Short Film Analysis: The Crush

After spending a considerable amount of time researching the type of film we wanted ours to be, I came across 'The Crush'. Upon watching the film, you may not understand why I believe it relates to our film, but after I watched the film a second time the themes similar to the film I had created became more prominent.

'The Crush' follows the life of Ardal, once he realises that he loves his teacher. The film starts with Ardal giving his teacher a ring, in theory proposing to her, which the teacher says she will think about. With Ardal being at such a young age this makes him feel wanted and special. He believes that he is going to marry this woman despite the obvious obstacles. The story continues to see Ardal's obsession with his teacher until the point where he threatens to kill her fiancé because he isn't treating her good enough. The tension builds throughout the film as you watch Ardal struggle with doing what his heart wants, ending the film on a high note as he walks away with his teacher.

Titles

The film starts of with a black screen showing the name of the company that created the film before heading straight into the start of the film. The story continues without the use of any title sequence apart from one shot where the name of the film is written onto the screen. The music behind the shot of the film title is rather soothing, much like the music used to relax. This allows us to see that the boy in the shot is currently in his own world thinking about something else which relaxes him. This being the teacher sat at the front of the class. While this shot is on we hear some diagetic sound of Ardal's friends packing away and leaving school.










Characters
Ardal
The main character within 'The Crush' is Ardal, who is the love sick boy, having a typical crush on their teacher. Ardal seems like the typical teachers pet, he believes that because his teacher is nice to him, that it means something more. Ardal is easily led by his feelings and desire to be with his teacher, resulting in him threatening her fiancé because of how he mistreats his favourite teacher. Ardal is portrayed as an outsider, who finds friendships with those older than him, the ones he spends most of his time with, which is evidently his teacher.


Miss Purdy
Miss Pardy is the object of Ardal's love. She is the typical teacher, being nice to her students because it is her job. She makes Ardal feel comfortable and loved when she talks to him like he's an adult rather than the child he evidently is. She may not intentionally lead Ardal to believe that she loves him, but the innocence boy takes her communication with him as a sign. Something she does unknowingly, yet leads to the turning point of the film. 


Pierce

Miss Purdy's fiancé receives the full brunt of Ardal's love for her. Pierce is threatened by Ardal, but shrugs it off as the young boy joking around. He doesn't take Ardal seriously making him feel like a child again. Pierce makes fun of Ardal's threat, claiming there's nothing to worry about. He is portrayed as the evil partner that doesn't really care how other people feel. He's like the popular guy in high school who gets everything he wants.


Cinematography
Throughout the entire film, the music varies, however mainly focuses around a calm and soothing tempo. The film starts with the simple calm opening music, however is quickly cut off and replaced with the diagetic sound of the school day. The film has a higher level of diagetic sound overall compared with that of the non-diagetic sound. Although most of this is due to the conversations the characters have, some points consist of mainly background noise and no speech. When we do pick the music back up after our long gap consisting of conversation, it is at the end of Ardal's conversation with Pierce, telling him that he wants a fight 'to the death', we see Pierce laughing at this comment and thinking nothing of it, even joking about it when Miss Purdy gets in the car. When we next see Ardal walking home from school the music quickly reappears, however it isn't calm and relaxing, its sinister, giving off a high pitch squeak within the first five seconds of being on.
The editing for the film compliments the music throughout the entire story. Like previously stated the balance between diagetic and non-diagetic isn't equal, but it works. Having little non-diagetic sound enables us to focus on the story more. When we get to an important part within the story, the music usually picks up for a couple of seconds before being cut off again and replaced by a different scene and a conversation. We know that whenever we hear music rather than speech, something monumental to the story has occurred. The scenes involving the gun before the battle to the death, leave an underlying sinister feel, where we believe that the gun in the shots is actually real. The fact that we see Ardal's father with the gun first, gives the impression that it is in fact a real gun, due to the job he has. When we later see Ardal sitting in front of the wardrobe we know contains a gun, after having a conversation about a battle to the death, you are led to believe that he is going to kill Pierce because he wants Miss Purdy to marry him and not Pierce. The dark scene which this is shot in makes it even more sinister and emphasises the fact that Ardal wasn't joking around when he made the threat. The next time we see the gun, it is in Ardal's hand pointed towards Pierce. The dialect in this scene only encourages the suspicion that the gun is real. Pierce questions the fact that Ardal has a real gun on him, only to receive an answer of 'yes it is' referring to it being real. The use of these three shots misleads the audience, resulting in a higher tension when watching the battle scene. We are all led to believe that he is going to kill Pierce making you want to watch the film further so you know what happens.
The film focuses mainly on the dialect of the characters, resulting in a small variation of shots. Close-up's and Medium shot's are favourites in this film since they emphasise the emotion on the characters face. The only time we see long shots is to introduce a new character into the scene. The battle scene at the end uses one to show that Miss Purdy has followed Pierce and is now watching the scene unfold in front of her. The only other time long shots are used, they are to show Ardal walking home from school, like a filler scene to show how our characters got from one place to the next. The first one of these shows Ardal happy, since he has just given Miss Purdy the ring, however the second time shows Ardal as angry, he has just had the battle to death conversation with Pierce. The last part of the battle scene appears after a quick blackout, which represents that Pierce is supposed to be dead. The scene then involves a medium shot of Pierce laying on the floor, eyes open, a position related to that of someone who has been shot.


Morals/Themes
'The Crush' has many underlying themes, going from how easily someone can become jealous about another person, resulting in uncharacteristic actions, to the fact that people aren't always who they seem, they do things to please others in the hope that they themselves will achieve a better outcome. This allows any type of audience to relate to the film, without considering the moral of the film itself. Many people can relate to how easy it is to become jealous, or how people sometimes hide who they are, since these are everyday situations. I believe that the moral is that no matter how old you are, looking at the bigger picture helps you to understand things easier. Ardal had a school boy crush on his teacher, wanting to marry her, however by the end of the film Ardal has changed his mind because he has seen that he can't provide her with what she wants due to the age difference. Which is something he never took into consideration before meeting her fiancé.


Credits
The credits within this film are extremely unusual since they act as a title sequence but at the end of the film, appearing over the scene rather than going to a black screen. The scene isn't of any importance, just of Ardal and Miss Purdy walking away from the school, only their backs visible within the shot. Yet it isn't what a normal credit sequence should look like, these usually entail the black screen covered in white writing which scrolls up as the music continues to play. The unusual credit sequence only makes the film more unique and memorable for the audience.


Conclusion
Studying this short film has allowed me to have a better insight of how to portray things using various shots. This will be helpful when creating our film since we need to hint at the idea that the girl has been drugged, without giving away who it was. Also hinting at the idea that she gets raped without knowing who until the end of the film. This makes the gun shots helpful since we are led to believe it is real until the very end of the film, we want to ensure that we keep the audience guessing and wondering what is going to happen next, to be shocked by the outcome when it is revealed.