Story-telling | Contextual Research: Soft (Short Film 1)

Simon Ellis’ ‘Soft’ takes place in a quiet, suburban setting, and follows the story of a father and son, who are attacked on a trip to the local cornershop and in an alleyway – the father must make the difficult decision to defend his son and his dignity, or wait out the situation and risk losing the respect of his son, after they begin harassing them at their home.

We can sense a strain on the relationship between the father and son as soon as they appear in the same scene – when the father returns home, his son retreats upstairs upon realising who is at the door.  I want to depict the relationship between Nick and his mother, Angela, as having a similar feel to it, as Nick initially resents her for her alcohol abuse.  Ellis uses subtle devices to show the relationship between the father and son, and the device that stood out the most to me with regards to this relationship is when the son threw the cricket bat at the father’s feet.  Such a subtle gesture shows us that the son is disappointed and is exasperated by his fathers’ dealing with the situation.  Therefore, I am inclined to focus on gestures rather than spoken word to highlight how Nick feels about his mother both before and after he begins to empathise with her addiction.

The dialogue in Soft is simple and realistic, the characters say very little, which works to establish the social realism theme in the film.  We also get a clear sense of the divide between social class in the film through the use of dialogue, with the main ‘Asbo’ using an intimidating and profane tone, and the father and son speaking in a reserved and more eloquent tone.  Ellis gives us further notions of social class divide with the motif of cricket repeating throughout.  Cricket is a typically middle-class sport, and by bringing this up on multiple occasions – the son’s bag, the picture on the fridge, and the cricket bat at the end – this emphasises the prevalence of class that Ellis is depicting.  I will aim to include similar motifs to draw parallels between my characters – wine bottles would work in my film, to highlight the alcoholism of Angela and Derek, who are in very different settings, but their situation is very similar: Angela has lost her husband, and Derek has lost his fiancé.

Soft is predominantly filmed using a handheld camera, and makes use of camera phone footage as well.  Combined with the extensive use of close-ups and over-the-shoulder shots, this adds to the realistic feel of the film, giving us a sense the we are there, and this also allows us to empathise with the characters, as this creates a sense of intimacy.  My film will rely heavily on the audience empathising with Nick, Derek and Angela, so using intimate close-ups will allow me to achieve this, as Ellis has in such an effective way.  When the father confronts the gang, Ellis uses a wide lens to distort the image, and alludes to the father’s isolation in the situation.  This is also something worth taking in to consideration when highlighting Nick’s isolation in my film.

I enjoyed Soft thoroughly, mostly because Ellis has managed to balance tension and intrigue with realism and a multitude of themes in such a simple setting and story.  Therefore, I aim to make my story as simple as possible, but also to use subtleties to add more depth to my characters and to comment on alcoholism and homelessness in society.