Narrative Theory - Short of the week

The Importance of skin

This ten minute film portrays a young couple in South London who seem blissfully happy in their tight knit community until tragedy strikes.
Before the story starts we hear the narrator of the story which is presumed to be the father, his words relate to the title of the film and help the audience find sense and meaning in it.

 The opening begins with a close up of the bage pinned on a young woman saying "Baby on board" and then pans up to the young woman face, during that close up we hear from her voice that she is from South London, the narrative can be located as South London is known to be quite rough and not well off. The shopkeeper knows the female lead, Cyra, very well then it is later revealed he has known her since a baby, the act of the shopkeeper refusing to let Cyra pay highlights how this community seem to support each other.

 In the opening scene Cyra's pregnency is also revealed further adding to the plot, Todorov theory of equilibrium is implied and the equilibrium is broken as the narrative has been changed by an event and adds to the story rather than the narrative of events as nothing has changed dramatically.

When the young girl leaves the shop the audio starts to fade and the audience begins to ask questions as the female lead pauses and puts her hand over her stomach then the narrative proceeds on, leaving the audience to wonder what happened, yet it is later revealed that Cyra was going through the stages of a miscarriage.

The narrative is restructured through out as the screen splits between the young couple showing how each character in the story is checking up on the babys progress and how the parents are doing. This is further implied when the narrative switches to the father's, Fabe, friend doing a favour and bringing an item of clothing for the baby.


The story starts off and follows Todorovs theory as there is an equilibrium and the narrative follows  the father and mother through their small community, as Fabe appears on screen in the next scene, the camera starts at a low angle then stops showing him brush his white, expensive shoes when in the background the audience can see the run down council estate, this could symbolise how the negatives and certain worries in life don't affect him right now due to his newborn baby coming.

Temporal frequency can be applied as the audience know that although when new characters are shown to the father and mother the audience can put together that the young couple know these characters extremely well from their language and attitude.

The film is structured with split screens showing the Cyra and Fabe walking around different parts of the estate, the both meet the same characters but at different time and the pre-lap audio from one scene to the other enables the audience to see that what the old woman is saying to both the mother and father but not at the same time as well as most of the scenes not being in chronological order, leaving the audience to part together what time these events happened.

Todorovs theory is enforced as there is an equilibrium within the narrative but takes a dramatic turn when Cyra suffers a miscarriage as it has disrupted the chain of events and therefore the disequilibrium. When Cyra realises she has lost the baby the sound fades away again, just like in the opening, and white noise is apparent in the background, we can use Levi-Strauss' idea and look for a deeper meaning. The film is focused heavily on the excitement of the unborn child and the support the parents receive from the community and yet through out subtle hints of a problem are apparent or that something bad is about to upset the balance of good in the short film which propels the narrative and makes it more interesting.

Cause and effect is highly illustrated as the first situation of this story is the excitement of the pregnancy and then a new situation arise, the miscarriage, which brings about the end of the narrative. The director, Thea Gajic, creates a mood by choosing humorous and pleasant scenes to build a picture in our minds and throughout we link up what is happening between scenes, the effect is dramatic, although hinted, the miscarriage was a revelation that was not expected.
 When most of the characters stand around Cyra the background noise is cut and the narrator, Cyra, begins talking about what she would have wanted to say to her daughter. In the last scene we see Cyra on the ground, the three other friends staring down at her but Fabe has turned away from her, Cyra also explains in the narration that her baby girl would have liked feathers for flying as they would have reminded them of her father, this may imply that the father took off and left Cyra and literally flew the nest.