Task 2 - Research Into Existing Products: Lynne Ramsay research - Gasman

Lynne Ramsay is a Scottish director raised in Glasgow. Having studied Photography at Napier College in Edinburgh, it always seemed that she would eventually make the leap from photos to film. Ramsay's Gasman shows a brother and a sister spend Christmas night away from their mother and instead with their father who introduces the children to his step children. 

The opening of the film shows various close-ups of each member of the family getting ready for some kind of formal event. The mother cleaning the children's shoes as she demands her children to get ready, the son presenting his vulnerability in using the sugar to play with, which also links with the Christmas songs playing in the background presenting a clear time of year. Close ups on the girls feet and legs as she gets ready as the shot lingers on, helps to create a sense of innocence with this character. This point is further emphasised with the girl saying 'There is no place like home', quoted from The Wizard of OZ, thus comparing herself to Dorothy who is living in a fantasy world, something most children like to do for fun.

The mother's strain with dealing with family life is shown in the short and aggressive responses she gives her children 'Just stand still, come on', 'Go get your coat'. This could suggest that they have an unstable family environment due to the fact the husband has had/is having an affair which the wife is aware of, thus putting an unstable relationship across the entire family. The slow pan to the mother looking at her children from the window could suggest that she feels anxious about her children going with their father, due to the fact she's unaware of him at this time.

The seemingly endless railway tracks show a large level of significance as it can symbolising the family's endless hopelessness and inability to change their current lane, assuming they'd be stuck in this family situation forever.
The vignette around the frame of the shot also suggest that darkness and lack of hope is holding the family back from happiness.


The brother and sister's reaction to the other little girl suggest that, despite the character's being represented as innocent and having limited child like emotions, they in fact call the other little girl 'ugly' and a 'tramp'. This is the first time the children express emotions that are similar to that of adult emotions, the later scene being the small fight between the girls in contrast to the adults who are drinking and socialising. These two scenes stand out as being very significant as it shows the potential effect of a dysfunctional family on the children caught in between. The adults relationship is also presented within this scene also as the man is clearly in love with this other woman which he shows in his defeated his face after he presents her with little to no money, and also as he attempts to touch her hair as a sign of affection, the extreme close-up emphasises he learn away from his hand as she pulls away out of frame.

A little while later, the group finally arrives at the slightly rundown pub where the Christmas party is being held. Shots of children playing together, focusing on the childhood interaction, inter-spliced with close ups of the father in the foreground quite clearly "drowning his sorrows" with beer. The slow panning across the room conveys a sense of intoxication over the adult characters, thus paving the way for the chaos between the two girls to take place unchecked. The quick cuts emphasise the point of the adults choices of getting drunk having an affect on the children, as perhaps if they weren't drunk then the girls wouldn't have fought. The neglect and lack of hope is shown in the father's attention to his drink and cigarettes rather than breaking up the fight between his daughters.

As the film comes to a close, the mother and father meet at the tracks again but no words are exchanged between them and choose to walk in different directions. Connoting that despite the man's efforts of affection towards the woman, he knows it's a futile attempt. As the two parties separate, the brown haired girl runs back to pick up a rock and almost throws it at the mother and daughter, copying what her brother did earlier in the film. This can also suggest that children as just as capable as expressing adult feelings (jealously, hatred, anger), as expressed earlier, despite having been represented as innocent and vulnerable.