Short Film Analysis - Drama - Pudding Bowl (Dir. Vanessa Caswill)

Vanessa Caswill's short film 'Pudding Bowl' is a well shot film depicting a small girl and the relationship she has with her older brother and her mother. This relationship is conveyed through the actions of the characters, the cinematography and direction of the characters. As i will be taking on the cinematography role for this project i will be focusing on how the camera positioning and movement conveys the thoughts, feelings and emotions of the characters.

During the opening few shots of the film we are shown what this little girl feels, wants and aspires to purely from the use of shot choice. we are shown extreme close ups of magazines full of models and beautiful women, then are shown this young girl with reflection of those models in her glasses. This shows us that this is what she aspires to be, she wants to be just like the people we see in the magazine. we are shown purely from the cinematography and shot choice what our main characters emotions are and what they are thinking. I wish to attempt this type of story telling through my role in the drama project.

The short film also has a clear style in its cinematography with it being set in the 50s-60s there is a clear old timey feel to the image. It looks like it was shot on film, which it may have been, but if not it has been manipulated to look that way. This adds to the feeling it is set in the 50s or 60s. I will attempt to adopt a this in terms of creating an image that links well with the idea. if the themes of the film are dark or sad i will attempt to create an image that is high in contrast and has a lot of shadows. possibly even shoot it in black and white. if the themes are happy i will attempt to add a lot of colour to the image by shooting it flat and allowing more contrast between colours for further enhancing later in colour correction.