short film: swimmer (ramsey 2012)

swimmer

The swimmer won the Best Short Film BAFTA in 2012. seen as a visual poem.

performance notes

• swimming in slow motion, man giving off a  calm aura 
• He was expressionless, feeling numb, maybe he has an overload of feelings and emotions but unable to express it
• man is very isolated surrounded by water could illustrate his incapability of being able to control his emotions.
• young male vigilantes causing havoc and disrupting the man peace in the water.
• a lot of physical expressions no verbal expression
• swimmer dead, expressionless

Summary:
This short film is not concerned with the character the swimmer is not given much character and is instead a blank slate for the audience to input character traits onto. We do not get a definitive answer as to why the swimmer swims, however it can be suggested through the use of sound from the loneliness of a long-distance runner that the swimmer swims to better himself and as a way of proving self-worth. Due to there being a little conflict in this film- there is no archetype of hero and villain; the swimmer is definitely the viewpoint character but as he does little other than swim it could be argued that the landscape is the protagonist. However, it could be argued that there is a man vs. nature binary opposition- as the swimmer is out of place in the otherwise natural landscape of the film.

The Grandmother (1969)

the Grandmother

A young boy (Richard White) lives with his mother and his father. Both of the boy's parents don't like him and taunt him aggressively. The father, in particular, is not impressed in the boy's life because his son still wets his bed. One day, the boy has an idea to bring some stability and comfort into his life, he will get a grandmother by planting a seed on his bed, making sure there is adequate soil for her to grow. He tends the growing plant lovingly on a regular basis as it becomes a fully-fledged grandmother pod. Finally, it hatches and the boy helps his new grandmother out of her pod and sits her down. The boy and his grandmother have a wonderful time. When tired, he coils contentedly in her arms. His parents still treat him cruelly, but that can be easily forgotten. However, all good things must come to an end. Grandmother becomes very ill and the boy is forced to go to his parents for help. But they laugh at him and his attempts to drag them upstairs to help grandmother are futile. The boy rushes upstairs to try to help grandmother on his own, but only to see that she is finally dead.

performance

-melodramatic

-abstract 

-no dialogue, but physically expressive 

-mothers physical proximity - she leans over him- overbearing and intimidating- constant angry facial expressions

-fathers- tall 

-boy constant distraught facial expressions- looking around a lot looks lost and worried.

-the grandmother physical proximity- the same level as the boy -comforting- smiling a lot- 

 -parents grotesquely eating at the dinner table- very animalistic -violent towards the boy 

- the boy seems helpless and small compared to parents at dinner table-he's looking down at his food -not making eye contact with the parents, trying to make himself unnoticeable 

-boy and grandmother kiss on lips illustrated there intimacy and comfortability with each other, compared to mother and father interaction with the boy (there's no positive physical touch)