T2-Short Film-Lynne Ramsay and Andrea Arnold

Lynn Ramsay and Andrea Arnold-short film directors

What is a short film?

A short film is any sort of film which is not long enough to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as an "original motion picture that has a maximum running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits".

Here are some examples of well known short film directions and some of their products...

Lynne Ramsay is a Scottish film director, writer, producer, and cinematographer best known for the feature films Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar and We Need to Talk about Kevin.

Lynne Ramsay's films compared to a lot of short films are very dull but in a way to make the audience think and become interested in the short film and are very serious. One of her large short films was the "Ratcatcher". The Rat catcher is a short film set in the 1999 and was filmed in France and the UK, more specifically Glasgow. 

Here is the plot for the short film...

James Gillespie (William Eadie) is 12 years old. The world he knew is changing. Haunted by a secret, he has become a stranger in his own family. He is drawn to the canal where he creates a world of his own. He finds an awkward tenderness with Margaret Anne (Leanne Mullen), a vulnerable 14 year old expressing a need for love in all the wrong ways, and befriends Kenny (John Miller), who possesses an unusual innocence in spite of the harsh surroundings.

 Gasman: 

Gasman is another short film by Lynne Ramsey and set in 1970's Glasgow and the story behind ‘Gasman’ is one of adultery and deceit, with the father of a working-class Scottish family lying to his wife and children as he lives a double life that includes a mistress and their two children together. The film raises many controversial themes and issues, including sibling rivalry, lack of education, endemic poverty, unemployment, economic deprivation and social
disenfranchisement and alienation. 

The short film focuses a lot on the children and how the camera is positioned an the kind of shots used explain a lot within the shot film...

 As you can see from the shot above, without even seeing the face and top half of the characters body we can tell that the character is a child by the way she is standing and by the color of her tights and shoes. 

Above is another screenshot from "Gasman" and as you can see from how the type of shot used we can tell the kind of relationship between the two girls by just their position and the way they are going to hold hands. Later on in the clip we see an opposite of the screenshot above as the same shot is used but this time the girls are fighting by trying to hurt eachother...

 Ramsay seems able to make the ordinary become beautiful through lighting and framing.A lot of Ramsay's films are like this and I think this is what makes her products so interesting and realistic to watch.

 Another short film directer is Andrea Arnold but compared to Lynne Ramsey, Andrea's work is a lot more different and up beat compared to Lynne's work.Andrea is again a Scottish short film director and has created a lot of short films and one of her large short films even won an oscar award!

The film which won the Oscar was called "Wasp" and she has also created a lot of other successful short films. 

Wasp:

Wasp is again another short film by Andrea Arnold and again is set in 1970's Glasgow. Wasp is all about Zoe who is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford. She is poor and can't afford to buy food. One day her ex-boyfriend drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. Scared that he doesn't want to go out with her, she lies and tells him that she is just babysitting the kids. This will be her first date in years. 

Poverty is shown a lot by the types of camera angles and shots used. Here is how poverty is shown in "Wasp"...

There aren't any characters in the shot above but we can tell poverty is being shown in this shot by the way she is trying to find money and where her money is kept. This is a similarity to Lynne Ramsays work as again she used these types of shots to show lifestyle and personality.

 

 Again, from the screenshot above we can see poverty straight away by the way the children look and where they are. This shot also shows aspects of "Homeless" and not being looked after properly by just the way the shot has been taken and by what the children look like. 

The dark and dull filer used over the shot also shows the mood of the situation and makes the audience feel like the characters are cold and tired.

Both of these directors produce short films but they have many differences, Lynne Ramsey creates more low mood and dull short films which have a very difficult story line to understand compared to Andrea Arnold who creates more upbeat and realistic short films. Her story lines are also more easier to understand and some of the products she has created could be relate-able to how people live.

Despite all the differences they have they both use the "Todorov Theory" in their short films and most films use this theory, even large conglomerate movies. The Todorov theory is simply the order of parts in a film. This is the format for the Todorov Theory...

Equilibrium(Good/Sad start?)

Disturbance of the Equilibrium

Recognition of the Disturbance 

Attempt to Repair

RE. In-statement of the Equilibrium 

The above shows how films will be set out and to usually be a success, there has to be a disturbance in the film to get people thinking and give the movie a twist.