Sweet Sixteen Breakdown

Yasmin Schmitz

Sweet Sixteen Introduction Analysis

Sweet Sixteen opens at night with a close up of a youth in a baseball cap in a Scots accent. He invited younger children to see the stars for 21p a look. Having established the main character, the camera pans to reveal his sidekick in a medium close up. The low key lighting ratio of 6:! Creates a naturalistic look and suggests a two-sidedness to each of these characters personalities. A handheld camera technique dominates the early section of the film mimicking the body rhythm and excited dispositions of the characters. After locating our star, Saturn, in the second shot, the camera tilts up from one of the young stargazers to frame Liam in a new profiling close shot. This continuing preference for close coverage serves two purposes; to create a sense of intimacy with our main character and to produce an empathetic point of view for the viewers so they can easily share his emotions when they are at their most fragile state.

The two youth surrounded by a group of youngsters automatically creates a stereotype for the viewers. The audience may get the impression that this is a dangerous situation, but as the film progresses, we start to hear calm and tranquil music gradually getting louder in the background. This non-diegetic sound helps to reassure the audience, and tells them that everything is ok. The diegetic sound in the background, people talking, and car engines running, emphasise the verisimilitude of the movie and gives it a naturalistic atmosphere. The dialogue at the beginning of the film is unclear and is not the main focus of the scene. The muffled dialogue contrasts with the busy environment. Being able to focus on the main character reveals a caring side to him and again outlines the emotions he is feeling at the time. The director wants you to concentrate on the atmosphere and characteristics of the protagonists which, in turn, intrigues the audience.

The introduction is quite ambiguous. It involves the audience by making us question the genre of the film. For someone that doesn’t know the narrative of the film, the genre could be seen as a teen thriller. This is because a lot of teen thriller movies start with a group of young people on top of a hill, in the dark, minding their own business. Then suddenly something thrilling and exciting happens. However, if the audience carries on watching Sweet Sixteen, they realise that nothing thrilling happens because it would be unrealistic. This links in with the genre of the movie because it is a very natural scene which forms the genre of social realism.

The light which is used is low key lighting and has very shadowy areas. This is used to make the film seem more natural and realistic because in real life, you wouldn’t clearly be able to see someone’s face at night. Again, the director uses low key lighting which automatically makes the audience think that it could be a horror movie. As the movie progresses, mellow music begins to play in the background causing the viewers impressions to change. The characters are represented in a realistic light which reminds the audience that this is a social realism film. Dim street lights and a faint silhouette of buildings are being seen in the background which tells viewers that they are outside but doesn’t tell them exactly where they are. This helps to include and engage the audience. In addition, it transports the audience into the scene and makes the viewers question their location. The camera zooms out into a wide shot and the setting is revealed. The group of youth are in a park crowded together on top of a grassy hill. The glowing street light and shimmering buildings in the background become a lot clearer and set the mood for stargazing.

In addition to this, I think the characters were placed in this particular setting to create a contrast with the vulgar reputation that Glasgow may have. In this scene, Glasgow is shown as a place where communities of young people look at the stars. This forms a sense of possibility and peace and tells the audience that they want to look further into their lives because they have a great amount of ambition. It also shows us a place where children can be looked after and learn rather than staying out on the streets all night. The protagonists are trying to make money off children by making them pay for a look through the telescope. However, they are giving the children their money’s worth because they are looking after the children and showing them exactly where the stars are. This means that the protagonists have a caring side to them and we can already see that they have good morals. They want to make money, but they do it for the right reasons. The whole scene shows Glasgow in a different light. These children are growing up into a world of endemic poverty, social disenfranchisement and erosion and decay of their community. This scene takes a step away from all the poverty and vulgarity of Glasgow and shows these children experiencing a peaceful and serene moment in their lives.

Most of the introduction is filmed with a handheld camera. This is more obvious in one of the frames where we see the little boy’s point of view as he is looking through the telescope. As we see the boy’s point of view, the camera also focuses in and out of the picture as if we were looking through a real telescope ourselves. This technique helps the audience empathise with the character and makes the film seem more realistic. This is useful in the scene because it follows the humans in a naturalistic rhythm and doesn’t represent them in an over exaggerated manner. The camera then changes from a hand held camera to a fixed camera. This happens as soon as the title of the film shows up. Keeping the camera movement still makes the audience focus on the title of the film, without being distracted by the shaky background. At the beginning of the film, there are a few titles, but they slowly fade away as soon as the images start to begin. The only other time a title shows up, is when the name of the movie “Sweet Sixteen” appears. There aren’t any thrills in the film so far. Most of the introduction is quite smooth and doesn’t jump to any different setting or situation. The overall introduction of the movie is very calm and peaceful and relates to the whole film. It shows youth with morals and ambitions which are then carried on with the rest of the narrative. The scene removes the vulgar reputation that Glasgow has and gives us a different perspective of the town.