About A Girl

About a girl is a nine minute short film, directed by Brian Percival in 2001. The short was written by Julie Rutterford who found her inspiration for the script from children and her experiences with children. It was produced by Janey De Nordwall and has won several awards including a Bafta for Best British Short at the Edinburgh international film festival. Since 2001 Pericval has gone on to direct Much A’do About Nothing, The Ruby In The Smoke and The Old Curiosity, his worked is now more focused in the television series industry. About a girl in known for its shocking twist of an ending which can lead to multi interpretations of the text. The main themes and issues raised in the short are teenage pregnancy, social deprivation, domestic violence, disenfranchised youth and ambition.
The film is shot in a documentary way with the main characters eye line at us the audience, which suggests the girl is quite confident in relation to her ego. However this technique can create different senses for example, the girl needs someone to talk like a stranger which we the audience are and this creates the idea of counselling. Its confessional yet we feel the need she needs someone to talk to through the use of close up shots that create a sense of intimacy.
The film starts in silence and the screen is black. The sound of mobile texting comes on as do the letters in a text and spells out the name of the film. The text technique has connotations of youth as in today’s society new technologies are associated with the younger generation. The first shot is wide, the lighting is dark with a low tone colour pallet which indicates to us the time of day; sunset. It only has the girl in the frame, which represents her as vulnerable. She is singing ‘Stronger’ by Britney Spears. The lyrics in the song are quite inspirational for the young girl in the film as well as being significant to the plot, for example ‘stronger than yesterday, now its nothing but my way’.
As the girl tells us her story through character codes; regional dialect we can tell that she is from Manchester, the northern part of England. The large city backgrounds suggest that the film is located in the greater pat of Manchester, where poverty and social deprivation are commonplace. The girl speaks rapidly throughout the film also which can lead to a number of emotions that she may be feeling, for example panic or excitement. In addition to this the use of jump cuts could be a representation of her thought process,
Through mise-en-scene, and in particular costume we can easily relate the girl to a lower class background as her clothes look grubby, to big for her and clashing in colour. Furthermore the dullness of the colours could a deeper representation on how she feels inside.
Another issue that is raised in this short is neglect, which has also appeared in many of the other short films that I have analysed. Specifically in this film it’s the conversation between the girl and her dad. She asks if she can live with him in which he replies “It’ll be too much of a hassle”. When then see her dad playing football with his mates and leaving his daughter outside the pub on her own whilst he has a good time inside, we can tell this through the diegetic sounds of cheers which connotate happiness.
The quick shots of the girls on the bus see the protagonist singing Opps I did it again. I feel that these lyrics lead to the shock that is upon us. However through lyrical psychology I think the director has let us specifically hear her sing these words which helps us work out what has been going on through out the film.
The tracking shot follows the girl walking down next to the canal. Her last line is “I’ve become dead good at hiding things from her since then” and we see her through a carrier bag into the water. We then question ourselves as to what is in the bag as through close up we see it begin to unravel and float away. Then through extreme close up it is revealed to be an unborn baby. I think that the director specifically chose to use the style of shot for this was to shock us. We see the girl walk away and the film ends. We are then left with the question as the audience, was the baby hers? And if it wasn’t then that would lead to a totally different interpretation altogether. I think the lyrics ‘Opps I did it again’ suggest that this hasn’t happened before and fits well with what she says about becoming good at hiding things from her mum. Also throughout the film she always wears an oversized coat, was she hiding her baby bump?
About a girl is my favourite short film, I love that no matter how many times I watch it always shocks me and how they have represented teenage pregnancy in a negative way as of recent it is becoming a major issue in society with figures rising, representing it negatively I feel is the way forward to create some form of prevention.
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