Film Essay

Taya, a Filipino short film about a boy learning to play traditional Filipino games with his new friends. 

The film was made to show how the traditional Filipino games were connected to their reality. The producers of the short film showed us that these games, that many Filipino kids used to play, reflected our harsh reality. The two brilliant producers of this short film used, Dialogue, Steadicam shot, Cross-cutting and a Close up shot to show the meaning of the film. 

The use of Dialogue was used logically in this brief film. Their use of words and how they easily explained how the traditional Filipino games ties in with the kids’ reality were cleverly established. 

This is demonstrated at the beginning of the film where they foreshadowed that the short film was not going to be a lighthearted movie about a kids life. The used of Dialogue help me understood that there was going to be a deeper meaning to the film.  

The director did this to show us that words and how they are used can have a big impact on the film. 

This worked well with the film aspect, foreshadowing since they were able to hint about something happening. This technique can be juxtaposed with the foreshadowing of Tony Stark (Iron Man) dying. Since his death was foreshadowed before he even fought Thanos.

Another film aspect that was used in this film was a Steadicam shot. The use of this film aspect was smoothly placed. A Steadicam shot was used when the new kid and his group of friends ran out of their house. This shows the audience that the kids are carefree and don’t know much of what’s happening around their country. The purpose of this was to show that the kids are having a fun time being free and doing what they want to do with their friends.

The director did this to show how freedom felt like with these kids. Coinciding with this shot was the music that was used. The music that was used further foreshadowed that the short film was not gonna be a joyful kids film. This aspect can be compared to the shot where the kids were running away from the zombies, making the chase scene more intense.

Additionally, the film aspect of Cross-cutting was also used in this film. Cross-cutting was used to relate how the traditional Filipino games were almost identical to the bad circumstances occurring around them. This helped me realize that the actions that they are doing in the games they played, correlates to the stuff that protestors are doing. The purpose of this was to show that some situations can be similar to other situations. The director intelligently did this by showing the games, the kids are playing then Cross-cutting to protestors throwing rocks at the police. This worked well with the music in the background. It added the effect that what was happening in our society is very saddening and we had to resort to violence. This can be compared to the last scene where the camera cuts to the kids’ feet to show they were all running and were doing the same action at once.

The last film aspect that was utilised was a Close up shot. For example, they used this type of shot when the zombies, which was the kid’s imagination, were trying to break into the house. This makes the audience feel more frightened and grossed out at the zombies. The director did this to make the scene, even more, scarier than what it already is. Coinciding with this shot was a piece of intense music going on in the background. This shot can be compared to when the scene came up of the kids getting near the camera to show their interest using facial expressions.

The two producers of this film did an outstanding job producing the short Filipino film ‘Taya’. With the use of Dialogue, Steadicam, Cross-cutting and Close up shot, they made a wonderful film that showed how similar the games were to reality.