About a
Girl
At the
beginning of the sequence spectators are presented with a black screen where
the title appears on screen in the style of a text, edited to imitate a text
message being written. As each letters are being typed the off-screen diegetic
beeping sound that a phone keypad makes is played synchronously along with each
letter appearing on screen. 
The
spectators are then presented with a long shot set in the location of a field
or park with the main protagonist dancing and singing to a Britney Spears song.
This informs us that she listens to stereotypically ‘girlie’ music and enjoys
rehearsing the choreography to it.
This is then followed by a series of tracking
shots focusing on the teenage girl, the composition of the shot is mainly shot
from the side of the protagonist which gives the impression that the camera is
her friend 
walking
with her and listening. The tracking shot is interrupted by a series of jump
cuts which shows discontinuity in the sequence as the protagonist is talking
about her life at a very fast pace. The series of jump cuts also support the
fact that her thought process is very chaotic and constantly changing. The
characters dialogue is presented through a Mancunian accent and is accompanied
by the use of slang suggesting that she is of a low working class background. 
The
sequence continues with a montage of flashbacks through the use of parallel
editing. In these flashbacks we are presented with a three shot of the main
character on her phone whilst her mum is playing a scratch card. This type of
cultural practice is common in people from a working class background as the
scratch card holds the possibility of their life improving which a lot of
working class people wish to happen. 
The
sequence follows with the female protagonist talking about her parents, as she
does this the scenery that surrounds her supports the fact that she is living
in a poor area as the buildings are derelict and covered in graffiti. 
In one of
the flashbacks where she is sitting across the table from her dad in a cheap
café, constructed as a two shot she says “I’m not a kid”, suggesting that she
sees herself as a grown up and eager to be treated like one. 
As the
protagonist talks about her dad the shot is captured in the size of a medium
close up revealing that she is walking next to a canal. This then cuts to a
flashback of her sitting outside the pub the shot zooms out into a medium long shot
revealing that she is alone and isolated as her dad and the rest of his friends
are inside the pub. Suggested through the off screen diegetic dialogue of
cheering and yelling, while she is sitting alone listening to music. This highlights
the fact that her age (thirteen) makes her excluded as she is classed as child
and so her dad doesn’t view her as important. 
After the
pub scene the camera then cuts to her singing with her friends on the bus the
four girls are presented in a 2 shot that converts between them all, the shot
is constructed through the use of a handheld camera as this conveys a more
casual approach and goes with the low working class style of the film. The
girls are rehearsing and singing together which suggests that the female
protagonist is to some extent a typical teenage girl. However, none of the shots with her friends
involve them talking about serious and personal issues that they may have. This
implies that her friendships are based around light hearted subjects rather
than real issues.
During the present time when the protagonist is talking to
the camera; her dialogue reveals that she swears a lot which suggests that she
isn’t very feminine and polite like the social expectation that is expected of
girls in society.
Towards the
end of the sequence the viewers are presented with a medium long shot of the
female protagonist sitting on the canal bridge with a bad next to her, her body
language suggest that she’s sad and upset.
Later in the sequence there’s a high angle shot of the girl standing
near the edge of the canal with the bag the shot then cranes above her as if
it’s someone looking down at her. This cuts to a close up where her facial
expression looks sad when she says “Gotten dead good at hiding things from her
since then”. This suggests that she has a secret and that she doesn’t have a
good support system at home to be able to talk about it. Again, suggesting that
her relationship with her family isn’t very good.
When she
dumps the bag in the canal this is shown from a worms eye view it suggests that
she has dumped her secret in the canal. From a high angle she says “I’m still
gonna have a 99” suggesting that she doesn’t have the emotional maturity to
deal with her secret and wants to distract herself. 
This then
cuts to a worm’s eye view where you see a new born baby covered in blood float
out of the bag and down past the camera. When analysing this the fact that she
said earlier that her mum “Got the neighbour to put it (a new born puppy) in
the canal” suggests that she has interpreted and handled this situation, which
is much more serious in the same way. Further implying that she doesn’t
understand the complexity of the actions she is taking to handle this
situation; a result of her age.
Overall, the representation of the protagonist as a whole is
that she comes from a ‘broken’ family and is of a working class background so
her support system isn’t very good. The fact that she’s only thirteen and in
this type of situation positions the viewer to sympathize with her as she
obviously doesn’t have the emotional ability to handle the situation in the
correct way. Also at a young age our ways of communicating verbally are more
limited than adults and we haven’t learnt the words to express how we feel. However,
it is also true that even though she is of a young naïve age, she should still
know right from wrong.
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