Trainspotting:Key scene analysis

Comparison of ‘Soft’ and ‘Wasp’

Both of the writers/ directors of these short films use their work as a way to present the theme of family, love, and how the class system may have an impact on the decision making skills of people, when faced with a dilemma. The film ‘Soft’, written  and directed by Simon Ellis tells the story of a father and son who are being harassed by a group of local teenagers and how the dad is more scared of telling his son the truth about his fear than the actual teenagers themselves . Eventually the son gets tired of him and his dad being abused that he runs out of his house with a cricket bat and starts beating the ringleader of the group with it. The film mainly focuses on how generational differences can have an effect on the relationship between a parent and a child. This film also focuses on the issue of social class, gender and the battle with one’s inner self. The film can be compared to ‘Wasp’, another short film, which was produce in 2003, which follows the story of a woman who is so poor that she is unable to feed her kids, but still finds the time and money to go to the pub with a guy. This film focuses on the themes of love, family, selfishness, gender, and the battle with one’s inner self.  Another theme that runs throughout the whole of this film is that are deceitfulness, due to the fact that the woman lies about the fact that her children are not her’s, and that they are a friend’s.

One main theme that both directors tried to convey is that of family and relationships in accordance to social class. The first thing we see at the beginning of the film Soft was video (which seemed to have been recorded on a phone) of a person being chased and attacked. Due to the quality of the footage we are unable to see things in detail- but one of the main things that we can see is how the attackers are dressed ( in hoodies, tracksuits and with heavy jewellery, such as gold chains on). From this, we can tell  straight away that these people that are the attackers do not come from a good background or belong to a high social class. Following this, the first clear shot that we see is a car pulling up on a road, which has nice houses, nice cars and a load of trees. From this we are able to understand that this neighbourhood that the person is from is a nice one and thus they may be coming for a middle class background.  The fact that the first to shots that introduce the film are with a different camera quality are significant. The way that I interpret this is that the quality of the camera is symbolism for the quality of a person’s life depending on their social class. Furthermore when the dad asks the son to go to the shop for him he  is ignored- from this it can be suggested that the amount of time that a person may spend at work and/ or the money they make may have a negative effect on how their children value simple chores.   Similarly, the director of the film Wasp has also used cinematography as a way of introducing the theme of social class.  This film starts with the main character (Zoe) walking down the stairs frantically with her children. The first shot of the film is filmed at a Dutch title- instantly creating a sense of instability. The camera also rotates to capture a close shots of Zoe and her children.  From this we are able to see that her and her children’s clothes are dirty and that her children look as if they had not been bathed for a long period of time. From this the audience can infer that this woman is of a working class background.  The things that we see, combined with the camera angle could be a way of present the idea that poverty can cause instability in a family.

The other theme that both directors wanted to explore in their short film is the theme of gender norms and how the way that society is structured has had effect on the way we view gender. In the film Soft, one of the things that stood out for me was the part when after the dad left the shop and was kicked in the face by the teenagers the first thing that he thought  of doing is going home and just “getting on with it” in oppose to calling the police. This is done by the director as a way of showing that in society men are not typically told to come forward and say when they are scared. As well as this the director, Simon Ellis uses the film Soft as a way of showing the vulnerabilities of men. He does this by filming with the camera really close up to the man- by doing this we are able to so see the man’s eye dilating and how much he is heavy breathing- basically capturing all the emotions without him having to speak. In contrast, in the film Wasp the director explores the theme of gender through the perspective of the female. The director does it, in particular exploring the traditional idea that woman are meant for child-baring.  The way that this idea is presented in short film is done in a way to show that gender norms by lead to serious issues in society- more specifically the family. Throughout the film the camera consistently zooms in on the children of Zoe. This is done so that the audience is able to see how chasing a guy has led to the neglect of her children.