Elements of Film Form in Short films

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Elements of Film Form in Short films


Wasp (Arnold, 2003)

  • Contrapuntal music. Music doesn’t match their life as a family
  • Council estates
  • Contrast of small children in a pub car park
  • Hand held camera
  • Extreme long shot of motorway
  • Fast pace at the beginning - straight into a fight scene
  • Extreme close up inter changing edits fo their faces


Paragraph homework on ‘Wasp’ short film

The short film ‘Wasp’ by Andrea Arnold 2003 uses cinematography techniques to depict how unsteady and chaotic the life of this single mum and her four kids is. Throughout the short film, Arnold uses the handheld camera effect, this element of cinematography makes it so the filming looks quite shaky and unstable which mirrors the unstable living circumstances for the family seen in the short film as they seem to be living on benefits which can be quite unstable (like the camera movements). This may make watching stressful and difficult for the spectators, yet this allows them to get a grasp on what the family experience in their day to day life. Another use of cinematography was the extreme long shot used as the family were walking across the bridge on the way to the pub. With the extreme long shot, we as spectators were able to see and hear the busy motorway below. The use of the diegetic sound of the cars passing puts the spectators on edge as its quite a dangerous environment, which could perhaps foreshadow the future dangerous environments the children are put in later on in the short film.


Additionally, in the short film, Arnold uses sound as a contrast to the family's life. In the middle of the short film, we see the mum come out of the pub and the song “5,6,7,8” starts to play (dietetically) and they start dancing. This upbeat/happy song is quite contrapuntal to them as a family as they are struggling and unstable. This allows the spectators to perhaps feel sympathy for the family as they are all trying to be upbeat despite their misfortunate struggles in life. Arnold uses music again later on when at the end of the short film, the children in the back of the car start singing “Hey Baby” as they drive home in Dave’s car, once they get to the chorus, you stop hearing the singing and the real soundtrack starts playing (Non-diegetic). This music is quite upbeat but on the contrary to last time, this might not be as contrasting and perhaps even parallel as it seems that Dave had just bought food for the children and was driving them home. This could lead us to believe that their lives could start to get better from now on with Dave in the picture. This creates a sense of relief in the spectators from all the built-up anxiety from previous scenes.

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