Tuesday 25 January 2011

Analysis of a Short Film

'Bro' directed by Chris Dundon was an award winning short film that won in the special jury mention, in the international short film festival in Oberhausen in 2010 tells the story of two brothers Simon and Mark during a particular summer holiday. They live alone with their mum who comes across as the typical single working class mother working extra shifts. Mark suffers from fragile x syndrome and Chris Dundon is tackling the real issue many families are faced with especially in the UK of having someone in your family with a disability. This is shown in a realistic way through the hand-held kinetic camera work and documentary style of filming which adds to the realism and reflects the hardships the family are facing everyday looking after Mark. Chris Dundon includes many close up shots of Mark which helps drive the narrative forward as the audience feel the emotions felt by the characters such as when Simon is on the bus with Mark and he wants to move to the back of the bus as he feels he will be judged by the girl he is after the close up used showing the temptation and uncertainty of Simon's position as he knows it is morally wrong to leave his disabled brother sitting along on the bus. 
Social realism is an evident theme in  the film as the real issue of disability is tackled in this 18 minute drama, i think that also the fact their mother is alone and working extra shifts forcing Simon to spend more time looking after Mark is another real issue tackled by Chris because single mothers have an extra pressure on theme to provide for their children and dedicate extra time when one has a disability. The low key lighting of 'bro' with the use of a quite grey, gritty looking scenery adds to the audiences knowledge of the hardships faced by the family. However, as the film progresses the colours start to lighten up when Simon starts coming to terms with his brothers disability and starts to except it after the girl told him that it was alright and the film ends on a high with the two brothers getting ready to go out and play basketball together. The budget of 'bro' would have been minimal as the use of unknown actors shows that the use of this short film would have probably been for personal use for Chris Dundon to self-promote himself in the film industry.

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