Third Post

Research task;

Mixed Tape, Luke Snellin 2009.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exFWurXtsU4)

‘Mixed Tape’, written and directed by Luke Snellin, is a short film adapted into the genre of social realism, and is evolved around the connection between a neighbouring girl and boy. It is clear the genre is social realism due to some of the conventions used which creates the ‘illusion of reality‘, such as the realistic settings - a neighbouring house/flat in a urbanised area/children’s bedrooms, unobtrusive mise en scene and camerawork and use of naturalistic lighting and digetic/non digetic sound. The main character is a young boy in his early teens, and alongside there are only two other small part characters - the girl and her mother - so overall the characterisation is minimal.

This short film uses the style conventions of social realism in a number of unique ways. The mixed tape he gives to the girl seems to be an important symbolism for his affection, and is shown to be significant through the obvious
fact that it is the title, and the opening shot of a running mixed tape.
Another unique element to this short film is how little dialogue is used and how they use the music, body language and expressions to represent the characters actions, feelings and personality instead. A few ways of how they do this so well is through the slow motion and loud non digetic music during the ‘daunting walk’ to the house. This shot shows and emphasises his nervous expression well, but also portrays a quiet confidence through the overwhelming music playing. Another distinctive aspect of the film used to create uniqueness is both the long shot used to establish the neighbouring characters as he walks to her house and the end shot of their adjacent rooms with the wall division, with both the children parallel to each other and showing both their emotions and contentment. All these unique components have been very inspiring and will be hopefully somehow incorporated into our short film.

The film uses the short film format very well, as it uses a very basic scenario with no particularly amazing storyline, but manages to use a range of techniques to make it interesting and worth watching. It doesn’t leave much for the audience to guess, as it establishes factors such as characters personas quite directly, for example it is obvious that the girl’s mum is the girl’s mother, just through her very ‘mumsy’ stereotypical role, clothing and polite manners.
The use of sound in this short film may be one of the most important elements which makes the film, as the story is pretty much told through the music. The switching between the music being non digetic and digetic seem to divide fantasy from reality. For example, the change from the non digetic loud music played during the walk up to the house as he dreams about the girl, to the sudden switch as they dance to the same music but shown as digetic in their adjacent bedrooms. Furthermore, the lyrics of the music seem to transfer messages to each other, almost like a replacement for dialogue.

The theme of the film is realistic - young love. Although realistic, you could argue it is not such a common occurrence in the modern world, as it uses the old school innocent exchange of a mixed tape. Therefore it may be going against the stereotyped norms of what happens between relationships in today’s society. Furthermore, young teenagers are known to have bad reputations and negative stereotypical traits, but in this film it breaks this representation and focuses on the positive and innocent factors of childhood. It is a situation the audience can easily relate and empathise with, and manages to position the audience into taking a positive and appealing view towards the children through the innocent and naive portrayal of them both in both entertaining and ‘cute’ ways. Therefore creating a interesting and high-quality short film.