Textual analysis of a short film

This short film is called : Identity

The sypnosis: At the beginning of this film, we see a young girl smiling, then it starts to rewind time which shows her putting a mask on. The audience then starts to realise that the people surrounding her are also wearing masks, which shows that this short film is circulated around the topic of identity, or in this case, the lack of. As the short film progresses, we see other teenagers behind masks, which then leads to her breaking free from the social norms and then by the end of the film, we see the transformation, as she finally takes off her mask.

 Mise-en-scene: The setting is one that has been used time and time again, in the confines of a normal college. The idea of identity is one that is typically representative of teenagers i.e identity crisis which categorically goes in the age group.

Normally, short films tend to represent a stereotypical character i.e the young girl, which the audience can relate to. The location is also something that the audience can relate to also. This is to evoke familiar feelings when one was in college and the social norms regarding it.

In feature-length films, they generally have longer to portray the characters and give them some depth, while with short films, the time is limited to portray the message or tie up any lose ends by the end of the film.

For example, in 'Identity', there are similar themes that run throughout it which are similar to college set movies i.e 'Mean Girls';

Starring Lindsey Lohan and Rachel McAdams in 2004, another one would be '10 Things I Hate About You'

Short films portray these typical stereotypes in less time, so the differences are that in short films, there will be less characters for development as they simply don't have the time to introduce all the characters and the theme or message will be more prominent right away as a result of the limitations with time.

Through the use of Sound; the audience can hear a girl's voice narrating, at the beginning she says; 'Today I found the truth'. Through the next couple of shots, background music is heard to portray the usual school banter and make the audience feel like they are in the middle of this.

So in ''Identity', it explores the theme surrounding Identity and how people, especially teenagers see it, normally teenagers do suffer from identity crisis or lack of identity and are quite impressionable. Through social media like Facebook or Twitter, they are forever being influenced by people, this is evident in the short film, through the use of Editing; when the audience can see a poster on the wall of a girl with a yellow mask, and with big letters; This is what beautiful looks like, and under this poster is a group of people with matching yellow masks. The shots cut between the main character and her peers and how they view the world. There are various masks being portrayed in this film which could represent the different groups within college. Also the fact that everyone is wearing one in this film also shows that every teenager wants to be accepted within a certain group. This further shown when the camera cuts from her sitting alone at the table, to those of her fellow classmates all sitting together, looking like they are having a good time and seem happy.

This shows that the main character is different, so typically in short films, there will usually be binary opposites, in this case its the girl versus the rest of the school, and by the end of the film she is finally de-masked, revealing her true identity. She doesn't abide by the stereotypes portrayed by teenagers, in this case especially, they all follow what's new and popular now and never seem to question it, however this is opposite for the main character who seems to be struggling to fit in the norms of society. The fact that 'Plato's Allegory of the Cave' is mentioned in this film also backs the idea about the philosophical aspects to one's identity and the quest to seek out the truth as opposed to pale imitations that everyone else seems to think are the norm. The mask being broken shows her breaking free from the norms of society.

Through the use of  Camerawork; the camera zooms in and out of her face, uses a variety of close ups and mid-shots to show her personal conflict of identity and the fact that she is struggling to cope with it.

At the end of the film, the music at the end makes the audience feel triumphant and a part of her success when she does eventually take off the mask to represent the fact that she has indeed found her true self, unlike the rest of her peers. The audience can also hear birds chirping and the music is serene, which shows that she has finally found peace, then it finally ends with her voice saying; 'Today I found the truth' to establish that she is now being her real self, she is being true to herself. The shot at the end of her walking through the school and everyone looking at her shows her great achievement.

So on the whole, short films and feature films are generally the same thing, they still try to portray a message across, show binary opposites but with short films everything is cut down, but nevertheless just as entertaining.