This short film Cherries is a British social realist drama about a group of teenage boys who are informed they must undergo compulsory military training due to a lack of soldiers for the ongoing war. The film represents the students as misbehaving stereotypes in messy uniforms. It also depicts the teacher as a stereotypical middle-aged, middle-class authority figure. The narrative follows the boys receiving the news and the main character running away scared. Camera techniques like close-ups, panning shots, and a handheld shot during the climax aim to build tension. Sound design with aggressive student dialogue contrasts a calm teacher and ominous music heightens tension. The intended audience is younger viewers to relate the coming-of-age theme

1. Research and Planning
Existing short films: Cherries

2. Genre
 The form of this short film is social realism. Social
realism is a film that focuses on topical issues in a
modern society which is represented by different
ideologies. The most common type of themes include
money, drugs or sex whereas Cherries has a different
take on the modern society. The issue that has arose is
the fact that the war is getting bad and the students need
to enlist in compulsory military training. So the link to
social realism is that is about a war and how it could
effect students which has a very different take on thinks
however, there area still aspects of key features of British
social realism such as the characters being
stereotypically young boys. The genre is typically a teen
drama which is shown through the stereotypes of the
characters being young and evidentially in school.

3. Representation
 There is a clear representation of teenage boys. The first thing that I
realised when watching the short film was the fact that it shows a group of
boys all with different ethnicities and culture identities which shows the
multi-cultured society of modern Britain. In addition to this some of the
boys are represented as misbehaved, anti-social stereotypes which is
shown through the aggressive body language of some of the actors. In
addition to this, one of the boys keeps a cigarette on his ear which
highlights other British social aspects due to him obviously being underage
as he is at school. All of the students are in school uniform which again is
a common theme of British Social realism films, the uniform is also messy
and unprofessional as some students have the uniform tucked it, some
tucked out or rolled sleeves, some are wearing trainers or hoddies with
their shirts which is a clear indication that Tom Harper is trying to represent
the male teenagers as anti-social and misbehaved which is stereotypically
how they are presented.
 The second representation that we see is the teacher. The teacher is
represented as a stereotypical teacher who is white, middle –class and
middle age who is shown to be authoritative towards the students which is
shown through the different types of camera angles and shots for example
within the class room he is seen to be standing whilst the majority are
sitting down which highlights his authority and power over the students.
 The third representation is of the soldiers coming to take down the
information of the students, there are strict which is evidentially a trait of a
soldier however, they seem to focus on the fact there are female soldiers
which rebels against the common stereotypes of male soldiers. This then
reflect how modern times are growing with females being more accepted
in society of being in the army.

4. Audience
 When it came to understanding who the intended
audience was for this film, it was easy to understand that
the film was intended for a younger audience, preferably
students. The reason that I believe that this is intended
for students is because the audience for British social
realism films tend to be aimed at young adults due to
relating to modern issues of coming to age such as
adulthood, kidulthood and fish tank. Furthermore, as
most of the characters are students then it tends to be
aimed at other students, the vocabulary used throughout
the film also seems to be aimed at a younger audience
for example, ‘shanked’, ‘bruv’, ‘fam’ etc. which would not
be known from someone of a middle-class or upper-class
background.

5. Narrative/Storyline
 The film is set in the near future within the location of the school, the film starts with a group of
boys where there seems to one bragging about how they fought with someone and stabbed
them. The other boys seem impressed with the violence that the teenager is talking about
however, when they go into class they are told that they have to enlist into compulsory training for
the army as the number of soldiers have dropped, the students seem scared and worried about
what faces them with the main character running away.
 The title itself has connotations of the film for example, the word ‘cherries’ has several conations
the first being that is an American slang term that referred to the ‘unused or untired’ military
equipment and weaponry and new recruits who are yet to experience the realities of war. This
has connotations of the students being new recruits who are yet to experience the war.
 The title also has a more modern meaning which may be more recognised by the intended
audience as ‘popping a cherry’ which has connotations of someone losing their virginity. This film
is essentially a coming to age film which shows how the teenage boys are losing their innocence
by signing up to war. This has links to a theme of ‘age of consent’ as these students may be old
enough to fight in the war however still too young to vote.

6. Institution
As shown at the start of the film during the opening sequences the
institutions behind the film are: The UK Film council which was set up in
2000 as a non-departmental public body to promote the film industry in the
UK. It was established as private company limited by guarantee, owned by
the secretary of State of Culture, Media and sport.
The second institute linked to Cherries is Film London. Film London is
known as the capitals film and media agency. It was set up to promote and
develop London as a major international film-making capital. The
organisation is supported by the BFI and Mayor of London and was
established in 2003.

7. Technologies – Camera Shots and Angles
 Throughout the short films there are many different types of technologies used and there
are several connotations of the army and army based features throughout the film. For
example, when the film starts it starts with the main character running into school, however,
the connotations of this was that it looked as if he was training as he had his backpacked
on his back which has similarities of when soldiers are training. This is shown by the
tracking shot used.
 We see other connotations of this theme of an army when the teacher is talking to the
students for example, this shot is a low angle which shows the importance of the teacher
and the authority he has over the students which is a similar authority that commanders
have on their unit. In addition to this we also see in the shot the words ‘focus, try, achieve’
these are very motivation words again very similar to what we may hear soldiers being told.

8. Technologies – Camera shots/Camera angles
 A camera angle that is used quite a lot is a panning shot. For example, it is used in the
classroom when all the students are opening the letter then again when they are lining
up to get scanned by the army officers. The pan shot creates more tension as we get
to see the characters faces and therefore see their emotion which makes us engage
with the film more. In addition to this is the way the characters are standing in a line
format which has similarities of how soldiers line up.
 During the end of the film we see the main character running away as it is clear he
doesn’t want to do the training in regards to the army. In this particular shot it is
handheld which makes the short seem uneasy to watch and feels off balance but it
does build the tension of him running away. However, the handheld camera makes
the shot look shaky which is similar to how action films particularly war films are
sometimes shot.

9. Technologies – Camera Angles and Shots
 There are also many close-up used throughout the
film. The close-up shows us how the characters feel
as it tends to be the closer we are to character the
more we feel closer so we are able to have an
emotional connection with the character.

10. Technologies - Editing
 One editing technique that is used is ‘continuing editing’ this type of editing
creates a sense of reality and time moving forward. Due to it being a short
film the film does have a lot of context in it and a lot of narrative which
makes it hard to use variety of editing as Tom Harper will need to make it
easy for audience members to read also known as ‘invisible editing’.
 In addition to this, there is a montage type edit during the opening
sequence which showed us that it was a school however within the
establishing shot sequence there are several close ups off the
building features. For example, there are cameras, metal gates and
the union jack flag flying all of these establishing shots have
connotations of what we would see at an army base.

11. Technologies - Sound
 The opening sequence has a non-diagetic sound of a song playing,
the lyrics are: “early in the morning head out on to school, get
yourself an education, don’t be a dropout fool. Gotta’ go to school,
listen to what the teachers say” These lyrics have connotations of
instructions and authority which is similar to the camera angles for
example, it has a foreshadowing effect of being given
commandments for when they join the army.
 This is then interrupted by the group of boys talking. When they are
talking they are very loud and aggressive using slang, this typical
stereotypical vocabulary for young teenagers. This is contrasted
when the head teacher is talking to another teacher where he is well
spoken which shows the difference within class and age.
 When the students are reading the letter there is a tense sound in
the background which has obviously been used to build up to tension
within the film. Which is then heightened when the students go into
the hall to build the tension that they are ultimately lining up for war.
The ending is very dramatic compared to the start of the film which
has a more relaxed style, the dramatic music is matched which
sounds of gun shots and helicopters obviously emphasising the fact
they will be going to fight in the war.