My City Short Film Analysis

The narrative structure is very debatable, the film follows the journey of the main character as he travels through London, in this case it is a linear sequence, however during his Journey there seems to be a series of time lapses showing the character in different areas of London, making the film come across as non-linear. Furthermore the ending is unresolved, raising questions as to what happened next?

In terms of techniques, a series if cross cuts are used vetween the character and the various long shots of the different contrasting locations around London, this is perhaps to show the connection the character has with the different areas of his 'City' and the impact is has on him. Furthermore a variety of tracking shots and kinetic camera movements are used to great effect to follow the character as he travels around London creating a sense of realism, almost as if the audience are on this journey too, also the fact that the character breaks the fourth rule by talking directly into the camera almost like a documentary and linking to the point of realism hard high key lighting is evident making the film come across ask realistic, also the gritty nature of the lighting links into the themes of London. Ambience sound as well as diegetic and non-diegetic voice overs are used throughout the film , both diegetic and non-diegetic voice overs appear over the different locations and landmarks of London, it is almost like a narration coming from the character describing his 'City' in the form of a poem. The location plays a huge role in terms of the mise en scene, there is a clear contrast between the run down areas of London which are unseen and unforgotten to the wider public with the much wealthier and affluent areas of London. In addition the titles appear at the end of the film, firstly the film title, followed by the credits in a black background.

The film deals with a variety of different themes which are directly linked with problems that we deal with in todays Brtitish society in particularly London. The themes which are experssed throughout are crime, povertry etc. which are just some of the issues which London faces. The narrator himself explained that the film was "about the forgotten parts of London" clearly implying that the purpose of this short film was to raise awareness or even perhaps to tackle an issue that is apparent in todays society however it is often forgotten about, there is a clear divide between the rich and the poor and nothing seems to be done in order to help the less fortunate, there seems to be no ulternatives.