for the poor parenting received by the child.
The first shot of the film is an extreme close up of the torso of the girl. The camera then slowly pans upwards to the girls face and she yawns. The slow movement of the camera creates the slow paced life of the girl and this, along with the exaggerated yawn, gives the indication of her boredom. The close up also represents the child’s entrapment linking with the ideology that the child has not be nurtured by her mother. The lighting in this shot is dark, with the only source of bright light coming from the television, denoting that the television is the only source of communication for the girl linking with ideology that children should not be nurtured by the television tying in with the issue of child neglect. The editing in this shot to the next also indicates that the girl’s life is slow paced and dull. The fading transition between the opening and second shot is slow and the first shot is drawn out, further giving indication that the girl is not given any stimulation in her home by her mother.
The following shot is another close up of the girl lying on the floor with a dog. There is no movement in this shot, implying further of the tediousness of the girls life. The shot is once again drawn out and followed by a fade. The proceeding shot is a shot of the girl once again in the dark with the television as the only source of light. The title of the film then fades in and out before fading back in again onto the same scene of the girl on the floor. This technique draws out the shots and cuts, showing the monotony of the girl’s life and further enforcing the ideology that children should not be left to their own devices. By fading from one shot and back to the same shot it shows that slow passing of time for the child.
The series of close up shots then change to a series of wide shots. The wide shot within the house shows the vulnerability of the girl. The lighting in this shot is once again low but the window gives a source of bright light that the girl is drawn to, showing that the girl is bored and wants to do or go somewhere different. It then cuts to a wide shot of the girl outside. The lighting in this scene is bright, however the wide shot still isolates the girl and her boredom is shown by the girl circling on the bike. The dog is still in this scene, as it was the others, implying that the dog is the symbol of guardianship that she should have and her only form of communication. The wide shot also shows that there is no sense of community where the girl lives, further enforcing the ideology that the mother is not completely to blame as there is no safety network for both the mother and the girl. The issue of child neglect in this shot is prominent as the child is clearly isolated and there is no sense of guardianship from her mother.
The film then cuts to an extreme close up of the girl. The focus pull from the field to the girl as she looks around shows the want for freedom but the action of the girl looking back shows that there is no supervision, so she is able to go. The sound in this scene is more exciting than the lack of sound in the scenes within the home, which are more stimulating and inviting for the girl. This then contradicts with the ideology that children should not be left unsupervised as the girl is more stimulated and motivated without her mother’s supervision.
The fence in the next shot symbolizes a boundary between entrapment and freedom. The fence remains in this shot constantly although the girl leaves it for a few seconds. This implies that the girl has crossed the boundary between not existing and existing as she re-appears in a new found freedom. The tracking shot that follows shows the girl to walk with her arms splayed, once again representing the girls freedom. The sound now is much more dominate in the scene as it is the sound of the wind and tree’s and animals, enforcing the girl’s freedom further.
The editing that follows is jump cutting on the girl’s hand as she runs it through the grass. The jump cutting and no change of angle gives the girl a new kind of animation in contrast to the animation on the television. The editing also indicates that there is a timeless-ness; that time is not as predictable as it was before. Once again this creates a contradiction of the ideology that children should not be left alone as the child is evidently better off without the supervision of her mother.
The next shots are all extreme close ups between the girl and her father figure. This creates a loss of innocence from the audience as the audience here often cannot see the moment positively as the male figure is unknown and due to the media developing awareness of unknown males, the audience can only see the bad connotations of the moment. However, the use of close-ups between the two creates an intimate scene and creates the kind of guardianship that the child is missing. The male in this shot is then given good connotations as he is acting as a parent should be, unlike the mother who is never shown to touch or talk to her daughter.
The lighting changes back to dark and low once the child goes back into the flat. A wide shot and low angle is used to show the girl as isolated once again. The film ends with the same close up of the girl in front of the television as used at the beginning. The television is only source of light and sound, the girl stands in the dark, once again creating monotony in the girls life.
The ideologies in this film are present throughout, however they are contradicted by the child’s actions and her enjoyment once out of the confines of her homestead. All in all, the film is effective in representing age and the lack of stimulation that the girl receives in the home is a representation of the directors and others ideology that child should be stimulated and amused, not left alone in front of the television as so many children are. Those who are not present gives an effect as the tediousness of the girl’s life and the indication towards the mothers depression is not supported in any way throughout the film.
'Gasman'
‘Gasman’ was both written and directed by Lynne Ramsay, arguably most famous for her feature film ‘Rat Catcher,’ in 1997. ‘Gasman,’ won many best short film awards both at the Atlantic Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival whilst being nominated for a best short film BAFTA. The film in based in Glasgow, during the early 1970’s and centres on a young girl and the relationship between her and her father and how it changes as a result of the girl finding out that she has a sister and has to share the attention. The plot of the story allows many ideologies to be constructed. The religious ideology that it is wrong to have the second family that is suggested is also an ideology that links with the time period in which the film is set. Religion may not have had such an influence as it may have done in past decades but socially having a second family was unacceptable at the time. However, another ideology that can spring from this is that by the father’s character codes it can be suggested that the man leads a difficult life, as he has to support these two families. Through these two ideologies, another ideology can be constructed regarding the children. Throughout the film there are indications of sibling rivalry, which could be derived from the issue of having two other children, as the children would compete for the father’s attention. The father’s actions are the base for these ideologies as well as another that relates to the mother at the beginning of the story. The ideology relating to her could be that she lives in a very patriarchal society as she may know of her partners actions and may be forced to live with them due to social opinion about divorce in that era as it was still not fully accepted.
From the opening of the short film, it is clear that the director has not followed the usual structure of a film. The usual structure of film means that it opens by establishing the setting or location and introducing the main character/s to the audience. In the opening of ‘Gasman,’ the audience is not introduced to a main character, just parts of characters. This is a strategy used by the director purposely as the director knows that the audience would want to see the characters but withholds them deliberately to intrigue the audience and keep them watching. A similar thing is done in ‘The Most Beautiful Man in the World,’ as the mother is withheld from the audience and her voice is the only thing revealed, however this is to create another affect and construct the ideology of child neglect as the parent figure is missing. Despite this, the audience is allowed to see the generic things of a household the characters within such as the man getting ready and the woman helping, which were typical twentieth century gender roles.
The opening shot of the film is a man sitting and polishing his shoes, indicating to the audience that he is going out somewhere nice. The lighting in this close up is blue, which indicates to a grim and formidable environment. This is further conveyed to the audience by the blackness of the shoe, as everything revealed so far is negative and dull. The diegetic sound in the shot allows the director to build up a sense of a lower class family as it becomes clear that the mother cannot control her children effectively. This indicates to lower class as it suggests a lack of education in how to control children, something that has become prominent in the twenty first century. This can be compared to ‘The Most Beautiful Man in the World,’ as the mother in that short film doesn’t interact with her daughter, suggesting lower class, as she has not received the same education either. The setting in the short film also indicates to poverty as it does in ‘Gasman,’ as well as the lighting in both creating a dull and uninviting setting and atmosphere.
The next shot is a close up of the boy pouring sugar onto a car. The diegetic music that is upbeat and happy indicates to the audience that the children will not have a generic Christmas due to their social status and the scraping of the wheels on the sugar shows that the boy doesn’t regard Christmas with any happy or positive feeling.
The film then cuts to a low angle on the suit hanging on the door. This establishes status, showing that the father has a higher authority of the woman, something that fits in with the historical context of the film and also beginning to construct the ideology that if the woman should have any inclination towards knowing of her husband’s actions she cant leave him or confront him as he would be the breadwinner for the family.
Up until this point, the audience has only been presented with a montage of close -up’s of limbs. This close coverage allows the characters to be humanized although their faces are not shown to the audience. The first sustained shot in the film is the short of the girl in the yellow tights putting on her shoes. The intertextuality of ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ represents the moving from old to new. By having the character repeating, “There’s no place like him,” it creates a feeling that the girl is about to see something that will change the home environment that she is used to. The contrast of the black shoes vs. the red shoes worn by Dorothy in the film is a colour symbol.
The main character is finally revealed after the close up in which her arms her forced above her head and the dress is pulled over, by forcing her arms up, the director has shown that this character is fussy, easily antagonized and temperamental. The expression on her face is unhappiness and annoyed, making the audience ready for any negative events that may occur during the film.
By now, the character codes are established. The family come across the audience to be abrupt and aggressive, which could be suggested to be a result of pressure and burden on both the parental figures, as the mother may sense the adultery, as a stereotypical view is that women are very assertive and alert when in comes to the scenario shown in the short film.
As the three family members leave the house, the boy is shown to be walking through dark hallway that can be interpreted to be a tunnel symbolizing prison. It suggests that the home for this character is not a ‘place of peace.’ Similarly, ‘The Most Beautiful Man in the World,’ uses symbolism to convey a message to the audience through having a fence symbolize a barrier. The use of the dark hall gives the impression that the boy is unhappy with his home-life.
The pan from the hallway door to the window where the mother of the family is standing. The usual convention of this shot is to show a happy mother watching her children leave the homestead to come back but instead this shot is used to show the mother’s concern and the reflection the window is used to mask the character and her feelings, giving the impression to the audience that the mother is hiding something and doesn’t want to reveal it to her children.
The film then cuts to a bleak wide shot of the three characters at the top of the road. The road is cut off in the skyline denoting that the lower class have nowhere left to go and are unable to widen their prospects. To further construct this denotation, the characters are silhouetted and the shot is from a low angle showing misplaced hope. However, as the wide shot used in ‘The Most Beautiful Man in the World,’ is to show isolation, the lighting in the shot is much brighter in contrast to the grayish lighting used in ‘Gasman.’ This is an example of the same shot being used but the lighting used with it creates different meanings within each film.
From the wide shot, the film cuts to a slow tracking shot along the disused railway lines. The lines here represent the characters class and situation, indicating to the audience that the character and those around him will always be on the disused railway lines. The corners of the frame in this shot are blackened out, using the pin- hole effect, giving an old fashioned feel to the shot. The mise- en- scene gives the shot a quaint, nostalgic feel as the lighting presents Glasgow to be not as bad as the characters might indicate to the audience as it is illuminated. The buildings are also shown to be smaller than the characters, giving the characters a moment of triumph and peacefulness, this is further enhanced by a the wind going through the characters hair. The father then leaves the frame, leaving the children as he does so. This symbol highlights the fact that the father cannot be a good father to both sets of children. This helps to create the ideology that a man should not have two families and that it is harder to cope with two.
As the girl steps forward, it goes into slow motion, which presents to the audience a moment of realization and a daunting feeling. The next shot and the reverse shot of the two girls looking at each other, creates a sense of conflict and rivalry, indicating towards what is going to happen later on this film. The rivalry that is created here remains a common theme throughout the film and the fact that it is introduced to the audience nearer the beginning, gives the audience the impression that the theme was important within the film and for the director to show.
The expression of the woman is questioning and defensive, shown by the characters raised eyebrows, the expression shown shows bitterness and disappointment.
The girl remains in the same frame as when the audience last saw her, indicating to them that she is trying to take in what happened and that what she saw has made her slightly apprehensive. By keeping her in frame it has showed her to be weary of what she is watching and doesn’t really want to become a part of it.
The boys are then shown to be happy enough with amusing themselves, whilst the girls are shown to be more eager to talk. This eludes the audience to think that the girls are more mature than the boys however this myth is exposed in later events. The talking is also done to show how they are trying to work each other’s motives out. The original girl that the camera focused on in the opening of the film is not sure about the new girl, this is clear from the shot where the original girl stays in the frame and doesn’t want to become involved. This may mean that although she wants to get to know the girl she is still weary from her and isn’t sure why she is with her and the father.
The high angle of the shot shows the closeness as the other girl touches the original girls dress. The holding of hands show that there could be a friendship there to be created but it also echoes with further events. The diegetic sound shows a feeling of joy and carelessness, it is a juxtaposition to what is going to happen.
When the father walks in with the “Where’s your Daddy Gone?’ song in the background, his expression is still bleak. The boy’s sluggish entry behind the girls, who walk in close to the father, shows how the boys will have to amuse themselves for the next couple of hours rather than receive any interaction from the father. This links to the ideological perspective that there is favoritism between the son and daughter as the boy is left to his own devices.
The panning of the camera then follows the father as he walks over to his friends. By the father drinking ‘away his sorrows,’ endemic poverty is shown, or a sign of it is created.
The girls are shown to be playing and then camera cuts to the boy in the bottom of the frame alone, showing him to be isolated. This gives him a mysterious identity because we cannot see his expression; it is symbolic of how no one knows how he feels. The prop of the very bad Christmas tree shows how there is a lack of money and that the sad, poor-looking tree is still in a better state then the boy.
The is a dramatic irony because the two girls are still uninitiated, they do not know what is going on however the father knows and the audience know what is going on. The irony is there joy. Father Christmas is shown to be playing with one girl and not the other and so fore- shadows the events to follow with the father.
The camera is mimicking the drunken body rhythms of the men and therefore shows how the children are starting to become uncontrolled. The girl shows how she is isolated compared to how intimate the father is with his daughter.
The sweeping of axis pans of the camera along with slow motion is indicating a drunken party. The mess around is also symbolic of this. The father is nonchalant with a cigarette in his mouth, he is not really that bothered about his children.
The father picks up the other daughter. The slow motion used is how she can see what is happening and that she had a sister, and competition. This is a mirror shot of when she sees the two siblings at the railway tracks. The pulling of hair and quick cutting shows a loss of control and aggression.
The men are laughing at the fight, the father is not really trying enough and he is more bothered about drinking his beer. The characters are forces behind the frame to show a growing distance between her and her father.
The empty cigarette packet shows he had no comfort or solace, he only has himself to look inside. This is a moment of realization.
The aggressive hand holding echoes the peaceful hand holding however now the girls know that they are sisters and must now compete for attention. They are no longer friends but enemies.
By picking up both of the girls, it shows the father making an effort to be father to both of them.
The fog adds a sense of confusion and difficulty, this is metaphorical because the characters cannot see emotionally. The silhouettes and the lines of the track are almost symbolic of their fates. The throw down of the rock is a moment of acquiescence and growth. That is a moment of maturity.
Youth
‘Youth,’ is a short film both directed and written by Jane Linfoot; which explores three different elements of youth and the issues and ideologies attached to it. The first section of the film presents the ideology of ‘ entrapment,’ and ‘experimenting,’ whilst the second part explores the issues of weight, maturity development and borders on bullying. The final section of this short film explores the issues of peer pressure and to a certain extent, the beginnings of gang violence.
The first section of the film opens with a boy lying in bed. The mise en scene presents a sparse bedroom, with natural lighting and diegetic sound showing that the boy is from a middle-class family from the 1970’s time period. The boy has very long, dark hair, immediately allowing the audience to believe that he is of the ‘Goth’ culture that was prominent within that time period. The close up of his face shows that he is over exposed, showing him to have almost completely clear skin, contradicting the theme of ‘youth,’ as many youths of this age have bad skin as they go through puberty. The shots throughout this scene are long takes, conventions of the social realism genre, and these along with the close- ups create a very naturalistic feel throughout the scene, allowing the audience to relate to the scene, another thing that social realism films attempt to do. The director plays with boundaries of stereotypes in this scene as the long, dark hair is almost a stereotype of the ‘Goth’ culture, although it can be argued that it presents a true to life image of the group.
The boy then gets out of bed and pulls a plastic bag out of the wardrobe and puts on the skinny jeans that were placed inside. This immediately creates the image of a ‘typical’ youth as there is the stereotype pinned to them of not always following a daily hygiene regime and they have the stereotype of being ‘dirty looking.’ Youth and adolescence is clearly conveyed in this scene by allowing the audience of build up their own stereotypes of the character.
The music that the boy then listens to on the record player (an indication to the era) has elements of the punk movement ( a culture that became prominent within the early 1980’s) in the heavy base guitar. There are few editorial cuts during this, as it allows the audience to see that the boy is completely immersed within this music. As the cuts become more frequent and give an almost jerky feel to the scene, the audience is shown the boys energy and involvement in the music as he begins to dance around the bedroom, and as the music becomes faster, the boys dancing becomes more vigorous, creating a light representation of youth rebellion.
The music steadily grows louder, at which point the boy reaches for an instant camera and begin photographing himself. A representation created here is one of vanity, something that is connected with youth. Many youths worry and often obsess about their appearance as it often has connections with social status and gaining a boyfriend or girlfriend. It is then revealed to the audience that they boy has done this before as there are other photo’s in the book where he puts the new photos into, showing that appearance is something that is quite important in his life.
The boy then takes his belt of and ties it around his arms and chest, exploring elements of entrapment and the feeling of oppression, maybe from being under his parents rules and expectations and not allowed to create his own. A close up shot of the belt tightly around his arm indicates to the audience a use of drugs, or the curiosity of the experimentation of drugs. The boy then goes further still by imitating suicide by dragging the belt up as if to hang himself. This further explores the issue of experimentation because it is clear to the audience that the boy is not going to hang himself, rather he wants to see what it would be like.
A lingering note on a guitar brings the scene to an end as the boy is ‘caught’ by his father. There is clearly awkwardness between them, shown by the lack of editorial cuts, as the camera stays still in that shot. The ideology created at this point is one of the youth not being able to express himself freely because of the entrapment of parents. However it also creates the ideology that youths still don’t know who they are, so experimentation is the only way to understand who they are but they often become embarrassed by these experiments, as they do not always fit with the ‘norm,’ shown here by the father’s reaction as the audience see’s a glimpse of him in the mirror. The first section ends with the diegetic sound of the fathers footsteps as he walks away the boy looking back at the door, showing that he is embarrassed by his experimentation, which in turn, explores the issue of entrapment as youths are not free to experiment with who they are.
The film then continues onto the second section, with a medium shot of two girls in a changing room, in conversation. One of the girls is clearly more mature than the other, shown in her voice and costume as she is wearing a bikini and the other, younger girl, is dressed in a dark all in one swim suit. The age difference is shown further as the two girls walk to the locker room and the elder girl takes the younger girls belongings from her and places them in a locker. This is something that often the one responsible does, indicating that the elder one is the responsible one out of the two.
The tone of the film changes as the two girls reach the pool and the elder one asks, quite spitefully: “When’s it due?” introducing the audience the issue of weight, something that many youths, especially girls, are conscious of and worry about. This seems to have an affect on the younger girl as the elder one walks away.
The film then cuts to a close up of the young girl, but only showing her head and shoulders. This shot begins to show the audience that the comment has affected the younger girl as her facial expressions are easy to see and read. The issue of weight is fully explored as weight itself usually has a negative impact on a youth but it being pointed out by a friend may have had a harsher impact on her still, as she is not conscious about her weight and also embarrassed at the same time. Again the film is exploring issues of youth, and youths not being comfortable with who they are, as their full identity is not yet created and often the one that is, focuses on image and expectations of others.
The next shot introduces a male character, however after the audience is shown him washing his hands, the camera focuses on the middle part of his body, which is not too thin or too big, highlighting the issue of weight further. This shot keeps the issue fresh in the audiences mind as it is key to many youths and as the film explores youth as a whole, key issues must be highlighted and explored.
The audience is then shown the elder girl sitting on the edge of the pool waiting for the male, who enters by jumping into the pool. The film then cuts to the younger girl who is looking around the corner in a shower area; her facial expressions show embarrassment and reluctance to venture any further, indicating to the audience that issue presented earlier in this section has had an affect on this girl.
The younger girl is then shown in a wide shot, still in the shower area. This communicates to the audience that the girl is feeling isolated from her friend, as she is in the pool with her boyfriend and the younger girl doesn’t have another companion. After a high angle shot of the elder girl and her boyfriend laying on their backs showing their care free attitude, there are a series of close up shots focused on the younger girl. The first shows her holding and almost playing with a packet of crisps, showing that she is toying with the idea of eating them, showing that usually she would have just eaten them but because of the elder girl’s comment earlier, she is feeling conscious about what she eats. The director further explores this as the next close-up is of her head and shoulders, showing her anxiety and split mind at eating the crisps. The third and final close-up in this series clearly indicates to the audience how torn the girls mind is as the camera focuses on her stomach, showing that the comment is still fresh in her mind and is still having a negative affect on her. Through out these shots, the girl sighs, further indicating towards the girl’s torn mind.
The film then cuts back to the swimming pool, where a clear division of maturity is being established. As the young male pushes the elder girl under water, a sense of panic is created by an underwater shot, showing the girls panicked expression. The young male feels that it is a game, whilst the girl’s reaction shows that she doesn’t see it that way, giving the audience a sense that the girl is much more mature than the boy- something that is common between males and females of this age.
The audience is then shown the younger girl again, still in the changing room, as she sits and eats the packet of crisps and washes them down with a bottle of Fanta. This is the final scene of this section and shows that the negative comment made by the elder girl earlier has had a deep impact on her.
This second section of the film explores the issues of weight and what impact this can have on youths and also, to a certain extent, issues of maturity between different genders at this age.
The film then continues onto the third section, with a high angle shot, which introduces three characters, all boys, two are black and one is white, as they run up the stairs of a bus. The audience are then shown another male beginning to walk up the stairs of the bus with a young child wearing a mask. This, along with a shot showing the boys to be swearing at another gang on the street, presents the issue of innocence as the little boy is the representation of this, whilst the three elder boys at the back of the bus represent youths as they come out of innocence and begin to follow stereotypes, the stereotype here being that the boys are of the rebellion age.
The costume of the boys is a school uniform, which indicates that the age of the boys to be anything from twelve to sixteen. Their uniforms are not worn in they in which they were intended to be, their top button are undone, with short ties and un-tucked shirts. This further enforces rebellion as they are rebelling against the code of uniform. The white boy wears a cap back to front, fitting in with a ‘gang’ identity whilst also establishing him to be the authoritative figure of the three.
A close up of this boy holding a knife shows that he is the strength of the group whilst also allowing the audience to create the idea of him also being the weaker of the three, as he needs a knife to defend himself. Regional identity is also established within this scene as the three boys speak with a broad London accent. The youths talk about two very violent films, ‘Rambo,’ and ‘The Terminator,’ indicating to the audience that violence is a key part of their lives. The white boy, named ‘John’ is asked by another boy to give him the knife, whilst repeatedly asking ‘Does he think he is Rambo?” showing that this film character is a loose role model in the boys lives.
The three youths become silent as three young females. All dressed in a uniform, sit down on the bus. A clear representation of the gender and sexuality of the boys is then created through the editing and camera combined. The three boys, still silent, gaze at the three females whilst the camera focuses on the dominant youth. The camera then begins to pan to the left as another boy comments on the girls before the camera then pans back to the right as the white youth calls the dominant one, ‘Gay.’ As the dominant boy has been made to feel small a childish fight breaks, showing the mental maturity of the boys. A tension is created by the use of the handheld camera as the white youth is winding in the ‘play- fight.’
A mobile ringing puts off the fight and the two black youths begin to bicker over the phone as the camera focuses on the white youth, who is inhaling a pump. The audience is introduced to this characters weakness and sees that carrying a knife is his way of showing his strengths and hiding his weaknesses in front of his friends.
The dominant male then begins to become more violence towards the other black youth, showing that he is still concerned with being made to feel small. A male sitting on the bus, starring at them interrupts his actions. As the male turns back around to face the front of the bus, he shakes his head, showing that he doesn’t agree with the youths’ behavior. His action encode that he feels intimidated by the youths, creating a issue that is prevalent in today’s society.
As John begins to look out of the window, the dominant male then grabs him suddenly and pulls a plastic bag over his head. John struggles but the dominant male persists. John’s facial expressions show that he is becoming desperate as well as a close up shot of John flicking open his pocket- knife. The diegetic sound in the scene stops, creating a tension in the scene.
This section of the film creates issues of gang violence and how the public and those involved in the gang are intimidated.
The film ‘Youth,’ is split into three section in order to create an effective representation of the youth and the issues surrounding youth. By breaking the film up into three sections, the director has been able to create and explore different issues that relate to youths. The film explores issues of weight and appearance, issues of gang violence and entrapment.
