Research Task: 'Local Hero' By Holly King

Local Hero Short Film: By Jamie Kennerley and Andrew Taylor: 6 Minutes: Produced in 2009
http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p00grfb4

1. Are identifiable genres used?

• Local Hero is a Documentary style, comedy short film.
• The short film is filmed in a documentary style; using hand held camera work and the characters being interviewed talking to and looking at the person behind the camera. We can also tell this is a comedy because of its unserious, humorous storyline and the way in which the main character is acted (as this bumbling, nervous, awkward young man).




Screen shot showing Documentary style camera work


• The storyline is about this young horncastle resident called Michael Bosworth taking action on a group of outsiders intruding on the rural village and relieving themselves in a small woodland area close to Michael's house.

2. Is Genre style unique?

• The film genre is unique in the sense that it is a genre (documentary) being represented in a comical way. It is not a real documentary, they are adding a comical twist onto normal 'boring' documentaries and making it humorous and so is intentions is not to inform the audience (like a documentary would), but it is to entertain the audience. 

3. Does the short film use format and Narrative?

• The short film is filmed in a chronological order (like most documentaries), as we see Michael's battle journey to take action on truck drivers that are relieving themselves in the local woods of Horncastle.
• The footage shows us the different stages and actions Michael takes towards this problem and takes us through his journey. It opens with him describing the problem and throughout the film we witness the events and actions that are performed in order for this problem to be addressed by the council and overcome. However this short film is not so much about the journey he takes to overcome this problem, but it really focuses on the journey it takes for Michael to overcome personal problems (to do with him moving away) and how the original problem actually effects him in a positive way, resulting in him realising how much he enjoys living in his community and how he decides not to move out of his village (as he intended to at the start).
• The short film also opens and closes with the same establishing shot of the village. In the opening shot the traffic light is red and then changes to orange, however in the end shot the same traffic light is now on green-symbolising that he was stuck but after completing this journey of self realisation, he is now able to move on.  



Screenshot-opening and closing shots.

4. What did you find interesting about the use of sound?

• As this is a documentary style film, there is a lot of diegetic dialogue of the characters talking to camera/interviewer. The dialogue is of the characters talking about an issue (subjective dialogue-we are listening to their point of view).
• There is also a lot of background ambient noise as the sound is being recorded as it is being filmed and so we can hear the surrounding on screen and off screen diegetic sounds (such as cars and wind). Having this background noise also adds realism.There is also scenes where we are seeing Michael in shot not talking and there is a non-diegetic voice over of Michael talking. When this is occurring there is also a faint non diegetic music track over the dialogue. This acoustic non-diegetic track is also played when there is establishing shots of the village and no dialogue (setting the mood of/ representing village life).

5. What is interesting about Camera Work, Mise en Scene and Editing?

• The footage is filmed using a hand held camera, documenting what is happening. The hand held camera also puts us in the place of the interviewer and we are seeing what they are and so this camera Work is subjective. The held held camera also makes it appear more realistic and spontaneous (like the frames are not planned). This also allows the camera to be more mobile and document everything. (For the documentary genre hand held cameras are often used).



Screen shot showing the Flexibility of movement using a hand held camera.

• A tripod is used however when filming establishing shots-this is because it is objective in the sense that it is just showing us the location.



Screen Shot showing establishing shot using tripod.

• Editing is also important in this short film. One Post production effect that had to be added was the text over the footage. This would have been inserted on top of the footage during editing to show us who is being interviewed at what they are in relation to the topic-this introduces the character and also helps us to establish why they are significant.

Screen Shot showing text captions

• Parallel editing is also used in this short film, for the sequence where Lewis Timms (the local councilor) and Michael are talking about the same thing, it cuts between them to show their different perspectives on the subject (and how they contrast from one another and see it differently)- For example how Michael is very serious about it, but  Lewis finds it humorous and has a more positive outlook.
• Mise en Scene is all natural, showing the Characters in their natural environments-natural clothes and natural weather for example. There is no artificial lighting or anything because the point of a documentary is to document something in its natural environment and they have done so and it works effectively as it makes it look more realistic.

6. Themes and Issues and Representations:

• The film is a documentary and so records the situation from the point of view of the interviewee and so it is rather subjective and It positions the audience to share the same views as Michael on the situation.
• Different members of the community are represented as they would naturally, however this are quite stereotypical views on members of society (for example the teenager riding a bike through town wearing a hoody). 

Screen shot of the teenager cycling through town.

• The main element of comedy in this short film is the character Michael, and the film takes the mickey out of documentary films and uses this nervous, bumbling, ex centric young man (who lives with his parents) to do so. Michael is shown as this awkward young man with few social skills and he is the main source of humor in this film.
• The fact he lives with his parents gives us the impression he is not very mature or independent. He is also made to appear more humorous due to his behaviour (the things the says and how he speaks).