OBSERVATION 9 – THE ONE WHERE SHE SMILES
The girl stood there diligently waiting for a customer to approach. Her dark hair was pulled back and tied into a loose bun at the base of her neck. A very ill fitting apron was wrapped around her as a poor excuse of a uniform, and her make up was done up perfectly to compliment her bright smile.
She smiled at the multitudes of women and men who would past the kiosk front. Being located underneath the escalators at Melbourne Central Station wasn’t a great place to host a sit-down cafe, but it was effective in catching all the straggling workers and students who needed a quick bite or drink on the go.
“Hi, how can I help you?” she asked a passing woman who was on her phone. The girl was probably in her early twenties, the woman almost twice her age. She ignored the girl, and continued talking on her phone. The girl was unfazed.
A man hurries towards the kiosk shortly afterwards and stands directly in front of the fridge displaying the food available. The girl smiles again, and greets him warmly.
“Hi, how can I help you?” she asks very politely, almost as if it was second nature to her to say those words.
I wonder if she’s said those words over a hundred times this week, maybe even a thousand. Working in hospitality is something I am very familiar with. A few years ago I started my first job doing the exact same thing this girl was doing. Stuck in the middle of a generic food court, located in the corner of a shopping centre, surrounded by other kiosks and stores all doing the same thing. Having people smile at customers, as we wait for someone to arrive and interact with. I remember waiting for hours by the register some days, never getting a customer, but always cheerfully giving the illusion that I was always happy to serve.
The film could be focused on this girl’s regular day to day life. Maybe it starts off with her getting this job, being very excited for the new job. Fast forwarding (could also do that to footage as well in the film) to like when she encounters her first angry customer, her dealing with that, but still holing that smile and front. Then fast forwards more into a moment with her gaining more responsibility, like keys to manage the store alone, and her smile being more genuine. But then she becomes more weary of the job. Fast forward more until you see her start to break that smile, or the actor just smiles less happily. Now it’s just a front of a smile, no real passion behind it. That fake smile gets more and more empahsized, and eventually she gets to a customer that annoys her, a customer that is constantly complaining. She finally drops that smile.
A possible aesthetic choice was to only frame her mouth in these sequences. We never really get to her eyes. It could just be a medium close up on her lower face and shoulders. The background would have to be very purposely done, with props and setting playing a huge influence on what we observe, although the phrase “Hi, how can I help you?” already alludes to a customer service/hospitality role. We can just gather that she is new. Even her name badges could change from trainee, to a supervisor, to a manager and so on. Doing this, and disassociating the person from the smile, we only judge the smile now, and so we focus in on that. And hopefully create a film that shows when a smile no longer is a true smile.