Short Film Analysis: Alma

Alma
This short film was created by Rodrigo Blaas, who produced this film in his spare time whilst also working on other Pixar projects. Blaas has also helped with past films such as 'Finding Nemo' and 'Up'.

In short, Alma is about a young girl who, whilst walking down a quiet road in France on a snowy winter's day, spots a doll in a shop window who appears to be a look-a-like of herself. Intrigued by this, Alma enters the strange shop to discover a number of other dolls. She tries to reach for the one doll which caught her attention in the first place however ends up getting more than what she had bargained for...

Analysis

From watching this short film, one can see that there are indeed a number of conventions similar to that which are commonly seen in a typical short film.

To start, it is evident that there is only one character throughout the entire film, Alma, whom the short story revolves around. This supports the notion that in a short film, there is normally only one protagonist. Furthermore, the employment of sound has been used very effectively in the sense that it is used not only as diegetic background music but also to show and convey the emotion and reactions of the little girl Alma. For example, when Alma sees the doll which reflects herself in the shop window, the music becomes a bit alarming and eerie to convey a sense of shock towards the audience. Furthermore, the use of camera techniques has a great impact in the short film as it helps reinforce feelings and tension in the animation through the use of close-ups, zooms, hand-held camera, point of view shots etc.

Another reason as to why music is so important is because at the beginning of the animation, it is the music which effectively is used to immediately indicate that the setting/ place is in France due to the sort of music which is played; a traditional French styled composure. Also, the film depends completely on music throughout since there is not a single line of dialogue therefore music, sound effects and visuals are heavily relied upon.

Keeping on the subject of the visuals, this has played a key role throughout the whole film as we learn a number of things through this means. For example, at the beginning of the short film "Alma", we learn of the protagonists name when the young girl writes her name on the window due to the absence of dialogue and any side characters to state it for us. The use of the brief focus on the small boy doll on the bike is also of great importance too as the doll repeatedly trying to get out of the shop but continuously bumping into the closed door symbolizes the idea that Alma is actually in danger and needs to get out of the shop herself. The composition of her when she is in the doll on the shelf surrounded by other dolls also conveys the idea that she is also stuck within this self-representing doll. Lastly, we learn at the end of the short film through visuals that there is in fact a twist to the whole story as another doll portraying a young child magically appears in the same place that Alma's doll appeared and we also see the wall in which Alma wrote her name. Here, as the camera zooms out, the audience realises that all the other names which can be seen actually belong to children who had followed the exact same steps as Alma and are trapped inside doll version of themselves as well.


"Alma" further shows that it sticks to the short film conventions as it is a 'short' film (lasting 5.30 minutes) and that it is an animation proves to show that it crosses the boundaries into animation rather than being a real-life performance.

To finish, the moral of this story simply plays and revolves around the proverb "curiosity killed the cat" meaning no good ever comes out from involving one's self in unnecessary things, as has been clearly portrayed by Alma. And this is another convention which has been adhered to in terms of what can be seen in short films as "Alma" focuses on the one plot/ idea; the proverb.