“Smashed”- Peter Snelling

 

‘Smashed’ by Peter Snelling, a short BBC film based is a thrilling drama about four friends on a night out, they all get very intoxicated through out the night and as it slowly descends lives aren’t as simple and it’s affecting their moods, they find themselves in trouble and try to fix things.

This short film’s focus is the theme of young adults, in particular the complexity of their needs, feelings and experiences whilst drunk and what they can encounter in their love lives when they aren’t in control, which then leads them in unwanted situations due to the misuse of alcohol.

 

The misuse of alcohol is apparent and exposed through the opening scene where

we can see a young women looking very stressed at her refection in the mirror,

with a variety of different camera shots such as medium shots and

close ups used to show her facial expressions, also the mise-en-scene

of the scene adds to the girls emotional state, as the lighting is dim

and blurred to represent her fragile state as she downs whole glass

of alcohol with her eyes squinted, the mise-en-scene of her

facial expressions show how she almost resents what she’s

doing but it’s a need for to drown her sorrow in alcohol to

help her escape how she’s feeling, this gives us an insight to

all of the four characters as we see them all in a fragile state

in the opening scenes which all have a chaotic feel with

numerous shots and close ups of facial expressions,

items and people around them to almost be a reflection

their mind, whilst intoxicated showing that they can’t think straight. 

 

 

Also the paralytic mess they are in is shown through the mise-en-scene of the club setting and the ambient light of the club, also the camera and editing becomes more fast paced to  keep the audience intrigued and almost feeling what the characters feel whilst in the club, it’s as if it’s building up tension to a climax of the after math of all their problems.

 

 

 

The mise-en-scene of the props throughout the film are all relevant to the story line such as drink bottles and glasses to relate back to the alcohol theme and all the characters are in some form showing a bad mistake due to their actions, the camera and editing is use to convey a reality style drama with the consistent close ups of the characters to show their emotions to the audience.

Mainly cut transitions are used to keep up with the pace of the story.

Each of the four characters in the scene are used to portray young adults of society and their approach to alcohol.