Three Tears for Jimmy Prophet Short

Film Analysis

Three Tears for Jimmy Prophet is a social realism short film that was directed by
Shane Meadows, who is also renowned for directing the blockbuster This
is England, another social realism film. The short film begins with a
few black and white stills of the main character, portraying a sense of
depression, death, violence and poverty. This is supported by the nondiegetic music playing simultaneously which is of an acoustic guitar
playing a sad passage of instrumental music. So already we are exposed to
some of the typical conventions of a social realism as the film continues a
slideshow of stills from various camera angles, levels and distances
highlighting the negativity the main character is giving of through his
facial expressions and body language. The mis-en-scene contributes also
as it what we visually see and in this instance it relates to his past life as a
boxer by showing us the setting of a gym and also the clothing he trains
in.
The director Shane Meadows has only used a small range of camera angles; this
suggests that the short was filmed on a very low budget. There is also basic
editing evident in the film as the final still dissolves into moving image of
the boxer training in the gym adding to the list of low budget features.
Meadows also decided to film the short in black and white rather than the norm of
colour, this gives the film a more realistic feel emphasising the dull and
dim of reality of the lower class. The most efective camera shot in my opinion
was the zoom shot towards the end of the short which shows the main character
taking a breather and by the time the camera has zoomed in fully to the frame of
the mirror it shows the reflection of the boxer jabbing the speed ball. From the wide
shot of
the gym its clear that its in bad shape and is sufering from neglect however
the users are patriotic as theirs a union jack flag being hung.

The non-diegetic sound plays an important role of the genre as the characters
voice throughout has an echoing afect emphasising the sorrow and guilt the
character feels for his past actions that have consequently ruined his life.
This leads onto empathy being created by the director through the use of
frequent close up shots to truly see the sadness of the actor as you feel that you are
looking at him face to face and confesses his current situation of being
rejected from his family and most importantly his daughter.