Weekly Film School Portrait

School Portrait is a short film directed by Nick Scott and produced by virgin media shorts film competitor. This film's genre is comedy and drama. The themes of the film are blissful ignorance and finding hope. The film is about a school photographer who is taking school photos for primary school children. But this does not go as usual as you expect. For every child who comes through the door and sits down  he gives a vision of what the future will be for them by saying Mortgage, banking crisis, no pet haven and university fees and so on. When ever he says these lines the children have to repeat what he says and when they do they are saddened and say the line in a very monotonous way.  Except for the last child who can't stop smiling. The man has been trying for some time to stop her smiling. You can tell that he has been trying because he starts his sentence with "and" suggesting that he had been trying to get this girl to stop smiling earlier by saying his usual lines but she was still smiling. His arm is over his head highlighting how he might be tired of trying to get this girl to be disgruntled and frown. But this girl no matter what he says still smiles. It gets serious when the man comes up to the camera for a close up. You can clearly see the frustration in his face (this is why it's a close up). When he comes closer to the camera he starts talking about divorce and moving house. You can tell he is talking from past recent experience because after the reverse shot on the girl he backs away from the camera and sighs, drops the trigger for the camera and puts his arms over his head almost like he is realizing how monotonous his life has become with his wife leaving him and having to move house. It then switches to a close up of the man's hand. The girl's hand puts the trigger back into his hand. He then realizes that this girl won't stop smiling for her picture. This gives him a feeling of hope. Although it may be going bad for him now, with his wife leaving him, but he still has loads of his life left. In the next shot it is a wide and long shot. It shows that the man's arms position has changed and dropped down to his legs. He is saying how he might get a new house. The conversation subject matter and informal body language highlights that the man has been talking to the girl for some time. The girl after the man asks if her mum is single shrugs. This suggests that the girl has either been not talking at all and simply giving of body language answers or she has been saying one word answers. This, for the man. is almost like his therapy to get over his recent past quams. I noticed that he says "is your mum single" this is a turning point for him because he getting over his wife and moving on to different women and different things. The little girl's role seems small initially but in actual fact it is a very large a imperative role in the man getting over his dilemmas. There is a saying that close ups are for drama and tension and long shots are for comedy. This is evident in this film when it is a close up it creates tension and drama for when he is reminiscing about his past life and when it is a long shot we see that the man has been talking for a long time with the girl therefore delivering comedy. This film shows me that the you don't need many actual shots to convey a meaningful piece of drama. It has a very minimalistic and unique way of creating a drama and story.