Short Film Analysis

Surfacing by Jessica Green


Surfacing from Jessica Green on Vimeo.

Mise-en-scene
The costume is the conventional clothing that a teenager wold wear, just normal t-shirt and pants, this denotes that the person is just your average young adult. However, we see a transparent piece of material in front of her throughout which is visible due to the light shining off it, this gives us the idea that the girl is trapped, but to what it is we do not know. The location shots are just normal, bright places which contrasts with how the girl is feeling, this gives off connotations that she is intimidated by her surroundings as they are the opposite as to what she is feeling which we can tell by the expressions on her face. As the sequence progresses, emphasising how tedious this whole experience this is for her, her clothing changes from being yellow, bright and cheerful t-shirt to a blue jumper, which connotes that her feelings are getting worse and she is becoming more emotional; by her covering up more of her body, denoting that she is no longer comfortable in her own body so she's hiding away.

Cinematography
Instantly starts as an extreme close-up on the girls eyes, showing her look of worry. It's not very clear at first, then it cuts to the girls point of view, which then shows that something is covering her view. There are a lot of various different angle shots to show the girls isolation for example when there is a longshot showing the girls confusion and distress of her walking in circles. It seems to be that a handheld camera is used at first then when it has to be a steady shot which emphasises on the girls face to let the audience feel empathetic for her. There are several different shots when showing the different people who are talking about her.

Sound
The sound in this at the beginning is just a fairly ordinary noise which is expected in a communal area, people talking, things rustling; however, in this case, linking with the cinematography it is obvious the girl feels a division between herself and the rest of the people as she is not interacting with them, she is just listening - denoting that she is left out. There are several bangs, for example when the door slams shut which could represent the girls anxiety