'Where Have I Been All Your Life' Analysis

The narrative of ‘Where have I Been All Your Life’ is driven by binary opposites to some extent. This is since the husband is seen to be unfaithful compared to the faithful wife, which is later shown to be inaccurate. Furthermore, Mulvey’s male and female gaze theory comes into context with this short film as a part of representation, because the husband is not frowned upon for having cheated, whereas the wife is. The male characters also dominate he female characters in tis short film which supports this theory. Jenkins’ theory involving genre also plays a part in this short film since it is a hybrid of various genres, such as drama and comedy. This highlights the theory as it is modern and has no fixed structure. Blumler and Katz’ theory that states that the audience can relate to a character or their situation can also be applied to ‘Where Have I Been All Your Life’ as an audience theory. Furthermore, some spectators may be in a similar situation to the main character, or the comedic parts may also allow them to relate in some way. Since the short film is a drama too, the audience may become emotionally involved in certain characters too, or even their situation in some cases.

The mise-en-scene of ‘Where Have I Been All Your Life’ is apt for a short film because it tells the spectator a lot about the characters and the setting in a short space of time. For example, the use of costume can often tell the spectator about what type of person each character is. In this short film, the main character is wearing jeans and a t-shirt which could infer that he is not an upper-class citizen. It can also imply that the character is quite relaxed and not posh. Also, setting as an aspect of mise-en-scene can tell the spectator a lot about the short film rom the start. The location of this short film is very urban, and this could tell the spectator that the characters are going to be ‘normal’, everyday people. This can also link to the audience theory as people who live in a similar area to this may be able to relate to it. Natural lighting is also used in this short film which creates a sense of everyday life and normality. This can also help to rule out certain genres from the start, such as horror, as they often have connotations of having little or artificial lighting.