I have done a review on a piece drama I watched. This is very relevant as, this will help me plan for our film that we are going to produce. By looking at this piece of drama, it will allow me to find out what conventions are used in drama films and if the film challenges any conventions of drama. I used the BBC Film Network to search for a film of my particular choice, in this case I am going to search for a film based on drama because our group has decide to make a film based on comic-drama.
The short film is called ‘Mud Boy’ written and directed by Nic Penrake and produced by Anit Bashar. The film is based on a working-class family. The film is about a traumatised young girl who makes a disturbing and chilling discovery at the bottom of her garden. I have chosen this film because the title of the film seems very interesting and makes me feel anxious to find out what this piece of drama is about. The film contains very strong language and disturbing scene that may me inappropriate for younger viewers, I believe it may be certificated as 12A.
The film opens with a master shot which reveals the entire dramatised scene. We are immediately shown a mysterious object (a shovel) in the middle of the garden and in the background there are diegetic sounds of two people talking. At first the conversation sounds unclear as there is a lot of chatter and eventually their conversation gets clearer. The conversation seems to be between a man and a woman as they are accusing each other for something. This creates an impact on the audience as it helps reel the audience in the film so that they can find out what’s happening in order to get a clear picture of what the conversation is about. It’s interesting how the camera focuses on the shovel whilst we hear a glimpse of the characters conversation, this immediately creates a connection. This is really affective as it creates suspense and tension on the audience as they will feel eager to find out what’s happening.
The close-up shot presents the first character of a young girl. The close-up shot reveals her facial expressions that show she is frightened. This makes the audience feel sympathy for her. From a low-angle, from the young girl’s perspective (making her look inferior compared to her parents); we are then introduced to two other characters. The over-the-shoulder shot shows both characters. Both look like a working-class couple family. The man uses a lot of foul words on his speech as he talks to the women. He is dressed in a vest and some trousers and his hair is messed up, this allows the audience to make assumptions of him being drunk, being mentally un-stable with anger issues. This is significant as the director uses various elements to construct a bad representation of this character. This makes the audience feel anxious to find out why. The other character, the women, is constantly accusing the man of seeing her son last and from this statement we find out that her son is missing. This builds a lot of tension and anxiety on the audience.
The film begins with conflict from the start and in the middle it reaches a climax. This is when Mina runs off to the back of the garden to avoid the yelling and cursing of her parents. She plays by herself imitating the argument between her mum and her mum’s boyfriend. As Mina plays with her toys she accidentally unearths her brother’s grave. Failing to accept that he is dead, Mina make-believes her brother Jamie is alive and starts to do all she can to clean him up and bring him inside again. When the police arrive, they find the dead Jamie, but to Mina Jamie is now roaming free in the garden.
Drama films mostly depend on the in-depth development of realistic characters who are dealing with emotion situations etc. This film uses conventions of drama by including conflict between to characters, it’s based on crime, there’s a climax point and everything is dramatic.
The ending is really tragic because the secrets unravel a chilling truth, we find out that the women’s boyfriend had buried her son in the back-garden and he then gets convicted. There’s a twist at the end as the audience probably thought that Jamie lives and he is found but we find out that the little girl make-believes that her brother is alive. When the police arrive, they find the dead Jamie, but to Mina, Jamie is now roaming free in the garden.
In general, this film happened to be really tragic, emotional and dramatic. The director cleverly structured this film well, as the film kept me as an audience completely engaged with the urge to find out what will happen next. The hook at the beginning was really effective as it had an impact on me as an audience; I was reeled into the film having constant suspense on what was happening. I learnt a lot by watching this piece of drama, as it helped me understand what type of conventions drama films use and how they use it so that it has an impact on the audience. I importantly learnt how to reel our audience in our film to keep them engaged and interested in finding out what will happen next; with the constant anxiety and suspense.
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