Themes & Issues Analysis

'I Miss You' is a short social realism film. I chose this for my Themes & Issues analysis as it deals with a common subject that is dealt with in the social realism genre. This film deals with the breakup of a relationship. This issue often comes up in films and is, essentially, a genre on it's own. Via the boy's email to the girl, the film tells the story of a good relationship which broke up for unexplained, but apparently valid, reasons. The romance that occurs in the film is what drives the plot and is often an important factor in social realism films. The extent to which this is used changes depending on the decided focus of the storyline.

 

'I Miss You' is a good example of a film that doesn't stray from one plot device throughout, in this case romance, and I think it's important to have that concentration in a social realism film. By dealing with one major theme and issue in a film, it streamlines the story which enhances the viewing experience for the audience. If it's too complicated, with many themes and issues, then it may be confusing to the viewers which would cause them to lose concentration and, subsequently, interest in the film. 'I Miss You' is also a short film, and so it can't fit too many themes and issues in anyway, but some filmmakers might try to do that, even in short films. Overall, it's important to remember that short films are best when streamlined, dealing with one issue, rather than trying to make a massive action film, for example, that's five minutes long.

 

I think it's of great importance that, when making our film, we avoid any diversions in plot and focus on one aspect of the social realism genre and stick to that. 'I Miss You' epitomises that the key to making a great short social realism film is streamlined themes and issues, as adhered to by the monologue. As a result, the best way to keep to this standard structure is to not have too many characters in our film, so to not let the storyline get distracted and complicated. 'I Miss You' also does this with it having only two main characters, any other people in it, essentially, being minor extras who are just in the background of some of the scenes.