In the short film “I’m Going to Mums?,” the director, Lauren Jackson forms the film through different aspects such as soundtrack, camera work and symbols. The second act is a good example of these aspects. I chose this act because it portrayed how the director shows divorce through a Childs perspective, also how Jacob takes action against his parents to stop using him and his clothes to argue with each other. In the second act it focuses on Jacob rebelling against his parents. One aspect that stood out for me was the soundtrack.
In this act the soundtrack is a fast Pacifica drumming and it creates suspense. For example when Jacob runs outside and his dad follows him the music is playing then when Jacob falls on the ground and his dad yells that Jacob should listen to him the music stops, this helps to give the feeling of shock and intensifies the scenes tension. This also relates to the scene were Jacob’s mum is taking his clothes off and the soundtrack starts slow and slowly gets faster and faster then when his mum finishes takings all of his shirts off the music stops.
This also gives tension to the scene because the audience doesn’t know if Jacob will wake up and the how the soundtrack speeds up it makes the audience more anxious and when the music stops it gives the feeling of relief The reason the director did this, was so the audience get a better effect of the scenes. Another aspect that I looked at in act 2 and 3 was camerawork. At the start of act 3, we see the start of the scene through a low angle, keyhole view shot to give the effect of seeing the scene through Jacobs’s eyes while he’s wearing a balaclava.
Lauren Jackson did this because it makes the audience feel like they are watching the start of the scene through Jacobs’s eyes. This scene relate to when Jacob is watching his parents argue through the gap in the door and turns to the camera and tilts it down, that signifies that Jacob has had enough and wants his parents to stop arguing with each other. The final, and what I think is the most important aspect of the film, are the symbols.
The main symbol is the clothes because they represent the baggage that the parents have with each other for example when Jacob walks into his mum’s living room she says that he can wear his cool shirt to his dads cause its only clothes so Jacob starts to take his shirts off then his mum says that if his dad shrinks it he can pay for another one so Jacob quickly puts his shirts back on because he is tired of those little comments that his mum or dad makes.
This scene also connects to the end scene were Jacob’s dad is at his mum’s house and they are sitting outside and when Jacob sees that his parents are laughing he looks straight at the camera like they finally are getting along better then he walks outside in just his underwear, this gives the effect that the baggage that the parents have with each other are nearly gone.
This gives Jacob the feeling of that he finally “won” and got his parents to get along better then at the start of the film. In conclusion, looking at the aspects of soundtrack, camera work and symbols helped me understand how Jacob felt while his parents were arguing and left me with the sense of a happy ending.
