Short Film Analysis- Veronique

Film: Veronique

Written and Directed by: Patrik Bergh

Produced by: Mark Murrell

Veronique is a short film with a linear narrative structure. The film is about a school boy (shown by the young actor in his uniform) on a bus, who is in ‘love at first sight’ with a young girl whom he calls ‘Veronique’. There is a monologue in which the boy on screen talks to a friend (whom we do not see). The reason for why the boy thinks of her as French is because France/Paris is seen as one the most romantic places in the world therefore it naturally occurs to him as he believes he has fallen in love. In our film the characters would be wearing appropriate costumes to suit the character which would help the audience automatically identify the characters role (such as the school kid).

The film is subjective because we only see things from the school boy’s point of view of how he is attracted to the girl and we do not see ‘Veronique’ viewpoint whether she actually likes him or not. Most short films are subjective and restricted therefore this is a convention which could be used in our own film; this is also considering time constraints of almost 5 minutes.

The techniques used in this film are: there is a voice- over used throughout the film, there is only one word which is ‘on set’ dialogue (diegetic, synchronous) and that is “Hi”. There is also a contradiction between the narrative and the image being shown on screen as is it the boy’s fantasy. For example at the beginning of the film on ‘Monday’, the boy says “just as she sat down, I smiled at her and she smiled back” whereas she doesn’t even look or notice at him.

The titles in the film: there are credits at the end that have a non-diegetic score of French Music in the background. The score is an important element of the film because it also shows the theme of French culture, this makes it effective because the audience would know this music as it is like a stereotype with this sound so without having to mention this directly in the film the audience automatically becomes aware of it. There are other titles used throughout the film in which we see the days of the week indicating that the time has elapsed therefore we only see the boy’s journey to school each morning, this also indicates that the time would also be the same each day. This could potentially be used in our film to indicate any time elapses if there will be any.

There is a French theme in this short film; this is shown by the national stereotypes such as the French music which comes on when the girl is on screen, the French people are glamorous (the girl is said to be an actress who got a part in a film) and the title is Veronique (which is the girls name) which is also French showing the theme.  Another theme occurring in the film is teenage crush which normally does not last long as we also witness in this film. The theme of love is shown when the voice over begins (from the boy) saying “I’m in love” and we see it is raining outside which is also considered to be romantic which ties in with the French.

The purpose of this film is for the short film competition for Orange and Film four.

 In this film, most of the filming is shot on a bus which would not be practical for us to emulate, this is because would not be able to film on the same bus every day on the same road. This also shows how short films differ from main stream films as they would not be set at only one location for the entire film. However we could use the idea of a monologue because it would be practical as the sound can be recorded through a microphone or directly through the camera without any footage. We could use the theme of teenage crush as well because it would be easier to cast the actors (as they would be the right age and in uniform) for the film and the school could be used which would also be practical during the shooting.