Stew and Punch - Contextual Research - Short Film

Stew and Punch

Since Soft i have really fallen in love with Simon Ellis's work. Another short film that i wanted to review by Ellis is 'Stew and Punch' this short film really expresses and challenges stereotypes. We have these 2 characters that we are introduced with at the beginning we can clearly see they have just moved in and are very romantically tied together, they decide to throw a dinner party for their friends to welcome everyone into their new loving home. Stew and Punch is a short film that challenges social pressures of masculinity. Ultimately it is the ability for anyone to relate to the position of the protagonist finds himself in that makes Stew and Punch the humanistic triumph that it is. We can always see the man staying in the kitchen and cooking the entire feast for the night while the lady goes out to talk and party with her friends. 

We are welcomed with the first conflict when Alex welcomes Samantha's best friend in who seems very muscular and well presented. We as an audience can already tell that Alex is already a little bit irritated by him. When we finally sit down at the dinner table Alex seems to just server all of Samantha's friends the entire night, his masculinity is already challenged in this scene because we expect him to be sitting down a talking to his male friends and drink. When the scene carries on Samantha decided to start arm wrestling all of her friends and asks Alex to join, Samantha seems very confident in winning and we as an audience starts to question if Alex will win or not because we still feel as he has some masculinity in him. But when Alex looses he gets very frustrated and embarrassed in front of all his friend especially when Samantha looses to his male friend that he despises. We start to feel bad for Alex because Simon Ellis wants us to know that Alex might not be as masculine as his friend but he is trying to impress all his friends and make the right kind of impression on everyone. 

Throughout the film we can see Alex hugging and being romantic with Samantha trying to show that he is madly in love with her and is trying his best to make it the best night ever just for her. Alex seems to always be left behind in the kitchen or dining room it seems like no-one ever wants him around, we feel like he is neglected. This has really influenced my own work in a way to not always stick to stereotypes but to challenge them to make sure that your audience seems interested and wonders why you have chosen to do it that way. What Stew and Punch also has thought me is that you can film an entire short film in one location and make it as interesting as a normal film that is located in many locations. Ellis focused more on the characters rather than the atmosphere and location which was actually very important, this way it makes a very engaging story. My movie was mostly filmed in 1 location just like Stew and Punch in a house/apartment, i wanted to also focus on characters emotions and how they are living rather then focusing on locations and pretty cinematography. The camera work Simon Ellis used also expressed the way that the character felt, the close ups and the camera tracking the characters movements it really placed us as an audience in the film. I have always been impressed with Simon Ellis's work due to his attention to detail and characters emotion in each and every short film.