The short film was directed by Brian Percival. In 2001, the year of release, it won the BAFTA Award for Best Short Film. This great accolade however was not the only award ‘About A Girl’ won, other awards include TCM Classic Shorts Award at London Film Festival as well as Best British Short at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Jury Price at the Raindance Film Festival. ‘About A Girl’ is Brian Percival’s only short film. Brian is much more widely known for his involvement in directing TV adverts and TV series. Some of his TV successes include ‘The Ruby In The Smoke’ and ‘ShakespeaRe-Told, Much Ado About Nothing’. He won many prestigious awards for his short film and his product was even included in the ‘Cinema16’ DVD, which is a yearly archive containing the best short films from that particular year.
In the opening scene, the protagonist is silhouetted and is dancing and singing ‘Stronger’, by Britney Spears. This song foreshadows later events of how the young girl has had to grow stronger to overcome a major problem in her life. This immediately sets the tone for the rest of the short and makes the audience aware that this young girls life is not necessarily happy. The lighting used in order to gain a silhouette is used to give the character a scene of mystery. This builds audience intrigue. Then the short cuts to the main character walking along side a canal, the mise-en-scene in the scene gives the character regional identity and also comments on her class and status. This is achieved by the setting she is in. Walking along side disused old factories provides the basis for assuming she is in an area struck by endemic poverty, this area is in fact in Manchester. This lack of activity and dull surroundings comments on her class and status as well, when linked with her costume. She is wearing loops in her ears, which in recent years has been a symbol of being a ‘chav’ or someone without social etiquette and often without money. These combined elements give the young girl a representation that is unfavourable. Her manner, which is shown by the short sentences and quick, shifting editing, also provides a base for the audience to be less empathetic because the character could be seen as confrontational. At this moment in the short film the character could be seen as stereotypical representation of a ‘chav’ because of her costume, regional identity and manner however this is not stereotypical, as the audience has already seen that the young girl does have aspirations, something that stereotypically badly behaved children do not have. This aspiration is to be a singer.
The scene cuts to the young girl with her mother and sibling. She is seen using a scratch card. This is another prop used to add to the feeling of endemic poverty. Some ideologies could also be taken from this scene. Some people from a religious stance would say that gambling is wrong, especially if children are being ignored for it, however some more liberalists would say that it is a parents right to do something they enjoy. Yet this action is clearly not for enjoyment it is for desperate want to have some money and get out of the endemic poverty they are in. In noticing this it could be seen that the ideologies applied here are both wrong as they assume the gambling is done as a hobby. There is still many audience members who would argue that gambling for whatever purpose is money and time wasted, which inevitably should be going towards looking after the children.
The girl then starts to talk about her father and it becomes clear that much of the girls wants could be fore filled by the father if he gave his child some of his time. The scene outside the pub can produce many ideologies. One is that the father should not leave a child outside alone because it is unsafe, however an authoritarian ideology is that the girl must be outside because being underage and in a pub is illegal. The majority of audience members would see this action as neglect because the father is spending time with his friends and not his daughter, however it can be seen that the father does have some parental instincts as he provide her with food and drinks, yet even these are not nutritional. Ideologies could be stuck up about the coke and crisps he gets for the young girl. Nutritionist would say that junk food is bad for children and should only be given as a treat, many social services would argue that parents are responsible for providing balanced, healthy meals, yet some other people within childcare would say that some food is better than no food. All these ideologies do not paint the picture of a good father and as we can see in this short film both parents are painted as villains.
The young girl is seen with her friends singing on the bus, this is the first time the audience sees her as child. This is then followed by her talking about her fantasy of becoming a pop star and that she writes the music. She comments on the fact that she has not got a piano because her mum does not have the money. This is the first sign of the girl not being as mature as her confidents eludes to being, this is mainly because she blames her mother for everything she does not have. However in her saying that her mother spends her money on cigarettes and cheap larger yet again is a comment on her mother’s parenting.
After this her stories speed up and gradually the young girls surroundings are more revealed making her smaller, which is metaphorical of the young girl beginning to open up. She again talks about her mother and father arguing and the young girl agreeing with her father. It is again over money and being denied things. This time it is about a dog. The conversations quickens until she tells the audience that the dog died and was thrown in the canal. The camera is raised to a high angle to show the canal where the dog had been disposed. This method of removing the dog is very harsh and unsympathetic again questioning the mother’s morals and values.
The girl then throws a bag into the canal as the bag unravels it shows the shocking event that had just taken place. The young girl had thrown what would be perceived as her dead baby into the canal. This event is extremely shocking and raises many ideologies. A religious ideology is that all people who die should have a proper burial, some others in religious positions would say that the girl should not of had a baby at that age, out of wedlock. This scene no matter what the ideology causes the large majority of audience members to wholly disagree with the way in which the girl has reacted to having a baby and simply disposing of it. This also causes the audience to see how naïve the girl actually is and that possibly it is wrong to believe anything she has said, especially about her parents as her parenting is much more flawed.
