The film "About a Girl" explores issues such as parental neglect, teenage pregnancy, poverty, and abortion through clever camera shots and angles. An effective long shot shows the distant relationship between the girl and her father on a football pitch. A graphic extreme close-up of an abortion procedure shocks audiences and highlights the emotional issue. Costumes, dialogue with a strong Mancunian accent, and depictions of run-down housing represent the girl's working class regional identity in the North of England.

1. About a girl

2. • ‘About a girl’ explores a number of different issues such as parental
neglect, teenage pregnancy, poverty, as well as ethical issues for
example abortion.
The film highlights these issues by the
use of clever camera shots and angles.
For example the long shot of the girl and
her father on the football pitch. Is
effective because it allows the audience
to view both the characters from head
to toe, making sense of their
relationship with each other and their
environment.
A graphic extreme close up is also used to
highlight the ethical issue of abortion. The
sudden change from the high angle shot to
the extreme close up of the baby is
effective because it catches the audience
off guard and the shock of what’s
happened hits hearts. This highlights the
hard hitting, emotional, issue of abortion.
Leaving the audience with something to
think about.

3. • Representational areas that were included in the short film consists of age, class and regional
identity. The technical areas of mise en sence reflected these representations in ways which either
conformed or rebelled against their common stereotypes.
Costume for example was used to reflect both age and class. The protagonist wears an of white
puffer jacket through the entire monologue and the majority of her flash backs. This suggests that
she doesn’t own many clothes and instead wears the same gritty jacket all the time, which that of
a working class person is stereotypically known to do.
The gold hoop earrings that is worn by the young girl reflects a specific representation of young
people, one which implies that young people wish to appear older than they actually are. This
conforms to the inaccurate stereotype that young people try to appear older, and communicates
to the audience that she is just a typical young girl who is still quite immature but believes, in her
own mind, that she’s not.
The dialogue and the setting of
the short film also represents
regional identity. The girl speaks
in a strong Mancunian accent,
and when estates and graphite
walls create the setting of the
film, north England/Manchester
is represented as a cold grotty
place.

4. • The film opens with a long shot of the girl’s silhouette on top of a hill, dancing and singing to
a Britney spears song. The director’s choice to use a long shot is effective because it allows
the audience to gain awareness and understanding of the setting and the characters
relationship with their environment. In this case the girl is using the top of the hill as her
performance space, with the light shining above her. This reflects a dreamlike/fantasy
scenario that the girl seems to be playing out. It suggests the character has many hope and
dreams which a typical working class teenager would have.
As well as dreams and fantasies, the beams of light shinning in the background can
also bring to mind the sense of new beginnings. This foreshadows the ending of the
film where the girl throws away her past by disposing of her child, and begins a future
ahead when walking off and deciding to get a ‘99’. This suggests that much like the
beginning where a childlike fantasy is portrayed, the girl is ready to have a fresh start
at being a child, her own age, again. It emphasises to the audience the issues with
children growing up too fast and teenage pregnancy further.