Short Film Analysis - Soft (2007)

Short Film: Soft (2007) - Analysis Notes

Director & Writer: Simon Ellis

https://vimeo.com/19705053

The short is about a boy who is bullied and beaten up by a group of reckless teenagers. They then abuse his father, the boy ends up standing up for himself and his father and drives the teens away with a baseball bat. A narrative solution is found but leaves the audience feeling a little tense as the film is a little difficult to watch. The achieves all the aspects that you would want to see in a short film, gracefully included a quick and meaningful narrative explaination for everything. 

Key features that stood out and resonated with me in the film:

-The contrast of camera quality between the gang's video and the rest of the film, an interesting choice of cinematography.
-The choice of redemption that the son provided, made you doubt the character of the father.
-A good insight into the minds of gangs and the lack of tolerance people (should) have.
-A good narrative structure, opens, introducing the protagonists and the antagonists, a little background on the characters, the main problem throughout the story is revealed (the gang vandalising the fathers car) and the narrative resolution of the son chasing the gang away.

I felt tense watching the film through the whole time, I wanted the protagonists to prevail and felt a geniune distaste for the antagonists. The film represents the each characters roles properly and makes the audience find a connection between themselves and the characters.