Textual Analysis-Diet:The Disease of Our Generation

Textual Analysis-Diet: The Disease of Our Generation

This short film focuses on the Issues of Calorie intake without any nutrition value and the negative effects of lack of exercise and how to make a change you truly want."Something needs to change, obesity is at an all time high, do people know what to do and just don't want to change, or does the information we are being fed need to change.....” Ben Coomber- 2014

The whole of the short film is given a filter to make the image more saturated. There are many people seen in this short film, as well as many shots of different advertisements, The camera remains still however there are many jump cuts. Most shots are wide shots, at the very start of the short film there are a few establishing shots. Through the film there are Wide shots and Many point of view shots. The camera does not move a lot in this short film but focuses on one subject at a time in the shot, there is a blur effect to each shot in the background.  

The filter given to the film is to create a more ‘real’ sense to the film, this means it wants to  relate to the audience so therefore it uses the filter that we would see in everyday life through our own eyes.

Having the general public as part of the short film also relates in the way that this could be any member of the audience, as this message is a very sensitive topic this had to be done without 
showing the subjects faces this also make the audience use their creativity as to who the subject is.

The establishing shots are used at the beginning to create the sense of community with the audience as they can relate to the scenery. 

 
There is a clear way the information is given this pattern consists of a voice over by the creator and visual scenes being shown at the same time. This short film challenges the genre as it doesn’t include any witnesses testimonies however purely consists of the same character talking throughout the whole of the film. The film maker uses mostly narration and switches to him taking to the camera as though it is as interview, he uses the method to get the message of change across to the audience. The filmmaker seeks to evoke ‘ change’ towards thoughts of your comfort zone in the attitudes of the audience, another technique he uses is showing throughout the short film his  personal change, showing his daily routines and exercising. He is trying to portray a motivational message to the audience as if to say if he can so can you. This is done by using all techniques mentioned above  

The various editing techniques used in this short film emphasis the message of change, this short film Is edited using jump cuts to retrospective footage while he is narrating and going back to the interview styled scenes. There are many pans through the film on scenes containing more than one subject, this is done to make the audience feel they are in the surrounding as it is done from an eye level. This creates more impact on the audience as it intends to portray their real life setting. This topic is very relate-able and through the editing techniques the short film is made to be as well. The pattern followed in terms of editing is –narrating over scene to interview like scene and back and forth as a cycle.

The audio of this short film is very simple, it is a background non diegetic soundtrack replayed over and over. At first the music is loud and over riding the narration however later into the film it starts to dim, towards the end the music increases in its pace and is the main focus of the short film as this point as there is no narration or any other audio. This is all done to keep the audience engaged in the film and as a motivational technique as the music is progress from slow tempo to upbeat and happy like music  creating a sense of resolution to this problem, through music we can see the film follows todorov's theory of equilibrium. 

I believe this short film follows the Poetic short films -known for having the music develop the tone and mode of the film, music plays a key role in these types of documents as they are usually personal to the people involved as well as the target audience. it emphases some aspects of life via music and other things such as camera angles and the editing, this is seen as an artistic way of documenting. In this Short film is is done through the use of the slow paced music at the start creating the sense of uncomfort and is changed when the music becomes higher in tempo giving the vibe of ‘relief’ or resolution.

The beginning of the short film focuses mostly on the negatives of the dieting world and the reasons behind the fear of personal change as well as the obstacle placed by the food industry.

The middle of the short film is showing you how one person overcame these obstacle such as his exercise regime and the ‘fake’ advertisement of supplements for weight loss.

The end showed the possibility of change and how to come over this problem. 

This short film chose to capture the food industry in relation to change of thought for people towards dieting and healthy living. The directors emphasized images of ‘unhealthy, ‘fat’ subjects, this may cause the short film backlash as it reveals sensitive findings of a study. The most important subject of the film was the narrator himself. 

                                    

I liked the fact their was one clear subject of the film and how the music at the very start of the short captivates you into the film, this would be something I would defiantly try to incorporate into my short film. I will be using the techniques used in this film such as jump cuts because I feel it creates a most realistic film.