CANDY CRIME“ALL YOU NEED TO MAKE A MOVIE IS A GIRL AND A GUN.” JEAN-LUC GODARD, 16TH MAY 1991

http://www.filminute.com/listing.php?type=1&edition=2012&film=169

Genre

The genre of Candy crime is comedy and crime. This is evident through the fact that there is a counter stereotype. When the young teenage boys target the innocent girl by crowding her and taking her sweets. The young girl turns out to be the more dominant character as in returns she makes the boys give up their gun.

Narrative

The opening scene begins with four teenage boys dressed in casual clothing sitting on a wall. They target a young girl. The boys follow her to the bus stop and when she sits down the crowd around her. One of the boys demands her lolly by pointing at it, the girl gives in but in return points to his key ring, that the boy eventually gives to her. When they realise she has a bigger lolly. The boy gets aggravated and he pulls out a gun which looks like he is traumatising the girl. However he is trading the gun with the lolly. This is an closed narrative as they are both happy towards the end. It also follows the classic Hollywood narrative of order, disorder and order restored. This is a single strand narrative.

Representation: Age

In the short film there are two very different ages being represented. The teenage group of boys are represented through their clothing. They are wearing jeans and t-shirts with chains are key rings. They are also wearing hoodies and sitting in a group on the wall. This tells us they are teenagers as if it was someone older they may want to sit inside. Also through facial and body expression, when they walk and look at the girl full of confidence and they wont let anything get in their way. The audience can also decode that they are teenagers as they hardly speak and teenagers are said to be anti-social.

The little girl on the other is dressed in white dress which is something you would expect young girl to wear a small back pack and a packet of sweets.

At the beginning the teenagers are represented as the ones with the power especially when the gun comes out. However this film plays on the counter stereotypes where at the end the girl is the more dominant character.

Representation – Mise – en – scene

The location is represented as run down on a street corner. There are various blocks of flats highlighting an estate area.

The boys on the estate are dressed in casual clothing which consists of hoodies, jeans and chains this connotes danger. The clothing they are wearing in the short is very stereotypical of what children on the estate wear to support the bad boy persona. The girl on the other is also very stereotypical as she is in a white dress which illustrates innocent and is walking down the street minding her own business.

The props used, by the boys are the key ring which has a heart and wings on it and the gun. The preferred reading is that kids on the estate get involved with gangs and crime that they shouldn't. Whereas the supposedly innocent girl only has sweets and her backpack and is by herself suggesting that she isn’t form that area.

As Dick Hebdige suggest that young people in the media are presented as youth is fun or trouble and here they are presented as trouble.

Editing

In candy Crime the editing is at a fairly slow pace at the beginning with many straight cuts. These take place when we see the boys on the wall to the girl turning the corner and boys following her. Once the girl has sat down and the boys crowd around her the editing speeds up especially when the boy points to the lolly pop and the cut is quite abrupt. Similarly when the girl points to his key ring their is an abrupt straight cut to show his shocked facial expression as neither the audience or the boys expected her to do this. The editing again slows down once they get the lolly. However when she pulls out the bigger lolly and they notice, the girl refuses to hand it over. There is a jump cut when the boys pulls out the gun to again to shock the audience and the girl. Towards the very end the editing returns to its normal pace once both of them are satisfied.

Camera Work

Many camera shots are used to represent the different characters. For example when the little girl is sitting at the bus stop, the gang of boys tower over her, a low angle shot is used to illustrate this, this is also from her perspective, she see’s the boys looming over her staring down and her intimidatingly, this makes her seem extremely venerable and the boys very powerful. This is deliberately done to emphasise the comedy at the end of the short film as the audience does not expect the sudden role-reversal as the little girl having extreme power by having a gun.A high angle shot is also used to give the audience a view of the gang forcing the little girl to give them her lollipop. This also misleads the audience to make them think something bad is going to happen to the little girl.A two shot is used when there is conflict between the young girl and the ringleader of the gang. This is also shot low angle again to give the audience the impression that the gang have a lot more power than the girl. However, it also begins to reveal the girls power over the gang as she disagrees with the ringleader showing her confidence and how he can’t just get anything he wants from her.Many close up are used to emphasise the objects that are being exchanged and who is getting what. There are long shots to show that the boys are following the girl.

Sound

Candy crime starts with the diegetic sound which is the chatter and laughter of the boys sitting on the wall and carries on while they follow the young girl. This is followed by the diegetic sound of the rustling of the sweet bag and the boys foot steps as they crowd around her. While this is going on there is a small amount of non diegetic tense music. The boy rudely states ‘give it to me’, whilst the other boys stay quite. Then there is the diegetic sound of the wind and the boy throwing the lolly to the floor and him asking for the lolly again whilst the girl refuses. The non diegetic music plays once the gun gets pulled out to help the audience understand the fear that the girl has. Towards there is very upbeat music . This highlights that you don't have to speak to have the upper hand as the girl got the gun.

Audience The short film industry’s audience is quite niche as opposed to

the mainstream audience of larger full length films. People who will most likely take an interest in Candy Crime are probably students or professionals in the industry. The student audience would be in the social group E as they are unemployed and want to make money or do what they enjoy. Students would most likely view the films for inspiration. Using Psychographics to determine the audience for short films. These people could be described as succeeders, these are people who are ambitious and want to get high up in the industry. This could happen if they view a short film they like and they could distribute it to bring money into their company. Also the aspirers which are people who want something bigger this could be students that have just come out university and want to be in the film industry. Lastly the individualist may be interested in short films, as they want to separate from the crowd and would express themselves through short films.

Funding and distribution

Year: 2011 Production Country: Great Britain Directed by Ben Jacobson

Featuring Holly Jacobson / Pierre Marku / Adain Bradley

Distributed by BFI By Ben Jacobson Productions Quality Video Production, Leicester, East Midlands He films on high quality Panasonic DVPROHD and

Canon DSLR cameras with full professional lighting and sound kits. He edits using Final Cut.

Success

It won the award of ‘Best comedy short’ at Screen Stockport Film Festival 2011’.

Candy crime has 9,258 views on YouTube and also was one of the 25 films to be shortlisted in the film minute competition.

Encounters Short Film Festival Winner, Best Comedy Short, Screen Stockport Film Festival 2011