The short film "About a Girl" follows a 13-year-old girl who spends the film walking around a Manchester estate talking to the camera. Her dialogue is interrupted by cut scenes showing her strained relationships with her family. Throughout the film, close-up shots capture her emotions. A medium two-shot highlights her distant relationship with her father. In a climactic high-angle shot, she is seen throwing a plastic bag into a canal, revealing its shocking contents - a deceased baby. The film uses jump cuts and flashbacks to portray the girl's isolation and loneliness. Diegetic sounds, like her singing alone and with friends, provide context. Low-key lighting at the beginning depicts the girl as a shadow

1. IG1 TASK 1
I am going to look at 3 different short films and comment on how meaning is
communicated through the use of cinematography, mise en scene and the use of sound
and music.
‘About a Girl’
‘About a Girl’ is a nine-minute short film directed by Brian Percival that was released in
2001 and shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival. It won many awards, notably winning
the BAFTA Award for Best Short Film.
The film is about a 13 year old girl, played by Ashley Thewlis, who spends most of the
film walking around a Manchester estate talking to the camera. Her monologue is often
interrupted by cut scenes which show her relationship with her family and importantly
- her Dad, her in a perfume department, sitting on bench singing a Britney Spears song
and on the back of a bus with her friends singing another Britney Spears song.She is just

2. She is just like most 13 year old girls, until she gets the the side of a canal and her
stories become more deep when she reveals how she became “good at hiding things”.
This is when she throws her plastic carrier bag into the canal and it is something
unexpected that appears on screen.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
There are many different aspects of cinematography available in this film.
There is an establishing shot low shot with low key lighting
at the beginning, which pretty much sets the tone of what
sort of person she is for the rest of the film. She is alone in a
field, singing and dancing to ‘Stronger’ by Britney Spears. It
sets the tone of the film by showing her alone and
entertaining herself. Although she has friends, she feels
isolated from her family and either likes her own company
or feels like she has to make do with it.
Most of the film is shot with the close up technique.
This is when she is walking round the estate, talking to
camera. This technique is effective as the predominant
images you see are of her face, so you capture every bit
of emotion she shows as she is, on the surface, chatting
happily about random subjects
A medium two shot occurs when she is sat at a cafe
table with her Dad. This technique is useful as it
highlights her relationship with him. It appears to the
audience that she has a quite strained relationship
with her Dad. We know from the dialogue that he
doesn’t live with her and only sees her occasionally,
and when sat at the table, they are sat on different
sides. The girl is also sat a bit of a distance away from
the table, which shows that she maybe doesn’t want to
be too close to him. He is also sat reading the
newspaper instead of having a conversation with his
daughter.

3. There is an Over the Shoulder shot that occurs once or
twice during the film. This happens when it cuts away to
the part when she is stood quite a distance away from her
Mum, and is idly using her mobile phone. This again shows
a strained relationship with a parent, although her
relationship with her Mum appears more strained than it is
with her Dad, as she simply won’t stand anywhere near or
interact in conversation with her.
There is a high angle shot that appears towards the end of
the film. This is when she is stood over the canal, bringing
the carrier bag that she has carried throughout the film into
more focus. Judging by her body language and dialogue that
occurred moments earlier – when she states she is “good at
hiding things” – you get the sense that she is about to throw
the bag into the canal. This again highlights how alone she
is, because when the audience see the contents, they realise
how much of a big problem she has and she appears to just
be ‘throwing away all of her problems’.
There is one aspect of zoom in this film and this occurs
after she has thrown the bag into the canal. The
contents of the bag are revealed and when the camera
is placed underwater looking up, you see a deceased
baby falling from the bag to the bottom of the canal.
The zoom is effective as it is a massive shock and by
zooming in, you have nothing else to look at but the
stark reality of a teenage pregnancy that has gone
tragically wrong. It is very uncomfortable viewing but
I feel it is necessary as it is served as big shock twist
and you are meant to be ‘mind blown’ by all of it.

4. EDITING
There are a couple of aspects of good editing in this film.
There are many jump cuts in this film. This happens
when she is talking to camera and suddenly it jumps to
another shot - like it would with another scene – but
stays in the same scene. This is done to highlight how
fast of a talker she is, and, in my opinion, it happens
when she is about to pause mid sentence. By doing
this, it makes it look like she is talking even faster than
she is and really should be taking a quick breath.
There are quite a few cutaway flashbacks throughout
the film. This means that when she is talking to
camera, it cuts to another scene of which something
has already occurred. It is not completely random to
the film though as it provides an interesting look into
what he life is like, and again highlights the themes of
loneliness and isolation. There are many examples I
could use but I am going to use the football flashback
for this.

5. SOUND AND LIGHTING
There are a couple of aspects of good sound use in the film but I can only think of one
good aspect for lighting of this film.
There are many examples of diegetic sound throughout.
Examples are the ambient background noise, her singing
alone, her singing with her friends and her Dad and his
teammates singing football chants after a match when she
is sat outside the pub. The background noise is effective as
it gives a bit of insight into a rough Manchester estate and
her upbringing. The singing by herself shows her isolation.
Singing with her friends shows that sometimes she can get
away from her troubles by not feeling the need to be alone.
And sat outside while her Dad has a good time again shows
their strained relationship.
There is one example of a sound effects being added to
something. This is at the title screen at the beginning of the
film. The text for the title is that of a mobile phone texting
font and they sound effect is the tone that you hear when
you type a text on your phone. Most people nowadays have
smart phones where the sound effect isn’t used but as this
film is from 2001; you can tell that this was common back
then on standard phones such as the Nokia 1100.
The one and only aspect of lighting that I can think of that is
worthy of a mention is from the beginning of the film when
she is dancing in the field. It is of very low key lighting with
means that the girl appears like a silhouette. She could also
be seen as a shadow which shows her personality a little bit
because she feels as if she is alone and just wanders
through life without much purpose because perhaps her
parents make her feel this way.