About a
Girl Textual Analysis - Sam Swinson
‘About a Girl’ is a short film that is based around a young
13 year old girl who is under privileged. The film is set in two time period
there is the present day which is when the girl is walking alongside the canal.
Also, there is the past which is in a number of different locations including a
dinner with her dad and in a council estate with her mum and siblings.
The film start with a title screen ‘About a Girl’. The font
of the text and the animation that is used to make it appear on the screen is
associated with texting on a phone. This represents age because younger
generations are known for always texting on their phones. Additionally, the
non-diegetic sound of phone buttons being presses adds to the phone texting
idea. The title sequence give an indication of the target audience for the
film, furthermore, the protagonist of the film is a young female which the
audience discover in the opening shot.
The film starts with a simple shot of a silhouette of a
young girl which is shown to the audience because of the diegetic singing she
is doing, the dance moves she is doing and she keeps flicking her hair back and
forth. The audience are introduced to this character as very childlike in her
representation of age which is used to show here innocence to the audience. This
character being alone while singing and practising her dancing suggests she
might not be comfortable in front of others. Also, the lyrics that she sings include
“my loneliness ain’t killing me no more” which connotes that she doesn’t have
anyone to support her dreams, therefore, she has to pursue them herself.
Then there is a cut from the opening shot to a tracking shot
of the main character. Her Manchester accent and use of language represent that
she is from working class because the way that she talks is often associated
with working class people in Manchester. On top of this, she talks very fast
which is mirrored by the fast editing with jump cuts. The audience hear a story
that flows as one, however, the background keeps changing which links to the
speed she talks and that is represents age because people think that younger
people’s minds are traveling at 100 mph. This is shown by the background keeps changing,
but, the story she is telling flows together. This is called discontinuity
editing.
In the background of some of the shots we can see that the
brown bricked buildings are derelict which indicate the lower social class and
the location that she lives in. In addition, the industrial landscape behind
her suggests that she lives in a run-down, possibly poor, area. This causes the
audience to naturally assume that she is from a lower working class background.
Furthermore, age is represented with the costume that she
wears. This is because she is always wearing a bomber jacket, jeans and
trainers. Also, she is always on her phone which represents age as she could
use the phone as escapism from her surroundings. Her costume represents class
as well because the bomber jacket that she is wearing looks too big for her
suggesting that it is a hand me down, also, her jeans are rolled up which could
be for the same reason.
In a mid-shot that is from the past it appears that the
girl’s mother is scratching a scratch card which suggest that the mother
desperately wants money. This is because most people know that scratch cards
are a waste of money, but, this shows how desperately the mum wants money which
represents the lower working of her family. Additionally, in the diegetic
dialogue the girl says that when she is rich and famous she will leave her mum
dinking ‘knock off beer’ and cheap out of date burgers which represents the
lower working class.
On top of this, we see the girl with her farther and they
are in a road side diner which suggests lower class because he is reading a
tabloid newspaper, also, he plays football which is the most accessible sport
in England. Additionally, the farther is unemployed which means that he will be
living off benefits. In addition, they had a camping holiday in Wales which was
in a caravan this represent lower class because lots of middle class people
will have a holiday in a different country.
The girl has dreams of being famous which is what most of
under privileged children. Something that suggest that she is underprivileged
is that she say when she is famous she will have ‘bacardi breezers’ because she
doesn’t know what champagne is.
At the end of the film we see the girl throw a bag into the
canal that she has been walking next to. The audience find out once it has been
thrown that it was a dead baby that she was carrying with her. This shows that
she is unfazed by the fact that she has carrying her dead baby with her. Also, she
is young and has had a baby which is stereotypically done by working class
teenagers. The final shot of the film is an extreme long shot that show that
canal with a light side on the left and a dark side on the right which is the
side the girl is on. The canal runs along with where the girl is walking which
suggests that the death of her baby will stay with her forever. Also, there is
not bridge over the canal to the light side which suggests that she will always
be stuck on the dark side because she is in the working class and she will
always be materially deprived.
Overall, ‘About a Girl’ is a realistic short film that show
the struggle that young girls go through. It is very well shot and the meaning
to some parts is unclear at first, but, once you look deeper into the film everything
has lots of meaning.
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