Film Analysis: Unedited Footage Of A Bear

Sydney Johnson

Professor Crisafulli

AR 446-I01

26 March 2023

Semiotics Major Project I

I

Typically titles are used as a clue to what the content is within the work, though nothing can truly prepare someone for the narratives of this video. Unedited Footage of a Bear aired on Adult Swim in November of 2014 at 4 in the morning and was created by Alan Resnick. This short film itself indirectly delves into the topics of depression, motherhood, and addiction. Resnick utilizes film techniques to perfectly capture the gravity of these issues, the true meanings lying in background shots, dialog and small details to capture a piece of the bigger picture. The impact of these problems is captured perfectly in the way that they are personified and unrelenting

In a reference to a Freudian trio, the three Donna’s depicted in the short fit into one of the concepts for the psychoanalytic theory. The Donna from the commercial is the ego, this is the conscious personality, the part she shows in her day to day life. The addicted version of Donna is the id, which is the primal, aggressive, impulsive parts of her personality. The Donna on the phone is the superego which houses the feelings of success but also shame and guilt. There is a scene with two sets of chairs, two large and two small, these signifying a typical nuclear family. Another Donna stands in front of the chairs and raises her hand, shooting at each chair before the final one falls to the ground. With the action of the chair falling, and various clues such as them missing from photographs, it is safe to assume that the father figure is out of the picture. This solidifies the conclusion that Donna is a single mother who must have begun taking Claridryl for her depression but ultimately became

It was first published in 2015 on YouTube, the short animated film also covering topics of addiction and depression within the narrative it creates. A teacher is removed from his job because of a rumor started by one of his students about an armed madman stalking the woods near the school. The parents, not liking the supposed lack of action, got him removed which began his spiral into madness. The teacher begins falling into depression and addiction, seen abusing cocaine and alcohol to cope with the job loss and the crumbling of his life. His outward appearance visibly darkened and aged, his behavior seeming more erratic and aggressive than the calm man from before. This ultimately leads to the teacher traveling back to the school, empty beer bottles discarded in the passenger seat as he decides to travel into the woods himself. The teacher ominously made his way towards the student who started the rumor who was sitting at the edge of the forest, reaching into his jacket pocket with threatening movements. These two videos compare to their coverage over the topics of addiction and depression, and the way it seemingly is able to completely take over someone’s life and turn them into a former shell of themselves. These types of drugs are being used in a way to grant these people relief from the stresses of their daily lives, but if these videos are any