Paper Hearts is a ten minute drama short filmed in 2011.
The film shows a Father and sons dysfunctional relationship due to the Father having a secret he's reluctant to share with his son. The opening sequence shows a young boy running through a busy town centre in the sleet, an older man running after him. The camera work is hand held and pans round to show an on looker intervening. Non diegetic music is heard from the on start of the short. The music is a sad piano sound, the screen fades to black and the title sequence appears. We then see a wide shot of the young boy and his father leaning against a wall. Close ups of the childs face show his mood is sullen and sulky. His father looks exasperated until the two share a joke and both smirk lightening to mood slightly. They soon notice the child has left his back pack somewhere in the town so they set off in search for it, the mood once again changing to irritated and dull. The use of handheld is dominant throughout the film as I feel it gives us a sense of their journey. Around 02.30 we see the child in focus whilst his father and other people around him are out of focus. This gives us the theme of isolation.
After looking for the bag they discover it's no where to be seen, the father decides he must buy a new one to ensure the boys mother doesnt find out. He leaves his son in the middle of a busy town centre to go and collect some money. This seemed odd to be as if he were to go to an ATM surely he would take his child?
We see the father walking back into an alley way an rooting through some sleeping bags. My first initial thought was that he was stealing. Sad classical violin music is played throughout this sequence which shows the audience that it's supposed to be a sad moment in the short.
The child sees his father collecting the money and stares for a number of seconds. Closeups are used to show each characters reactions. The child is in absolute shock whilst the father looks humiliated and despondent.The lighting is low key to reflect the mood and the current situation. As the child runs away in shock and disbelief he falls over and hurts his leg. The narrative continues with the father patching his childs leg up. They have a touching conversation where the father admits he thought his child would disown him. The child replies 'you are my dad', again the use of close ups show the audience the emotions of the characters. We can see the father is relieved, the short ends with Father and son walking out of shot arm in arm.
I found this short extremely touching and well shot, the writing was excellent as they didnt over use dialogue. This is something I will take into consideration when writing the script.
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