Wrong Game by Manuel Succi (2011)

'Wrong Game' by Manuel Succi produced in 2011 is a 3 minute short film made in the UK by an Italian director. 3 minutes for a short film follows the conventions as they can be as short as that or as long as 15 minutes. This short film was made for the purpose of promoting the director in FilmSshort competition which is common with short films as directors want to become recognised therefore use a lower budget to create a short film that can show off their skills. Also, a purpose of this short film is to educate or raise awareness on children soldiers, especially in Africa denoted by the African characters in the film therefore the director hopes to leave the audience thinking and realise or learn things they have not before. A theme of this short film is war denoted by the soldier characters and the sound effects of guns however the director decided to show children soldiers who are forced to become soldiers without a choice which is a hard hitting theme. Another theme is violence as portrayed by the shot of a soldier holding a gun to a child's head who then has a gun pointing a younger child's head conveying that soldiers use force and violence to make children commit acts of violence on others as to make them heartless.

The short film begins with no score or ambient sounds, but rather silence with white text over black explaining what the definition of "Child" is preparing the audience for a short film having to do with children and perhaps abuse of the term. This is developed more with text over black giving facts about children in countries where there is war as to give some context to the audience before the short film begins. This is an interesting technique to use and could be used in our short film if we decide to produce one that is to raise awareness. This is where a piano acoustic score is brought in which is rather  sad and depressing connoting a short film that is going to have the same mood and atmosphere; one that is not portraying what childhood should which is happiness, laughter and fun. A close up of words on a wall is shown after the quotes at the beginning writing "every child has the right to play" which is then repeated at the end of the short film with a voice over portraying it's importance and that this is the message the director wants to put forward.

'Wrong Game' is different to most common short films which follow the conventions. The director decided to make this short film as an animation however the animations are not the usual, instead these are drawings where kinetic camera work is used to make them look 3D but also certain parts of the images move such as the children on the swings but others do not which is unique. This is effective as it  portrays the theme of childhood as through childhood is when children watch cartoons and animations however this has a twist as it portrays the sad truth and shows violence in the form of animation also which challenges the usual conventions. The piano score mentioned before is played throughout the whole short film but does have ambient sounds and sound effects and has a voice over near the end of the short film of a child speaking about their experience from a child's point of view about being forced to become a soldier. This makes the film seem more realistic and also makes the audience sympathise with the situation.

The director uses colours to convey the mood of the scenes throughout the film. At the beginning he uses bright happy colours to go with the smiling child characters on the swings enjoying their lives, which is then contrasted with dark tones and hues to show how drastically a child's life is changed when they are forced to become soldiers. A technique like this could be used in my group's short film: using colours and hues to portray the mood of a scene at a particular time such as using bright hues and colours if the film is one that is happy or feel good but using dark grey gritty colours like British films tend to do to show realist themes. It would also be an interesting idea to split the film up the way this director did as he made the beginning childlike and innocent, then switched that to depressing and violent, and then switched it back to childlike but with black and white colours to portray a tainted childhood.

Finally, a play on words is used within the voice over dialogue and the title of the film. The beginning as mentioned before mentioned that "every child has the right to play", this is then repeated at the end with the words "but not this is the wrong game" bringing in the title of the film to go with the message of the film that all children should be able to be children and play but the soldiers take advantage and make them play a game they really shouldn't.