Research Task: "Lou - Lou Lives Here" Hazel Grian 2003 ( Digital Short - British Film Council) - Priya Ahluwalia

Q1. Identify the Genre/s or styles used:
"Lou - Lou lives here" uses mystery as the main genre of the short film. This keeps the audience engaged in the piece as well as the audience thinking what will happen next. The piece is very dark and is shown to be in a dogs point of view, as dogs can only see things in black and white. The girl is seen to have a dark secret and is more than what meets the eye. The short film starts with a small girl in a frock laying on the ground in the country side, she sees a wound in her leg and decides to lick it, this behaviour can be linked to the behaviour of dogs making a link between the two. Sounds that they have used are very naturalist. When the film first starts you hear a plane flying over but the you don't actually see the plane itself, showing the country sides they have used birds flying over and making sounds.

Q2. How does the film use its Genre conventions uniquely?
The unique part of the film is that the representation of the dog is seen though a girl but with the point of view of the dog and with giving her all the personalities that a dog would have make the audience think. Example of this would be in the beginning when the girl sees a wound on her knee and decides to lick it, also in the end sequence you see the dog running home and there is a small dissolve with the girl running and then it goes back to the dog running.

Q3. How does the film use the short film format?
The narrative of the film is normally shown by the way that the film would structure itself. Such as in the beginning if the film would introduce the characters and give a hint of what the story would be, however in this piece it does not state what is going to be happening next as well as the audience still confused and asking questions whether the dog is the human girl or if the girl is the dog?

Q4. What do you find interesting about the use of sound?
The sounds are used to create a naturalistic feel as it makes the piece believable with the of use both diegetic and non diegetic sounds. They have used sound as the hawks flying as the setting is in the country side. Other sounds include the car coming to a stop, the heavy breathing of the girl and the helicopter flying above but it is not seen.

Q5. Themes and issues representation:
The main issue that was used in this short film was that young girls should not walk alone and that everyone has a dark secret that is not reviled unless it is necessary.