This document provides an analysis of the short film "Candy Crime". It summarizes the genre as comedy/crime, with a counter-stereotype of an innocent girl dominating teenage boys. It describes the narrative of boys crowding a girl for her candy at a bus stop until she gets their gun. The document analyzes representations of age and location, editing techniques, camera work, sound design, intended audience, and notes the film won awards for its comedy.

1. CANDY CRIME
“ALL YOU NEED TO MAKE A
MOVIE IS A GIRL AND A GUN.”
JEAN-LUC GODARD, 16TH MAY
1991
http://www.filminute.com/listing.php?type=
1&edition=2012&film=169

2. Genre
 The genre of Candy crime is comedy and
crime. This is evident through the fact that
there is a counter stereotype. When the young
teenage boys target the innocent girl by
crowding her and taking her sweets. The
young girl turns out to be the more dominant
character as in returns she makes the boys
give up their gun.

3. Narrative
The opening scene begins with four teenage boys
dressed in casual clothing sitting on a wall. They
target a young girl. The boys follow her to the bus
stop and when she sits down the crowd around her.
One of the boys demands her lolly by pointing at it,
the girl gives in but in return points to his key ring,
that the boy eventually gives to her. When they
realise she has a bigger lolly. The boy gets
aggravated and he pulls out a gun which looks like
he is traumatising the girl. However he is trading the
gun with the lolly. This is an closed narrative as they
are both happy towards the end. It also follows the
classic Hollywood narrative of order, disorder and
order restored. This is a single strand narrative.

4. Representation: Age
 In the short film there are two very different ages being represented.
The teenage group of boys are represented through their clothing.
They are wearing jeans and t-shirts with chains are key rings. They
are also wearing hoodies and sitting in a group on the wall. This
tells us they are teenagers as if it was someone older they may
want to sit inside. Also through facial and body expression, when
they walk and look at the girl full of confidence and they wont let
anything get in their way. The audience can also decode that they
are teenagers as they hardly speak and teenagers are said to be
anti-social.
 The little girl on the other is dressed in white dress which is
something you would expect young girl to wear a small back pack
and a packet of sweets.
 At the beginning the teenagers are represented as the ones with
the power especially when the gun comes out. However this film
plays on the counter stereotypes where at the end the girl is the
more dominant character.

5. Representation – Mise – en –
scene
 The location is represented as run down on a street corner. There
are various blocks of flats highlighting an estate area.
 The boys on the estate are dressed in casual clothing which consists
of hoodies, jeans and chains this connotes danger. The clothing they
are wearing in the short is very stereotypical of what children on the
estate wear to support the bad boy persona. The girl on the other is
also very stereotypical as she is in a white dress which illustrates
innocent and is walking down the street minding her own business.
 The props used, by the boys are the key ring which has a heart and
wings on it and the gun. The preferred reading is that kids on the
estate get involved with gangs and crime that they shouldn't.
Whereas the supposedly innocent girl only has sweets and her
backpack and is by herself suggesting that she isn‟t form that area.
 As Dick Hebdige suggest that young people in the media are
presented as youth is fun or trouble and here they are presented as
trouble.

6. Editing
 In candy Crime the editing is at a fairly slow pace at the
beginning with many straight cuts. These take place when we
see the boys on the wall to the girl turning the corner and
boys following her. Once the girl has sat down and the boys
crowd around her the editing speeds up especially when the
boy points to the lolly pop and the cut is quite abrupt.
Similarly when the girl points to his key ring their is an abrupt
straight cut to show his shocked facial expression as neither
the audience or the boys expected her to do this. The editing
again slows down once they get the lolly. However when she
pulls out the bigger lolly and they notice, the girl refuses to
hand it over. There is a jump cut when the boys pulls out the
gun to again to shock the audience and the girl. Towards the
very end the editing returns to its normal pace once both of
them are satisfied.

7. Camera Work
Many camera shots are used to represent the different characters. For
example when the little girl is sitting at the bus stop, the gang of boys tower
over her, a low angle shot is used to illustrate this, this is also from her
perspective, she see‟s the boys looming over her staring down and her
intimidatingly, this makes her seem extremely venerable and the boys very
powerful. This is deliberately done to emphasise the comedy at the end of the
short film as the audience does not expect the sudden role-reversal as the little
girl having extreme power by having a gun.
A high angle shot is also used to give the audience a view of the gang forcing
the little girl to give them her lollipop. This also misleads the audience to make
them think something bad is going to happen to the little girl.
A two shot is used when there is conflict between the young girl and the
ringleader of the gang. This is also shot low angle again to give the audience
the impression that the gang have a lot more power than the girl. However, it
also begins to reveal the girls power over the gang as she disagrees with the
ringleader showing her confidence and how he can‟t just get anything he
wants from her.
Many close up are used to emphasise the objects that are being exchanged
and who is getting what. There are long shots to show that the boys are
following the girl.

8. Sound
 Candy crime starts with the diegetic sound which is
the chatter and laughter of the boys sitting on the wall
and carries on while they follow the young girl. This is
followed by the diegetic sound of the rustling of the
sweet bag and the boys foot steps as they crowd
around her. While this is going on there is a small
amount of non diegetic tense music. The boy rudely
states „give it to me‟, whilst the other boys stay quite.
Then there is the diegetic sound of the wind and the
boy throwing the lolly to the floor and him asking for
the lolly again whilst the girl refuses. The non diegetic
music plays once the gun gets pulled out to help the
audience understand the fear that the girl has.
Towards there is very upbeat music . This highlights
that you don't have to speak to have the upper hand
as the girl got the gun.

9. Audience
 The short film industry‟s audience is quite niche as opposed to
the mainstream audience of larger full length films. People
who will most likely take an interest in Candy Crime are
probably students or professionals in the industry. The student
audience would be in the social group E as they are
unemployed and want to make money or do what they enjoy.
Students would most likely view the films for inspiration. Using
Psychographics to determine the audience for short films.
These people could be described as succeeders, these are
people who are ambitious and want to get high up in the
industry. This could happen if they view a short film they like
and they could distribute it to bring money into their company.
Also the aspirers which are people who want something
bigger this could be students that have just come out
university and want to be in the film industry. Lastly the
individualist may be interested in short films, as they want to
separate from the crowd and would express themselves
through short films.

10. Funding and distribution
 Year: 2011
 Production Country: Great Britain
 Directed by Ben Jacobson
Featuring Holly Jacobson / Pierre Marku / Adain
Bradley
 Distributed by BFI
 By Ben Jacobson Productions
 Quality Video Production, Leicester, East
Midlands
 He films on high quality Panasonic DVPROHD
and Canon DSLR cameras with full professional
lighting and sound kits. He edits using Final Cut.

11. Success
 It won the award of „Best comedy short‟ at
Screen Stockport Film Festival 2011‟.
 Candy crime has 9,258 views on YouTube and
also was one of the 25 films to be shortlisted in
the film minute competition.
 Encounters Short Film Festival Winner, Best
Comedy Short, Screen Stockport Film Festival
2011