'This Is The Life' By Craig Devine short film analysis

The start shows a very straight-forward title of 'This is the Life' shown is white on a black screen to give ultimate clarity. Also this could've been done to reflect the film its self as simple and very clear.

The first scene is of a clearly average family in the morning, mom in dressing gown and kids in their school uniforms. It has been shot in such away that we can see all the characters, like an establishing shot that sets the scene very well as we also have a clear view of the layout of the kitchen. Its also at such an angle that it looks like we are actually there in the kitchen sitting next to Deanna, almost like fly-on-the-wall.

After the establishing shot we cut to a close up of the mother's face so we can see her facial expressions and from this we can gather the kind of mood she is in which looks stressed, rushed and can tell us more about their mood.

The sound track to this film enters in towards the end of the scene as a prompt to let the audience know that particular scene is about to end and cut to another sequence. Also known as a 'Sound-Bridge'. The non-diagetic soundtrack continues as we see a montage of rather long shots showing the brother and the sister and their close relationship that they have, as she takes him out in a trolly to probably cheer him up. During this montage of long shot with just them we get an insight to their local area and from this we can findout more about their social class and position, and from the back-drop we gather they are probably from a rough area so we assume they are a working class family. Even the rubbish on a drive way can say a lot about an area.

We get the feeling that the father has been absent for a while and is later confirmed when he talks with his patrol officer that he spent some time in prison. So he has returned and getting back into family life, we even see the family having tea in the lounge which probably isn't a regular occurance it's only as a one-off because of his return. This is done as a low-angle shot.

The dad is struggling to get back into the father-role by being late to pick up his son from school. Shot-reverse-shot is been used to show the characters feelings and facial expressions via the close-ups, Dean looks a bit annoyed and fed-up whilst his father looks sorry and apologetic.

In an attempt to make it up to Dean he lets him drive his car in a car park, at this time we hear the sound-track along with the father egging his son on to drive the car and keep turning the wheel. We see a mini montage of shot reverse shot again of the dad and his son, the moods of them both have changed as Dean is smiling.

The arrival of the father isn't really making the Mother very happy as we see when the dad returns home and doesn't take any notice to any of them.

The father is starting to really build the relationship with his son which seems to be strained whereas the sister Deanna is happy with her dads arrival. Quality time is spent with Dean is a make-believe boxing match between them both and father letting Son win.

The Father clearly wants to make ammends with his children, and genuinely seems like a changed man to what we can imagine he was like before prison. Prison had a positive affect on him making him a better person.