Telling Lies

Recently in class I watched a short animated film called 'Telling lies' which is written and directed by Simon Ellis.

It is about numerous phone conversations that take place between the main character, Phil and his mum; Sarah, his ex-girlfriend; Darren, his friend who Sarah had an affair with and Victoria, the Women that Phil had a 'one night stand' with. However, what the characters say is not what they really mean because what they are honestly thinking is written on the screen whilst they are telling a lie. This could be to show that everyone lies at some point, whether it is big or small and that they usually lie either when under pressure or to make a situation better.

Each characters speech has a different colour to imply that they are all individuals who have different thoughts and reactions to the situation. Nonetheless, when a lie is being told, the text of what the character really means is written in white to make it clear that what they are saying is a white lie. A white lie is generally a harmless lie which is told in order to avoid hurting someone's feelings. Font sizes also vary throughout the short film. When a person is shouting, the font size is much bigger in order to reveal their emotions and show that they are angry or very upset.

Personally, I really enjoyed this short film because it explores the discovery of the truth and lets you know what each character really wanted to say. I also like how only animated text was shown on the screen rather than the people themselves as it was much more effective and the audience were less likely to be distracted by background movement.