Short Film: About A Girl (2002) Director- Brian Percival 9 MinutesContemporaneous

Representation of environment. Dramatic monologue. Set decoration: graffiti, walls are grimy, graffiti, dilapidation. All suggestive

of community in decline: that does not care about their surroundings. Canal strewn with an abundance of litter. At one point a trolley is seen flung

into the canal. Seasonal element in terms of trees (suggestive of winter), Constant use of bars within the frame. Suggestive of being trapped within the

life she leads. Slow track back, long take by the bench which is suggestive of neglect, bad

parenting and vulnerability. Singing contrast with football chanting furthers her separation from her

father’s activities in the pub. Warm colours when the girl is with friends. Showing that this is where she is

happiest and safest. Jump cuts confusing the audience, suggesting the brokenness in her own life.

Perhaps her state of mine. Also shows she is lost in her storytelling: is this a conscious or subconscious awareness?

Lies suggest that she likes making up stories, that she has a vivid imagination. Wide shot of her looking by the canal: suicide, loneliness, litter, colour pallet,

darkness in her community. Does she resent her parents? Wants them to be together as suggested through

the subtext. Ending: whose is the baby? Hers? Her mothers? Is life really worth living in such a community? Environment makes you what you are. Lack of respect for life: matter of face. Not emotionally affected, not

completely emotionally intact. Depth of the river: displacement, denial, a somewhat conventional shot in

horror film to suggest the horrors of what has just happened. Crane shot of her walking: there is a lighter side, but it is blocked by the canal

and everything that the canal represents. She is still on the darker side.