"Gasman" - Lynne Ramsay

Gasman is a short film by Lynne Ramsay. It starts with a series of smooth or still quite uncomfortable close ups of the father ('Da') and the children. Da is smoking a cigarette and the young girl is getting her shoes and dress on whereas the young boy is pouring sugar onto his toy car, suggesting he has little interest in going wherever the others are going. We don't see a discernible face until the young girl has successfully put on her dress, leading me to think that she is the main character of this story. The family are mostly shot as close-ups or medium close-ups and none appear in the frame together. This gave me the impression that they may be quite a detached or broken family.

Something I found very interesting was that 'Ma' is not focused on at all. There are two occasions were we almost see her, her face is shadowed when she shuts the front door and in the window her face is obscured by reflections and then faded out. As we are not shown or introduced to Ma at all we assume she is not vital to the story's' narrative. When Da and the children are walking along the old train lines it is the first time any of the characters are shot together, excluding the long shot of them on the street. They are centrally framed and surrounded by a vignette in a very conventional medium long shot. This is extremely contrasting with the close ups at home where they seem detached, they are shown in a very picturesque way as a close family.

They meet with a woman who we learn is a former lover of Da and the mother of two of his children. The shot of Da touching the woman's hair is romanticised by the close-up and use of slo-mo, suggesting he still holds feelings for this woman. The 'new' children appear less well off than the first two, the new girl is wearing her school uniform, the contrast in wealth is made apparent when she tells the old girl she likes her dress.

The party scene was shot in quite a realist way, the use of handheld camera was often shaky and didn't focus on anything in particular in parts. It was very immersive as it was almost as if we were behind the camera at the party observing. The old girl starts a fight with the other as she's sat on her Daddy's knee. As they are walking home and Da picks them both up at the same time I think that the old girl finally understands that these are also Da's children. When she picks up the rock to throw at the other girl she knows that this is her sister and the dropping of the rock is her accepting this.