TASK 2: Short Film - Wasp (2003)

Wasp (2003) is a short film by Scottish Director Andrea Arnold. Her success in short films lead to her directing the feature length film Fish Tank (2009). Wasp is set in Dartford and is about a single parent who struggles to find time for herself due to having four children. She goes on a date at a pub and, with no one to take care of the children, takes them with her.

 This first shot shows the children in a group sitting on the grass while Zoe is in the road. This is powerful, as it shows the mother on the potentially dangerous road, while the kids are staying safe, and this could foreshadow that she will make poor decisions.

The shot in the house shows one of the daughters looking into the kitchen where her mother is, but rather than going inside the kitchen, she is holding on the the wall and staring in. This could symbolize a detachment from her and Zoe and could maybe show that the mother has problems with anger and that she is unpredictable.

The shot of the wasp in the window could represent the protagonist Zoe, and the struggle of getting past the glass could show her struggle to maintain a social life whilst being a parent. In this shot she lets the wasp out and this could foreshadow that she is going to turn her back on parenting further on in the film.

The shot here shows all of the children and Zoe running to the end of the path. This could show that she is immature and prehaps not ready to be a parent, and it is also dangerous, as the path is very uneven and she is pushing the baby at a high speed. All of this is Andrea Arnold subtly suggesting to the viewer that Zoe is not fit to look after the children, like earlier when they were fed sugar. This builds up until the ending, where the viewer almost does not feel sorry for her, despite her difficulty with being poor and having children she can't look after, but want the kids to be taken away. This would have been difficult as the story follows Zoe throughout and normally in films a rapport is built with the viewer and the protagonist.