Title – Paper Hearts
Directed by – Rob Brown
Cast – Gary Cargill + Dylan Goodall
Genre - Drama
Duration of film – 9 minutes 47 seconds
Location of film – South East, Kent
Narrative – A short film giving an insight into the relationship between a
father and his son and similarities that they share without realising it.
‘Paper Hearts’ is a short film directed by Rob Brown giving an insight into the
relationship between a father and his son and similarities and differences that
they share without realising them.
Visually, we gain a greater understanding on the father and son’s relationship
within the shopping centre scene through character proximity. The father
(played by Gary Cargill) walks ahead of his son and keeps his distance. This
can be perceived in many ways by the audience; the father stays ahead implying
that he is either the dominant one out of the relationship, is too embarrassed
to be seen with his son and doesn’t want to be associated with him or doesn’t
necessarily know how to act as a father to his own son.
Later on within the scene, the son (played by Dylan Goodall) starts to kick an
empty plastic bottle across the floor. This is a visual metaphor on how empty
the relationship between him and his father feels and how time seems to drag on
when they are together the same way the empty plastic bottle drags along the
floor. Furthermore, the sound created by the bottle’s movement starts to increase
and become louder when the son starts to kick it more frequently. Due to the
increasing volume, the bottle helps to foreshadow what will happen later on in
the narrative by building tension through the build-up of sound which leads to
the father retaliating; this ultimately results to the father and son arguing.
Eventually, the audience and son come to some sort of realisation when the boy
sees his Father organising his personal belongings next to restaurant bins down
a dark alley; we now understand what situation the father is in and why he acts
the way he does around his son. Because he is homeless, we now know that he is
not embarrassed to be seen with his son but instead feels he causes embarrassment to his son. Moreover, the character
proximity within the end clip shows the son looking down at his father as
though he is disappointed rather than looking up to him as a role model like
any other father/son relationship should be about.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00pdf9j
