4. Director
• Tom Harper is a BAFTA nominated British film and television
director, writer and producer. He was born and brought up in North
London.
Harper began his career making short films. He wrote and directed
his break out short film, Cubs, in 2006 about urban fox hunting. He
then moved on to direct a range of film and television work which
includesThe Scouting Book for Boys (2009), Misfits (2010),This Is
England '86 (2011), Peaky Blinders (2013),The Woman in Black:
Angel of Death (2015) and the BBCTV mini-series War & Peace
(2016).
5. Cast and Crew
• Karl in the film is played by Award winning actor Ashley Walters.
• Davis in the film played byTara Hodge best known in Sunny Boy
(2011), Hitler & HenryVIII (2011) andThe kid (2010).
• Joe in the film is played by Jared Garfield best known in BoyA (2007)
, Hollyoaks (1995) and Guitar Hero Live (2015)
• Ben in the film is played by Harry Eden best known in Peter Pan
(2003), Pure (2002) and OliverTwist (2005).
6. TargetAudience
• The target audience of the film CUBS is 15-29 year old working class people.
• Because it relates to issues in that society/ generation.
7. Awards
• Won
British Independent Film Award- best British short
• Won
BBC New Filmmakers Award-Tom Harper
• Nominated
AFTA Film Award Best Short Film- LisaWilliams ,Tom Harper
8. Symbolism
• Symbolism- Symbolic images help us to understand abstract concepts that cannot
always be translated into words. Symbolism is used within this film as the director
tries to show a group of young troubled youths who survive in society by fitting
into the crowd. For example we see Ben at the beginning begging Karl who is seen
as the righteous leader to take him with him fox hunting.This symbolising an act
of how kids will do anything these days to ensure that they are popular.
9. Props
• They used a gun in order to shoot the fox. In addition to this the teenagers also
used baseball bats when they went fox hunting.
10. Costume
• Harry Eden was cast as Ben in Cubs. He had floppy hair and softer features than
the other characters in the film which showed the difference between him and the
other adolescents. Girls and boys both wear similar clothes of street wear of baggy
shorts.This type of clothing hides the shape of their body, this maybe because
they all come from a lower class status and most of their parents are unemployed
which means that they do not have enough money to feed them properly and give
them the nutrients they need.Therefore by wearing baggy clothes their unhealthy
body will be covered. In addition all the teenage boys and girls are wearing
oversized hoodies and baseball caps rendering them virtually gender-neutral.
11. Sound
• The film uses diegetic sound of dialogue, people running and non diegetic of a gun
shot, and background music. By adding on sound effects, it creates a realistic
scene – which captures the audience’s interest. Additionally, with the background
music it helps create an illusion, mood and simulating reality. All which are
effective to gain the audience’s awareness and build up the tension.
12. Dialogue
• The characters in the film Cubs use very violent and abrupt language.This may be
because they are from lower class and it is a stereotype that people from lower
class are not well mannered and do not have respect and are not educated.
13. Synchronous Sound
• Synchronous sound-The editor uses synchronous sounds a couple time within the
film. During the chase scene the editor plays very fast paced music to build tension
within the film which engages the audience even more into the film.This skill is
used to get the audience to want to know what is going to happen next.
14. Meanings made my Audience
• Working class children have nothing to do but all stick together in a form of gang
members and cause trouble
• They tried to re-enact the fox- hunting carried out by upper class men who ride
horses and kill foxes as a sport which is their form of entertainment as well as
tradition. As a result, the teenagers used the props (gun, baseball bats etc) they
could find to create their own form of entertainment.