The five films that I will be decoding within this textual analysis are as following: - The Most Beautiful

Man In The World (Alicia Duffy, 2002) - About A Girl (Brian Percival, 2001) - Soft (Simon Ellis, 2006) - Cubs (Tom Harper, 2006) - Wasp (Andrea Arnold, 2001) These films are all products of the social realism genre, and all deal with sub themes within the theme of childhood experiences. The 5 films tell very different stories about the characters, and how the characters deal with the experiences within their own lives. However, they all share a common viewpoint on children; that through the view of innocence, and carefree adolescence, children have a darker side, a side that is only exposed when subjected to traumas to deal with. For example, the boys attack on his aggressor in Soft with a cricket bat is something completely unexpected, as when we look at the boy himself, and things about him such as his physique and stature, we would not expect him to produce such a savage beating on another person. This savagery shows the kind of attitude that the short films have towards children; that children can be pushed and goaded to the point of no return, where something finally clicks, and that childhood is lost. The five films explore this loss of childhood in very intimate ways, with each character having different dynamics on how to deal with a situation. These methods of dealing range from the very sadistic, to the understated. The Most Beautiful Man in The World, directed by Alicia Duffy, deals with the loss of innocence in a very different way to the rest of the films listed. Whereas the other four films deal with the loss of childhood in a very physical way, revolving around childhood experiences and traumas suffered as part of their lives, The Most Beautiful Man In The World explores the theme of a lost childhood with the experiences that the protagonist (Small girl) has throughout the film. Her lost childhood is more implied, rather than literally shown. The film starts out with a slow tilting shot. The slow tilt follows the curvature of the girls mid-region, and within the first ten seconds of the film, the audience feels an uncomfortable intimacy to the girl. We are then shown what she is wearing spaghetti strap vest, short enough to expose her mid region. The audience is immediately introduced to theme of the over-sexualisation of young children. This description of the over-sexualisation of children is prominent to the audience for two reasons. The first being that, because it is so close, the audience has no choice but to take it in. This feeling of an uncomfortable nature being forced on the audience is reminiscent of the actual situation of the child; the child might not want it, but because of over-bearing parents, its happening to them regardless. Another theme that is explored within the opening of TMBMITW is Nature VS Nurture. This theme is explored particularly through elements of mise en scene such as costume, makeup, and color palette. Immediately within the first scene, we are introduced to a scene that is dark and dull. This dark, dull nature represents the surroundings that she has found herself placed in. The atmosphere is stifling within the room, with only a TV, a coloring book, and a dog to keep her company.

To the audience, this shows a possibility of bad parenting, where a young girl, as young as 6/7 is being left to her own devices throughout most of the day, while her mum simply chats on the phone. The interior of the house is standard; a terraced house in a small neighborhood, on the edge of what looks to be a large industrial field. The child goes outside to play on her bicycle, with her dog looking onwards, playing the part of the watchful protector. The child is, however, travelling in circles on the bicycle. This suggests the mundane nature of the girls life, with everything repeating itself day after day. She spies the large field, and approaches it. This point follows the ideas put forward in Marilyn Milgroms The Script, in that in order to have a short film with a successful character in it, the character must be driven through the film by a want, need or obligation. In the case of the small girl, her driving force is a want to be free, and to enjoy the nature in front of her. Her want to play in the field near her house provides a perfect description for the theme of childhood innocence, where the only thing that she wants to do is be free of the television, and play outside. This theme of innocence, and innocence lost is not dissimilar to that of About A Girl. About A Girl, directed by Brian Percival, follows the viewpoint of a pre-teen girl from Manchester, as she describes her life, and makes her walk down to the end of the local canal to dispose of a well-kept secret. The film takes a documentary look at the girls life, interrupted only by snippets of the life that she is describing, such as time with her father at the football ground. One of the most prominent themes within this film is the idea of Appearance vs Reality. The girl herself, is an example of this theme at work. Throughout her monologue, at several points, she incurs a sense of rhythm and rhyme to her words. This rhyme and rhythm is emphasized by the use of jump cuts throughout the opening sequence. If Jesus were alive today, hed probably be a singer Oh, whats that thingy? The use of editing, as well as the performance given by the actress suggests that she is above average in terms of intelligence. However, from face value, we would not think that at all. She is dressed in a tracksuit, with her hair tied back tightly, and large hoop earrings in her ears. This immediately makes the audience think of the Chav stereotype, and with that stereotype, comes the assumption that all chavs are unintelligent. She, however, proves this stereotype wrong, to an extent. She shows herself as a logical thinker. She is disillusioned in terms of her views on life, but we expect this from a pre-teenage girl. Throughout the film, the audience sees her as the typical pre-teen girl, with dreams of becoming a massive pop star, and drinking Bacardi and Coke. However, as her trip along the canal goes further and further along, her experiences start to become a little darker, and instead of talking about what she wants to be, she starts to detail parts of her life where shed been wronged. This description of events from her involves the theme of Deceit and Endemic Poverty. For example, within her monologue, she starts to describe how her mother could not afford to buy her a small piano, but can still afford 40 for

cigarettes. This provides a description of the deceit within the family, but also a sense of disillusion on the girls behalf. There is a clear difference between buying a packet of cigarettes, and buying a piano, but the girl fails to realize this. This lack of realization shows a lack of education. As the girls experiences start to darken in terms of content, we hear from her about how she was once given a puppy by a neighbor. Her brother and her took the puppy in, and fed it a diet of chips, and it seemed to be alright. This concern for the puppies well-being, and childhood ignorance of what it might be best to feed the puppy displays this theme of ignorance, but also the However, her mother found out about the hidden puppy, and as a result, commissioned a neighbor to take the dog, and drown it in a nearby canal, the same canal that the story takes place by. The innocence that she displays by trying to feed the puppy chips is similar to the innocence in TMBMITW. Where the child in TMBMITW is just trying to experience nature, the girl in AAG is just trying to do right by her pet. However, the actions that her mother pursues to get rid of the puppy rub off onto the girl at a later stage. This brings us to a new theme recurring between the five films: Nature VS Nurture. Towards the end of the trip down the canal, the stability of the shots decreases dramatically. This dramatic drop in stability represents the decreasing mental stability of the young girl, approaching the final point in her journey before she reaches home. This journey follows Marilyn Milgroms The Script, which suggests that a physical journey is a good companion for a metaphorical journey, be it through emotion, or a journey through the characters psyche. In this film, the journey also acts as the want/need/obligation, another convention laid out by Milgrom. The last event in the film is possibly the most shocking. The last scene in the film serves as a realization of all of the themes and issues that have been shown throughout the film. As the girl reaches the end of the canal, the scene cuts to a rising crane shot, looking over the top of the canal, and presenting us with a clear difference between the concrete that she stands on, and the dark murky waters in front of her. The canal, in this film, serves as a metaphor for the two parts of her life. The darker water serves to show the darkness that she must encounter if she is to get over to the other side, and proceed to a happier place. However, the drab grey concrete that she stands on represents her life as it is. She lifts the bag that she holds in her hand, and throws it into the canal. The carrier bag itself is ordinary; a typical, opaque-white plastic bag. However, when the bag falls into the water, the plastic starts to unfurl, revealing a large amount of blood, and the body of what appears to be a new-born baby. This immediately introduces the audience to the theme of neglect, but also refers back to the theme of nature VS nurture. Because the girls mother disposed of the puppy in the river, the girl believed that this was the most appropriate way to dispose of her dead child. This kind of childhood neglect is similar to that in Cubs, in that the girl is displaying pure neglect and emptiness for another living thing, regardless of if it is dead or alive. She has seen a course of action that someone else has taken, and for acceptance, has taken that same course herself, without actually thinking about it. The desire for acceptance, and to conform to acceptable actions set by a group or individual displayed in About a Girl is also present in Cubs.

The film starts out with frantic camera movements, documenting a football game between youths. This frantic camera movement reminds the audience of the ever-present chaotic nature in a childs mind. The camera then cuts to a medium shot of a boy and a girl, sitting on a wall, talking about when he is coming. The girl looks cold, so the boy takes off his gloves and gives them to her. This creates the theme of compassion; the boy cares about his friend, and how she feels. The medium shot used creates a sense of equality between the two characters, as they look on at the football game. He then appears at the side of the cage, walking in with several friends. The once chaotic football pitch quickly turns to organization as the boys playing football line up side by side on the pitch. This creates a clearly defined hierarchy of the group; the man walking by the boys is clearly in charge. The ominous diegetic sound of wind howling in the background creates an empty atmosphere to the scene. The scene then cuts to a tracking shot, following the man as he walks down the line of boys. One looks up to him with a grin on in his face. You alright? He asks this in a friendly manner, but is immediately shouted down by the older character. This, once again, establishes hierarchy. However, when the older character moves down towards the protagonist, he nods, indicating that there is a relationship between the two of them. This scene creates a strong representation of age, in that there is almost a mentor relationship going between the two characters. This seems to give us an insight into the personality of the leader; he is aggressive, but at the same time, wants to look out for his friends/acquaintances. However, when the leader character sees the girl that the protagonist is with, he mocks him, asking what she is doing there. This creates a dichotomy: one the one hand, there is a sense of fairness between the protagonist and the leader character, and on the other, there is the obvious sexism towards the girl. This selective nature seems to be contradicted by later on in the film, where we see female characters waiting under the bridge. The relationship is then explained to the audience in more detail by the scene that follows; the protagonist is not picked to go out hunting, and so, he runs after the leader character, and challenges him on his decision. This suggests two things about the protagonist: either his relationship with the leader is on the level where he can question him, or he is very, very stupid. The correct suggestion, however, appears to be the former rather than the latter. The theme of childhood innocence, and innocence lost, is also pertinent in the penultimate scene of the film. The scene cuts to a medium shot of the fox, angled down in order to show inferiority. The protagonist is given a gun by the leader character, and is told to shoot the fox. Parallel editorial techniques, at this point, are used to show the empathy between this fox and the main character. The scene cuts back and forward between the protagonist and the fox, clearly showing the emotion on his face. This use of parallel editing in combination with close ups puts the audience in the situation that he is in, and tells the audience that he is not a bad person, but simply a person looking for acceptance within a new social group. As the gunshot rings out, every member of the circle watching jump. This collective fright at the sound of a gunshot shows that the people egging him on to kill, the people watching him commit the act, are no more experienced than he is, and are still afraid by the sound of a gunshot, no matter

how experienced they could have said they were. This collective surprise shows that the people watching him are barely out of their childhood themselves. Another point in the film which, ultimately, describes the loss of childhood is a line spoken by the protagonist. He is asked how old he is when he makes his first kill (the fox), and he simply replies Old enough. This quote shows the attitude that he has developed as a result of the killing. In the first scenes of the film, we see a protagonist who gives his gloves to his friend because she looks cold. However, towards the end of the film, we see a character that has become much colder as a result of the event that he asked to take place. This sudden loss of childhood is reminiscent of that of AAG, in that both characters have had events occur in their lives that have changed their personas, however, in AAG, the change is brushed off flippantly, with the girl concluding the film by still singing her song whilst walking back the way she came. The idea of returning to the beginning is another idea that is present in both AAG & Cubs. In Cubs, the protagonist is given his gloves back by his friend, a mirror image of the event that occurred in the first scene. In AAG, the entire film is based around her journey to the end of her local canal, and her descent into the impoverished nature of her hometown, but in the final scene, she turns back, and walks straight back towards it. This action comments on the backwards nature of some impoverished parts of society, where change is not wanted, and accepted ways of life are simply lived by. The sudden change in childhood nature presented by both About a Girl and Cubs is also presented in SOFT. While sharing similar ideas with the films described earlier in the essay, Soft presents a very different set of ideas to other films. It completely subverts the audiences expectations, leading to a tension filled production. The relationship between a father and son is the key theme that is explored throughout the film. The film starts out with mobile phone footage. The footage itself is shaky, as the person holding it is running towards what appears to be a fight. However, we then see that it is not a fight, but instead, is more like a beating. One of the protagonists in the film is being punched in the face by the completely stereotypical representation of a Chav. The Chav is dressed from head to toe in a shell-suit, with a baseball cap on his head. There is a distinct dichotomy between the two camera styles used in this film. The first of which is the mobile phone. The effect of mobile phone footage gives the film a much more authentic atmosphere, encouraging the audience to believe that they are actually there, and are engaging with the event, instead of simply watching it. This style also shows the grittier, urban atmosphere that the schoolboy appears to live out. The second camera style present in the film is a much more polished when compared to the substance and quality of the first. The theme of Do as I say, not as I do is also something that is recurrent throughout the text. After the youths have started to attack the protagonists house, there is a moment where both protagonists are sat together on a sofa, debating what to do. The younger of the two is urging his father to step out, and

ward the teenagers off. However, the father is resilient, and instead of calling the police or telling them to leave, he suggests that they should sit there and wait for them to leave. This is a complete subversion of what the audience expects, as well as what the young boy expects. The father, in a sense, becomes hypocritical in nature, particularly when talking to his son about the fight. He actively encourages his son to stand up, defend himself, and face his tormentors, even though he cannot do it himself. However, lack of resilience on the fathers part could be for a number of reasons. For example, is he afraid of the children, or of the consequences? An adult hitting a minor is considered to be child abuse, which could carry a large prison sentence as a result of his actions. The ultimate loss of innocence in this film, however, is present in the final scene. The father steps outside to confront the youths, but after asking them to leave, is swiftly punched in the stomach, and drops to the floor. His son then leaves the house, brandishing a cricket bat. He swings it at the main aggressor, and hits him in the head. As he drops to the ground, he starts to kick him in the head. This kind of action changes the audiences view of the younger protagonist. Before, he was simply shown as the victim, whereas in the final scenes of the film, he rises up, and delivers payback to the other youths. The difference between the context of innocence lost in this film compared to the others analyzed is that the boy did not ask for this situation, but was instead pushed into it. The nature of the ending of this film creates a very real-feeling representation of bullied youths: after a degree of tension, pushing someone to the brink, they will fight back. The theme of childhood neglect present in About A Girl is also present in Wasp. Directed by Andrea Arnold in 2003, Wasp tells the story of a single mother who lives alone with her four children in Dartford. She is poor, and cannot afford to buy food for her children and herself. Her ex-boyfriend drives by one day, and asks her if she wants to go on a date with him. Scared that he doesnt want to go out with her, she lies, and says that she is just babysitting the kids. In the opening scene of the film, we are introduced to the main characters with a shaky, handheld shot while moving downstairs. The shot then cuts to the mother of the children; she is wearing a pale blue shirt, and no shoes. In her hands, shes holding a toddler, half naked from the top down. This nakedness creates an idea in the audiences head, but also a presentation of the theme of Child Neglect. Firstly, does the mother want her child to be dressed like that? Is it by choice that the baby has no trousers or underwear? Secondly, the child has no underwear, ergo, many people would see that as child abuse. The stark nudity of the child, and the fact that the mother is just carrying them around as if nothing is wrong creates a statement about the mindset of the mother; she is so poor that she cannot afford trousers for her child, but is just dealing with the situation. Following later on behind is a small girl. She is wearing a tutu, and holding a doll. Both of these items are key elements of mise en scene, as they both represent the stereotypical essence of a young girls childhood. However, she is falling far

behind her mother, and her sisters. This could suggest the element of a lost child, where more attention is given to the other children then to her, leaving her fallen at the wayside. The camera then cuts to a medium shot of a babies behind. The shot is quite uncomfortable, similar to that of TMBMITW, but in a different manner. Instead of being heavily sexualized, this shot is presented very matter-of-factly, as if to say This is a babys bottom, so? This stark medium shot, and the long take editorial technique mean that the meaning behind the babies bare bottom is exposed is very stark. It is there for a long period of time when compared to a standard shot, meaning that it is not something that the audience can simply ignore. The mother is walking towards a house with her children in tow. She thumps angrily on the door, with the children watching behind her. She then proceeds to drag the occupant of the house out onto the grass field adjacent, and hair pulling and name-calling ensue. However, the point to make about the themes and issues of the scene is that the children join in with name calling, defending their mother and insulting the other woman at the same time. Get off her, you fat old cow This is not the kind of language that we would expect a five year old to be using. This raises a rather poignant point about the idea of Monkey See, Monkey Do, a contrasting ideal to that present in Soft. The fact that the children know that they should call the woman that, and are even using the language at all means that they have heard it somewhere before, which could point to bad parenting, or neglect. Girls, after three 1 2 3 All three girls, as well as the mother, simultaneously turn around, and point their middle fingers toward the other mother. The simulatenous action, led by the mother, shows a lack of class, with the mother clearly setting a bad example for the children. This imitation of her actions refers back to that of Soft, but in a contrasting manner. In Soft, the father is encouraging his son to fight back and stand up for himself, however, when faced with the experience himself, he refuses to fight. This is different to Wasp, in that the mother is actively encouraging the children to do as she does, leading to an entirely negative representation of the mother. In conclusion, whee the films are similar in their nature and their genre, they present very different ideas to the audience viewing them. They each provide a different viewpoint on the effects of the loss of childhood, but in opposing contexts. An example of the contexts shown would be the difference between Cubs and Soft. In Soft, the character is thrust into the situation, whereas in Cubs, the character actively asks for the chance to prove himself. This is the reason that the films are so different, in my opinion.