Deep It – Log 5

short film

Directed by Teddy Nygh

Introduction

Deep it is a drama based short film about a teenager called Miles telling a story to a group of other teenagers about a traumatic experience that happened to him. The story is an awareness film about teenagers who carry sharp weapons around with them for protection. Rather what this story is putting out there is that just because you say you have it to protect yourself, you may end up using it for something else you may regret for the rest of your life. That is the reason why I chose to study this film, because I believe in the message that it’s telling us.

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I found Kadz and Mile’s interesting because the director has used music to show Mile’s feelings towards Kadz to show how important a best friend is. For the first time we see Kadz and the main character (Miles) together we can tell that they have been friends for a long time. From the way they talk to each other and always back each other up in conversations, it’s obvious these two have a deep relationship. Leading up-to the bridge scene though, we learn more about Cory (the bully), and how scary his character is. Then during the fight scene between Cory and Miles, Kadz chooses to run away from the situation instead of doing the right thing and taking the hit. This is where we hear intense music starting to play as Mile’s aggression begins building up (including the fact that he saw Kadz run). We hear this intense music through the next part of the film until Kadz is stabbed then the music turns to a soothing sad song right as Mile’s starts to realise his best friend had just been stabbed. The music used throughout the film tends to relate to the miles emotion towards kadz. After Mile’s is hit he says to Kadz  “The fact that you left your boy, who’s been there since day one?!”. He says this very intensely towards Kadz showing that Miles is really pissed off with Kadz, and the music at the start of the scene at the time is intense and backs up Miles’ feeling towards Kadz. Right when kadz gets stabbed Miles instantly goes to help saying “kadz, kadz, hey, hey, hey”, Panicking as he is so full of emotion. Right as you see his face realise what really just happened, as his face turns into a more upset and stressed out look, the music turns soft expressing Mile’s is now feeling depressed and sad about what just happened to his friend. The director used the music to express Mile’s feeling towards Kadz during the film. I think this was suitable as having a best friend is like having a guardian, or something you feel super connected to, and the director has shown Miles feeling of connection between him and Kadz, through the music. I can relate to Kadz and Mile’s as I am lucky enough to have best friends and I think society feel the same way. It’s always good to have someone you can trust and know will help you. There’s no denying that the director used kadz and Miles’ relationship to show the importance of having a best friend during this film.

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The director used this film’s music to express the message that actions always have consequences. Parents in the world today try to teach us how to avoid bad things as they will always have a consequence. During the film we see Kadz choose to run away from his problem, in return his friend ends up getting hurt. Kadz would’ve known he was in the wrong and he did a bad thing. Later on we see Kadz gets stabbed as a result of making that one stupid decisions. The director is using this problem during his film to show that making a bad decision will always leave you with bad consequences. He uses the music to once again back this idea up. During the first fight between Mile’s and Cory intense music begins playing almost indicating the start of the consequence loop that will come back around and bite Kadz in the ass for choosing to run. Once Kadz gets stabbed soft sad music begins playing, indicating the end of the loop as he has now faced the consequence of his original action. The director has used the music to express the  consequences of bad decisions in this film. It makes me feel more careful as thinking back on it now, the majority of my bad decisions always left me with something bad. I also understand that there are a lot of youth out there that do make bad decisions all the time and don’t care about the consequences. I think if someone like that watched this film they could reflect on themselves and see how bad decisions can lead to nothing but bad consequences. 

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I think that Kadz faced the biggest challenge out of all the characters in the film. This is because Kadz had to calm down Miles who was angry and equipped with a knife. At the beginning of the film we learn that Miles and Kadz have been friends for a long time. Being held up in a life threatening situation by someone would be one of my worst nightmares, and probably a lot of other people’s nightmares. When it happened to Kadz however, it wasn’t a nightmare anymore it was real, and it was one of his best friends. “…Who’s been there since day one…”, Miles said this to Kadz proving they must have been good friends for a long time. Even though we know they have been friends for a long time, Kadz still stumbles to find words to try to convince Miles to stop when he pulls out the knife for example he can only get out “is that you”. This shows us that even if they were brothers it would still be threatening and scary for someone to pull a knife out on you. I think the director Teddy Nygh used this scene to show us that even though you may only be walking around with knives for self defence, it can still scare someone deeply no matter who it is and you should avoid doing it. It makes me feel grateful that I live in an area of the world where people don’t have to walk around with guns and knives as we all trust each other. This scene made me more aware of the fact that there are a lot of kids out there who need to be extra careful of who they mess with. I think this is what the director was trying to express through Kadz challenge of facing Miles who was equipped with a knife.

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I think the title, ‘deep it’, didn’t fit the film’s meaning. For a film with such an important message (youth violence) I think they could have thought of a more catchy name then deep it. When I hear the name deep it I don’t really think much about it. It doesn’t make me think it’s going to be a short film about youth violence, and there’s no catchy words in it I find it quite bland. I think if I heard a name like ‘Don’t Crack’ (referring to that point where some teens usually crack and decide to start fighting for theme-selves) I would be way more interested in what it could be about. This is because Don’t crack sounds menacing and intense, therefore pretty entertaining. Also I think a good title should give some clue to what the film is going to be about. Something like don’t crack refers to the point where Miles decides he’s had enough and gets the knife. When I saw the title deep it I had no idea it was going to be about youth violence, I thought it was going to be about surfing. While a title like don’t crack, would make me think it’s about something quite scary or thrilling, which can relate to the scene where Kadz has to face Miles who is equipped with a knife as that is very scary. Therefore I believe a title like don’t crack would be more appropriate for a film like this one then deep it. It would not only be more eye-catching but also give a bigger clue to what the film is about, I think a lot of other people would agree to this and so do I. 

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I would recommend this film to 14 to 17 year olds because the message expressed in this film (bad decisions have bad consequences) is very useful to them. Teenagers now-days tend to be very easily influenced, I know this because just this year I have gone through multiple phases of attitudes I’ve copied from famous people, and I think a lot of other teenagers could relate to me. Being this susceptible to influence we need to have the knowledge to know whats wrong and right and know that wrong decisions can lead to poor outcomes. The director of this film has given examples of this throughout the film. For example as a teenager when I saw Kadz get stabbed, and know he could have avoided it all by not owning up-to Cory, it made me realise that making poor decisions will always catch back up-to you. Another example of when the director has expressed this idea in the film through Cory perspective. For the majority of the film Cory acts like the man, calling everyone losers up until the point where he see’s Kadz had stabbed himself and his face is full of shock and innocence. It shows even the people who always look like they get away with everything will eventually end up doing something stupid they’ll regret. The director has shown that stupid decisions will only lead to poor outcomes through his film deep it. It makes me feel more I should be more careful of decisions I make as i know bad decisions will most likely lead to bad outcomes. I understand teenagers are known stereotypically to not think things through enough, and I think this film may help teenagers to begin looking at all angles of a decisions.