Wasp

How does 'Wasp' fit into the category of a Single Camera Production?

Wasp is a short film which follows single mother, Zoe, who is struggling to cope with poverty as she lives with her four children in Dartford. It is a single camera production for many reasons. All of which make it very fitting for this particular method of production.

Firstly, the aesthetic is very important in Wasp, and creates an atmosphere which heightens the elements of the film that I believe director, Andrea Arnold, wanted to highlight. This is primarily the element of poverty which is the theme around which the film revolves. To bring this theme to life through the aesthetic would require good lighting and sound techniques. These filmmaking tools were used to great effect as they created a very real and visceral feel by heightening the grittiness of poverty.

The sound for example, created a good atmosphere that complimented the poverty in the film. Dialogue was important and helped depict the lower class characters we are presented with, but Arnold also had to use ambience and even the soundtrack at one point to help with the exposition too. An example of this is where the song Hey! Baby, a song that seems typical of a lower class society to listen to, was featured to make obvious the class Zoe belongs to.

The film was also shot using a hand-held camera, which brought its own benefits to the table. This was namely how it complimented the real and visceral world of Dartford that Arnold hoped to create, and again, handheld camera is a single camera technique.