Short Film Research

 The Ellington Kid

Dan Sully uses mise-en-scene throughout the short film, in order to set up the world the characters exist in, portraying an accurate South London area. Whilst also using it to hint towards the violent end of the story, for example the sharpening of the knives, as well as the setting up of the burger. As well as this, Sully uses sound in a compelling way, as the story builds up, and the mise-en-scene becomes more and more violent, the sound mirrors this, gradually leading to a crescendo, building the tension. This use of sound, along side the threat created from the mise-en-scene creates an extremely convincing build up, leading to the eventual moment of bathos, in which we learn the story was all a joke. Sully then brings the same mise-en-scene of sharpening knives, as seen as the first shot, for the last shot, in a way book ending the film, posing the watchers to begin to question the truth.

 

This short film uses an interesting form of narrative, as just stated we not only watch a false build up, resulting in a humorous bathos, but with the final shot causing the audience to fill in the gaps of the open ending we are left with. Did the Kebab shop owners kill those men? Beyond this Sully also uses a voice over, as the man tells his friend the story, creating the sense of this being almost an urban legend. This works in an extremely effective way, with the cinematography only being used to highlight the narrative shown through the voice over.

Slap

The contrast in mise-en-scene between the scenes where the main character is in public vs in private emphasizes the struggles of the closeted LGBT community. We see the differences in the traditionally masculine mise-en-scene, when with his father and friends, such as when he was boxing, and how it starkly contrasts the make-up, and vogue magazines, hidden away in his room. This contrast is emphasized by how he even hides the dress he later wears, within his sport bag. Through this, we see how he feels lost and confused with his own identity, as living these two different lives, being two different people, results in his own fractured identity. This theme is further highlighted by the cinematography, specifically in the shot where we see the main character's reflection in a fractured and broken mirror, directly representing his mental state. 

This film confronts the issues of the closeted community within England. The representation within the film highlights the fractured identity that comes as a result of the isolation felt by parts of this community, unable to rely on friends or family. As well as this, the director represents a household void of a maternal presence, surrounded by a traditionally masculine dad instead, emphasized by his boxing, which I saw as something forced upon him by his dad, representing the expectations which this community is forced into conforming to. The film ends with the main character, having been revealed as an LGBT person, released his overwhelming anger through violence, which could be in an attempt to confront the ideas of traditional masculinity being surrounded with violence, however this last scene leaves the film with an open ending, pushing the audience to question what happened following the party scene. 

Tight Jeans

In this short film, Destiny Ekaragha uses distinctive mise-en-scene to set up the scene. The clearly distinctive hoodie color for each character allows the audience to identity each character, allowing the film to skip past any drawn out character introduction, whilst still giving each character an identity, the whiny one, the chatty one, and the angry one, emphasized by the colors used. This instead allows the dialogue to take main stage, with the incredibly comedic and well written script. Mise-en-scene is further used as the main plot points, the tight jeans, their friend's flat who they're waiting for, and the final tight t-shirt. The use of distinctive mise-en-scene along side the script and performance is the main focus pushed on the audience, as Ekaragha uses simplistic cinematography to push the casual, humorous atmosphere of the film.

 

The main idea's which came to mind as I was watching was the representation within the film. We see a contrast in portrayed cultural identity between the Black and White characters within the film, illustrated by the title of 'Tight Jeans'. With the director being Black, we are presented with an accurate portrayal of this culture we see in London, specifically Lewisham, with the use of specific vernacular within the script to illustrate this. Beyond this, whilst the men are quite objectifying way, Destiny Ekaragha is a female director, and so suggesting that she may know men like this, and so attempting to portray a satire version of these types of people.