TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: ‘EMPTY’

Empty is an award winning short social realist drama about a girl who is struggling to live her life whilst dealing with an eating disorder and the effects of it. It is a conventional short film and focuses on the eating disorder and therefore has the purpose of letting people with eating disorders know and understand that they are not alone and that they will get through it. It also makes others ware of the issue and helps them have more understanding about what people with eating disorders have to go through on a day to day basis.

I chose this film because I think it educates people well on the troubles that people with eating disorders face and I think they showed this well through the film using camera and sound especially. I enjoyed the way that the character who was the girl’s friend turned out to be her subconscious which was showed well with the camera.

PURPOSE AND MEANING OF THE FILM

STRUCTURAL CONVENTIONS LENGTH – this film is about 8 minutes long and therefore it is conventional in length as a short film is usually from 3-20minutes long.

TITLES – the film opens with the title of the film and there are no other titles, inter-titles or credits until the end of the film which gives all the people involved with the making of the film recognition. It is conventional for short films to have the title of the film in the opening but they do not usually have every individual’s name who helped make the film. There is also no ident of a film company, again, this is conventional for short films not to have this.

PLOT – the plot of this film is simple and happens over one morning. The films is simple and is to make people aware of the eating disorder and this is shown effectively with each character. It is based on that one subject of the eating disorder with the main girl as the focus who is trying to overcome it.

CHARACTER – the film features one particular girl who is battling with her eating disorder and there are two other characters, one who seems to be her friend but it is then revealed she is just imaginary and the other, a stock character, who is a support therapist for the main girl. This is conventional for short films to only have a few characters. During the film we do not learn much about the main girl’s background other than she has been dealing with an eating disorder for some time. We learn nothing about the other two characters in the film and this is conventional of short films not go into detail about the background of the characters.

SETTING – the film is in two locations which are the main girl’s house and the place where she goes to speak to the therapist. This is conventional for short films to only be filmed in one or two locations.

STAR SYSTEM – the characters in the film are not well known or in the star system and they are likely to be local people who are aspiring to be actors.

NORMAL CONVENTIONS

NARRATIVE STRUCTUREThe narrative of the film is told over one morning and is about a girl with an eating disorder trying to overcome it by seeing her therapist. In the film it seems as though the girl’s friend is going with her to the therapy session however it is later shown that she is only a figure of the girl’s imagination who is stopping her from combatting her problems. In the film the imaginary girl represents her subconscious who is saying all the things that the girl dislikes about herself. The two girls have an argument and the main girl manages to stop the The film ends with the girl trying to eat a cereal bar and whilst she is about to do this she can hear her subconscious thoughts telling her not to do it but she overcomes this and eats the food and then all the thoughts stop.

This film does follow the set structure of Todorov as it begins with the recognition and ends with the repair. There is no equilibrium of what life was like for the girl before she had an eating disorder and we do not see the disruption of when the eating disorder became a big problem. The recognition involves the girl going to a therapist to try and overcome the eating disorder and the repair involves the girl being able to eat the cereal bar and begin to eat properly.

CREATIVITY

CAMERA - the camera is used effectively in this film to help the audience be able to understand what the girl is dealing with. In the beginning scene of the film we are shown in medium long shots, the girl looking at herself in the mirror and then we are shown over the shoulder shots to see her looking at her body. This allows the audience to see what she is seeing and when she begins to cry it enables them to understand that she is unhappy with her appearance. Later on in the film the two girls are shown in a medium two shot walking whilst they talk and again the audience can see the main girl is unhappy by the expressions on her face while the other girl talks about the perfect body and points out her insecurities. The camera is used well to show that the girl’s friend is actually imaginary and is her subconscious. it is done when the girls are arguing and the main girl is shouting at her friend, she is shown in a close up shot which then pans round to show an over the shoulder shot of her shouting at no one and this shows to the audience that she was not real. We see the girl overcoming her eating disorder in close up and medium shots crying and then managing to eat the cereal bar.

SOUND – to begin with there is not much sound, only diegetic sounds of the girl getting ready and this is to put emphasis on the main girl being alone and that she is the focus. This carries on until the end when the girl is trying to eat the cereal bar and there is a diegetic voiceover of her subconscious telling her not to eat it and saying comments previously said about her insecurities. There is also a voiceover of herself recapping on the argument she had with her subconscious as well as the non diegetic soundtrack. This is showing that she id dealing with a lot in her head and as soon as she rips open the cereal bar wrapper all these sounds stop and there is silence indicating that she has overcome her subconscious.

EDITING – the editing is not very advanced in the film and mostly is is just simple cuts that are used. However there are jump cuts from each scene and this is mainly because it is a short film and they do not have time to show the characters getting from location to location and it also would not interest the audience. When the girl goes to her therapy session there is shot reverse short used to show the conversation and the reactions of each character.

LIGHTING – most of the film is filmed in natural daylight and they have not used any filters apart from in the last scene they do use low key lighting. This is to emphasize the hard time that the girl is dealing with when she is battling with herself to try and eat the cereal bar.

How I have been inspired - In the film the sound is limited to diegetic ambient sounds and not much non diegetic sound. I thought this worked well with the narrative of the film because it reflects that to girl is feeling quite alone with her condition. Later on in the film there is very good use of sound that connoted to the audience that the girl was beginning to overcome her own issues. The imaginary friend disappeared and she was able to eat a cereal bar. Throughout the shots of this happening there was a soundtrack that had a crescendo until the point of her eating. I think this worker well because it allowed the audience to be involved with her and her feelings and understand what she is going through. I believe that the sound alone created a very strong emotion for the audience and is something I would like to do in my film. Sound in horror is used a lot to create meaning and I think it would be good to use this idea of sound representing the feelings and emotions of the characters in my film.