Tight Jeans (2002) - Fourth Set Work Review

Title: Tight Jeans

Year: 2002

Director: Destiny Ekharaga

Running Time: 9 minutes

Genre: Light Comedy

My genre specific expectations were met for once; Tight Jeans definitely lives up to it's given genre of light comedy. I certainly chuckled at the stupidity of it. It's funny because it's true: this is a very realistic screenplay - I've heard similar conversations myself - and it manages to make you laugh, but also contain slight serious undertones that make you think... but then make you laugh again. Tada! A light comedy.

The natural lighting and colours, and lack of music throughout dialogue create a general play-like feel, along with the simple, limited camera work and lack of set and character composition changes. This adds to the realness of it and, even though it's obviously structured using film specific elements (e.g. the marketplace and the playground setting the scene and showing the passing of time, as well as the camera movement helping the audience to follow the narrative and the use of zoom and quick cuts between the lads to accentuate certain sections) it would definitely be at home on the stage, which is one of the things I personally enjoyed most about it.

If I was to take anything from Tight Jeans to inspire my own work, it would be the dialogue and the way it flows really naturally like your average, unplanned conversation between a group of teens/young adults (of the time and place).

It's not my favourite short film that we've looked at, but it's really cleverly executed and definitely worth a watch (especially for a comical nostalgia kick from the early 2000s).