(Task 2.1) Short film comparative analysis: "Wasp" and "Gasman"

Comparative analysis of Andrea Arnold’s “Wasp” and Lynne Ramsay’s “Gasman”

Short films.

There is no solid definition of what makes a short film, however the Academy of motion picture Arts and sciences defines it as “an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes or less, including all credits”. Having a time restriction like this limits to the amount of flow and continuity a director can effectively deliver through narration. This means they need to create a narrative that is reasonably easy to follow.

Conventions with a short film often include trying the express a message or moral, but sometimes also personal and or political views.

I had similar reactions to both short films. However I must say that wasp felt like it delivered a clearer message, whereas gasman felt like it was very vague and open to interpretation. Inversely “wasp” conveyed its narrative very clearly leaving little room for interpretation or thought for the audience. I felt that there was a shared theme of neglect against children, the struggles of lower poorer class citizens and a heavy focus on the lives of children within what was denoted to be United Kingdom. Judging by the denotation of mise en scene and mannerisms of characters, “wasp” seems to be set somewhere in the midlands of England in a low income built up city, whereas “gasman” is to be set further up north in Dublin as it’s in a much more rural/sub urban setting.

Both directors utilise their talent and knowledge of camera angles and editing to give their short films more meaning. For instance Andrea Arnold uses a handheld shot for the majority of wasp. This technique creates the feeling that we as an audience are directly placed in the scene witnessing it in real time. This helps further deliver the message that wasp tries to express as we associate more with the media text. Furthermore Andrea Arnold mixes her hand held photography with a mixture of close and long distance shots.

Media journalist Jason Sondhi furthers this point on his online blog where he says ”Arnold expertly mixes extreme close-ups and extreme long-shots to set the scene and to create visual coherence”.

Both short films represent the UK in similar ways. Gasman and wasp share the theme of the neglect against children. In “wasp” this is shown throughout as the mother uses strong language against her children and leaves them outside in the dark alone and vulnerable.
 Gasman shows neglect towards children in scenes such as one showing where the two young girls start fighting and squabbling. The neglect is shown in the fathers disinterest and detachment as at first he ignores them and can be seen laughing about it with what is denoted to be his other adult friends. Another example of neglect in gasman can be seen in the final scene which is set late at night in the dark. In this scene the man's daughter stops on the train tracks, the father however carries on walking and shows no interest or care in the girl at a time where she could become lost or vulnerable.

Lastly the UK is also represented to be a very poor and uneducated country. This is done through mise en scene and character types used in the short films. Both short films show the families to be living in small and bland living conditions. The clothes, or lack of, that the characters walking barefoot on the streets and her children in dirty unhygienic clothing. In gasman the father for instance can be seen wearing an old low quality suit. The uneducated theme is shown through the language and accents used by the characters. Both use very slang English with a very simple vocabulary.

Childhood is a topic and theme that is expressed with having the traits of being chaotic and confusing. This is evident in scenes throughout wasp and gasman. What stood out to me in gasman was the scene where the little girl is standing in the pub, editing is used to cancel out the digetic sound of chatter in the pub scene, making it sound distant and inaudible. The camera starts to do a 360 pan to show the audience the chaos of the scene as kids run around manically.

Wasp creates a similar effect from the get go. Andrea Arnold's short film throws the audience straight into the narrative. Confusion is instilled into the audience which helps us relate to the children. The mother in the opening scene is shown marching her children down a set of stairs, the use of shaky hand held shots and close ups further disorientates the audience. The editing further reinforces this by quickly jumping from frame to frame. The scene then shows the family outside where the baby is crying as the mother argues with another woman in her neighbourhood. Our lack of context and lack of build up to the situation helps us to sympathise with the children's perspective as children often don't understand the situations they are in or why they happen.

Mise en scene is an essential tool used by both directors to deliver their intended message. Andrea Arnold uses mise en scene to foreshadow what will happen later on in the film. This is evident in the scene where a close up shot is used to focus on the wasp in the mother's apartment. The amount of focus given to this wasp clearly shows that it holds some importance and that we as an audience should start to think why. Why has the director gone out of her way to show a wasp trying desperately to escape. The wasp could be a metaphor for the mother's desperation to escape her below average difficult life. This idea is made likely due to the way the mother completely neglects her children to have a night out with her crush from years back. The way she gossips to her friends on the phone about him shows how she still wishes to be in her teenage years without the responsibility of children. Furthermore the wasp can also be a connotation to death, insects are associated with the plague and are a pest, so seeing and focusing on the wasp creates tension as it foreshadows that something bad is to come, which we find out later is true in the form of her baby choking on a wasp due to her lack of care and neglect.

Links used

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_film

https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2011/09/08/wasp/