TASK 1 Short Film Review

Telling Lies
Telling Lies is a short film directed by Simon Ellis. The short film is about 5 people who have confrotations the morning after a night on the phone about last nights events. We dont see any characters in the the short film apart from a black background and words of what they are saying in the conversation. The genre of the film is mainly comedy/drama and the style of the film is animation. The titile of the film ''Telling Lies"is portrayed in the short film about not being honest.

For each five characters they all have different colours when they are speaking so we know who is speaking. The imagery of the film is not bright, its quite dark. When they are telling lies the director was clever and put all the white lies in white so we know which one is a lie and which are the truth. In the film when people begin talking really fast the words begin to appear quicker on the screen and pace gets faster. Also when the characters start shouting the words are put in caps to put emphasis on how there speaking and explanation marks.

Overall I liked the film because it was different and something I hadnt seen before. It was was also very funny because of the element of comedy so it made it more enjoyable to watch. I also liked that the film had dramatic irony because we knew when there would be lie but the characters didnt.


Soft
Soft is another film directed by Simon Ellis. This short film is based on social drama. The main themes in the film are bullying, stereotypes, social class and violence. The story is about a boy who gets beaten up by a gang of youths. On the way to the corner shop the Dad then bumps into the same youths and causes trouble with him too. They then follow him to his house and begin to cause cauos trying to get the dad to react, the son then wants to stand up for himself but the father tells him not too but however is still hesitant to go. The father then tries to step up, this is when we see some cowardness because the emotion in his face he seemed scared and was afraid to step up to the bullies. The son then decides to stand up to the bullies and frighten them away he then walks away in disgust that is father did not defend him.  In this film it shows a difficult relationship between a father and son and complications they deal with trying to communicate. Throughout the film we see the bad communications that the father and son have.

In the film it also tackles serious themes like social class between the gang and the father and son. The director Simon Ellis has tackled issue that happens in everyday life. We would see the gang as being part of the lower class because of how they act and their behaviour and the father and son as working class, because they live in a nice big house, a expensive looking car and the the dad is wearing a suit to give the impression he works in an office.

I liked this film because it tackles serious issues about things that are going on in the society with not only the youth of today but how adults act towards certain youths, it has a strong message that the story portrays.


Comparisons
The two different short films have some similarities and differences. The both of the element of drama in them however "Telling Lies" has a comedy side to it but "Soft" is based on a more serious situation that is going on in society and something that people can relate to the same way "Telling Lies" people can relate to. They also both have the theme of relationships.

Reviews
Looking at some film reviews some said that the film "Soft" was not all about violence but was something more than deeper than that about a fear of youths of today and about the anger of older peoples hatred to young kids. Also some revies for the film "Telling Lies" was that it was the short film was quite clever and that the film was genuinely funny to watch.