'The Dipper'

A short film is ultimately the telling of a story and this is exactly what ‘The Dipper’ does. Directed by P.J Harling ‘The Dipper’ tells the story of a young pick pocketer that analyses various people on the high street whilst he decides who the ideal one for him to next rob will be.

In the opening scene of the short film there is never a focused shot that is above the person’s waist or as the camera cuts and pans from different people we only ever see the bottom half of their bodies focusing on objects in their hands, what they are carrying and what they are wearing etc. It isn’t until the 29^th second that we have our first focused shot that zooms from an extreme long shot into a close up onto the face of the character who we later learn is to become central. The camera techniques used in this opening scene by Harling create mystery and a sense of enigma from the very beginning and this entices the audience before anything has actually taken place. Throughout this opening scene the character speaks over the loud and fast non diagetic music which brings energy to the scene before anything has even happened because the viewer’s attention is now being drawn as they are anxious to know what is going to happen before it even does.

Throughout this film there is a lot of continuous camera movement particularly panning from the Dipper back to the character he is analysing whilst speaking about that character as well as split screens as we have close ups of certain items. At 1.14 we have the very first close-up of an item – a woman’s purse, ‘Single Mom, probably on benefits. I bet she hasn’t got a pot to piss in’ is what is said over the camera movement, ‘Poor cow. Would hardly be worth the effort,’ he continues to say which insinuates to the audience that the Dipper knows exactly what he is looking for and doesn’t want to disturb the peace of the high street if there is no worthwhile outcome.

Following this there is a close up of a man’s watch ‘Is know what you’re thinking ‘nice bit of bling’...its fake and he is on his way to a job interview,’ is what the Dipper says as the camera focuses on this man who has stopped on the street. The audience is now convinced that this character knows exactly what he is doing and knows exactly who he is looking for because he is good at what he does.

After doing this the man decides on his victim ‘Bingo,’ a lady who is wearing an engagement ring whilst looking in a travel agents window. The audience are now enticed and interested to know how the Dipper is going to approach the woman and as the man begins following her the non-diagetic sound increases pace and the camera sharply pans backwards and forwards in sync with the characters as he moves backwards due to her stopping in the street.

As the film progresses the Dipper makes his moves and purposely knock into the woman causing her things to fall onto the ground however when he helps her pick her stuff up he firstly walks of with the wallet that has fallen from her bag but turns around and hands it back saying, ‘Oh look at me, I’m so sorry Is  nearly walked off with this,’ – this here confuses the audience as we were led to believe this was what he wanted to do all along – steal from the woman. However it is then made clear as when the lady tells him he’s going the wrong way he turns round swiftly and takes the wallet back up from her bag and as they both turn around and meet each other’s eye because she has realised he begins to run.

As he is running away he is stopped by a police man who when asks to look in the wallet he is holding tells him he is on the way to see the owners widow – at this point the camera pans over his shoulder to see the woman he took it from smirking on the embankment. We are then shown a flashback of her helping the man who the wallet had belonged to but then keeping it and her then watching the Dipper herself before he had even noticed her in the high street.

The short film end on a cliff hanger and it is not made clear whether the woman herself had planned to do this to the Dipper all along or whether the Dipper was arrested. The final split screen is the final mystery of the film and there is an unanswered twist which leaves the audience wondering what has happened.

Below are a number of stills taken from the film in order of appearance: