I saw this film in my seminar at university today as part of this week's lecture and seminar topic of social class in the media. While it is drastic in parts and scary towards the end, I found it very true-to life and thought-provoking.
The cinematography is shaky, the lighting is natural if dim in the pub scene and the scenery is realistic. While there was no incidental music, three pop songs played at the pub and the three young girls sang the Pizza Hut, KFC and McDonald's song. A lot of the scenes were drastic, especially the opening scene where the mother-of-four gets into a heated argument with another woman and the scene towards the end where the baby boy gets stung by a wasp in his mouth is scary because I am terrified of wasps. The mother was a perfect example of a bad parent who swears at or in front of her children, encourages them to 'flip the bird' towards the woman she argued with, neglects them and even shakes one of her girls violently for apparently not looking after the baby - this is bound to get the NSPCC all uppity. On a more positive note, this film made me think a lot in terms of how the family are dressed to represent their lower-class status, the use of lighting, the style of filming and its editing, which was more decent than the cinematography. I was surprised to have heard that this low-budget student film won an Oscar because films made this way are not usually Oscar-worthy.
Overall this was a gritty short film with dark dialogue, shaky camera work, good if mostly cheesy pop songs (despite being a Steps fan) and a lot of thought put into it. 7/10.
The cinematography is shaky, the lighting is natural if dim in the pub scene and the scenery is realistic. While there was no incidental music, three pop songs played at the pub and the three young girls sang the Pizza Hut, KFC and McDonald's song. A lot of the scenes were drastic, especially the opening scene where the mother-of-four gets into a heated argument with another woman and the scene towards the end where the baby boy gets stung by a wasp in his mouth is scary because I am terrified of wasps. The mother was a perfect example of a bad parent who swears at or in front of her children, encourages them to 'flip the bird' towards the woman she argued with, neglects them and even shakes one of her girls violently for apparently not looking after the baby - this is bound to get the NSPCC all uppity. On a more positive note, this film made me think a lot in terms of how the family are dressed to represent their lower-class status, the use of lighting, the style of filming and its editing, which was more decent than the cinematography. I was surprised to have heard that this low-budget student film won an Oscar because films made this way are not usually Oscar-worthy.
Overall this was a gritty short film with dark dialogue, shaky camera work, good if mostly cheesy pop songs (despite being a Steps fan) and a lot of thought put into it. 7/10.