'About a girl', Brian Percival, 2001.

The opening title of the film “About A Girl” uses a font and typeface that audiences associate with younger generations and modern technology of text messaging. The non-diegetic sound of buttons being pressed on a telephone reinforce this. This gives an indication of the film’s target audience, as well as who the protagonist is, who we quickly find out in the opening shot is a young female.

The opening shot is effective and uses a rule of thirds composition technique. This is known for putting a subject off-centre, as this is more appealing for the viewer and therefore draws their attention. By this time is it clear to the audience that it is a young girl, due to the fact that she is singing and as she dances, her long hair flicks back and forth. We are introduced to this character with a very child-like representation, which conveys her innocence. The fact that she is alone suggests a literal denotation of her only being able to practice her singing and dancing away from family or friends, perhaps for self-confidence and self-conscious issues. She sings: “My loneliness ain’t killing me no more,” which connotes that no one in her life is actively supportive of her dream and so, she must pursue it by herself.



The setting has lack of colour and creates a gloomy atmosphere and juxtaposes the audiences’ assumption of a young girl’s happy-go-lucky, carefree life, as we imagine girls like this running and laughing in parks and gardens. The audience is  given the impression that it is the girl’s dream to become a famous pop star but the grey sky and naturalistic low lighting are almost an indication that her future is dull and grey, meaning that there is no hope for her achieving her dream. The girl is often seen looking and talking into the camera in a medium tracking shot. This technical feature portrays a sense of realism, as if she is talking directly to the viewer and as if they are actually walking side-by-side with her. This establishes a connection between the character and the viewer, causing the audience to feel an emotional attachment to the character and reinforce her relatable experiences.

The derelict, brown-bricked buildings in the background are indicators of her social class background and the location in which she lives. The industrial landscape behind her suggests that she lives in a run-down, possibly impoverished, area. This causes the audience to naturally assume that she is from a working class background.

 

 

 

The fact that her white coat is always zipped up to the top could be a denotation of the cold, harsh weather. Conversely, in retrospect, it could represent how she physically kept her pregnancy a secret from her mother – by wearing an oversized jacket. It is clear that it is not a designer brand and looks worn, as it is no longer a bright white but tinged with dirt. This underpins the idea that she is from a working-class social background, as her parents are unable to provide new or clean clothes because of a low financial income. “About A Girl” uses cutaways to other action and uses them as a form of flashback. This is not immediately clear to the audience because the girl is wearing the same white coat in the flashbacks. These flashbacks, however, are used effectively to reinforce what is being said in the present as opposed to a separate backstory.

The girl’s mother is seen scratching a scratch card. The connotation of this is immediate gratification, which is the idea that they hope to win some money in that moment and escape the cycle of poverty. A recurring theme here is hope, as both the mother and daughter hope to escape their current lives and dream for something bigger and better. In this shot, the girl is still in the forefront but out of focus. This suggests that she is still the main character in the limelight of the narrative but her mother is a significant addition to the narrative portraying how they live.

The girl uses humour and sarcasm as her defence mechanism, as if it is the only way she knows how to deal with problems in her life. She says: “Then he takes me to the pub and gets me a coke and a bag of crisps. BLESS!” The idea the viewer has in their head is the girl, her father and his mates inside a pub seated at a table together. The rule of thirds composition technique is used again to emphasise her loneliness as she sits on the bench outside the pub with only her music for company and the promised coke and crisps. This tells the audience that music is her escapism and her only companion. Her father has not even bothered to pour the drink into a glass for her, a simple gesture that highlights the absence of love and care in this relationship.

As the narrative develops, the cuts become more frequent and the camera begins to shake more. This technical code reflects the narrative, as we delve deeper into the girl’s life and it becomes more and more unhinged, unbalanced and distorted. This not only anchors the story being told but also disorientates the audience because they are lead to assume that a revelation, very significant to the plot, is on the horizon.

As the girl walks along the canal, it looks more and more isolated. Her storytelling also takes a turn, from the not-so-great everyday life to the not-too-subtle hints about domestic violence and poverty. This marks a turning point in the narrative, as something very big is about to be revealed.

The significance of dreams and the canal is reverberated when she drops the plastic bag into the canal after saying “Gotten dead good at hiding things from her.” A baby falls out of the white bag head first, as if being born. The colour white connotes purity and innocence. Technical features caused it to become an enigmatic prop throughout the film because it was shown in some, but not all, ‘walking, talking’ shots. The audience continuously questioned what was inside. The audience will also notice that throughout the film, the girl wore a white coat. However with knowledge of her experiences, the colour white of her coat does not have the same connotations as the bag. The bag floats on the water, as if surviving the girl’s attempt of ‘drowning’ but gets trapped against a fence. This reflects the protagonist being trapped in her current life situation and the unlikely possibility of her ever escaping and achieving her dreams. This is reiterated when she walks back along the canal on the ‘dark’ side, beneath the shade, as opposed to the ‘bright’ side where the sun is shining and hope is ‘in the air’. This results in a sense of sadness within the audience as they come to a realisation that this girl will never be able to achieve her dreams. She then says: “…Still gonna have a 99,” which is a clear indication of her naivety as a young girl. Her attitude shows that she is too young to understand her actions and the consequences of them.
The genre of “About A Girl” is predominantly drama. The film depicts a serious issue and is plot-driven. It also portrays realistic characters, settings, life situations and is able to develop character interactions. The genre is underpinned by the dialogue, as the protagonist re-tells her life experiences but this is highlighted by the camera shots and flashback editing