Thursday 22 September 2016

Harry McHale - Analysis of 'Ambition' directed Christopher Lewis Cook

VIDEO HERE

"Six year old Thomas has an ambition, an ambition to save up his pennies to buy himself a toy from his favourite toy shop. Once his piggy bank is full, Thomas is confronted with a dilemma and has a big decision to make"

The short film begins with a high angle medium long shot of what appears to be a family coming out of there house on mild day. In terms of mise en scene, the costumes of most the characters suggests they are going out on a family outing. One of the charcters, 'Thomas', a young boy, is wearing blue jeans and a green rain coat; this indicates that this is set on the weekend as he's not in school uniform which is what you would expect a young boy like Thomas to wear on weekdays.

As a spectator, we asumme that this family outing is probably something along the lines of going to town or going for a walk somewhere. The lighting seems to have manipulated in editing in order create a positve mood: a calm tranquil non-diegetic sound helps emphasise this.  The shot pans down and zooms into a close-up of a penny; the spectator will question the importance of this penny and what it foreshadows in terms of plot or narrative. As Thomas picks up the penny and the camera pans back up to his face, the title appears onscreen in a soft, simple font, suggesting the film to follow a similar trait; adopting a possible convention of the genre type.

A close up of Thomas in his room placing the penny in his piggy bank connotes a begining to the plot of this short film; this leaves the spectator wondering where this short film will take us. The title of this movie 'Ambition' implies that the boy has something he wants to save up to; a 'ambition'. This links to a generic representation of social realism in Britain as it is common for children to want to save money in order to get something they want; the audience can most likely relate to this therefore making the short film more enjoyable as it brings a sense of nostalgia.

As the film progresses, Thomas finds himself earning extra money from other sources such as finding pennies down the back of his parent's car seats as well as doing chores around the house which he gets 'pocket money' for, for example, a long shot of thomas cleaning the what appears to be living room with a vacuum whilst his dog sits out of the way on a chair.

Thomas' activites contradict the stereotype of children that is all they want to do is play around, no child wants to do household chores. However, this also shows a child's determination to get something they want; the audience will most likey be able to relate to this which creates a special connection between the audience and the film.

At various points in the film, various shots (mostly close-ups) of Thomas' piggy bank keep us, the spectators, on track with Thomas' progress torwards his goal; his 'ambition'.

Once Thomas has saved enough money to buy his prized possesion, he is immediately faced with a difficult dilemma or a disruption to the equilibrium in terms of Todorov's theory. As he apporaches the toy store, a cut to a mid shot of Thomas' facial expression implies shock and grief. We cut to a POV shot which chows a man dressed in a dog costume holding a bucket for charity to help disowned dogs. A brief pause in the scene shows the boy looking back at the shop at the one toy he wanted, before turning back and facing the man in the costume. A close up of the man in the costume before a shot reverse shot of the boy again, indicates to the audience the connection between the two characters, making us emphasise with the boy, before a close up of the bucket with the picture of the disowned dog on the front is used to also emotionally attach the audience with the situation.

We then see Thomas walk up the bucket before a close up shot shows us the money falling into the bucket as he atempts to fix the disruption in the equilibrium. It's this close up of the money falling into the bucket which really places the emphasis of the boys ambition. For ages he had wanted to save up for the toy, yet in the end it wasn't worth it and he figured that it should go to a good cause, making the audience sympathise. Thomas then turns back to his mum with a smile on his face; indicatating a new equilbrium has been created. The scene fades the black and the credits role up, indicating the end of the film.

What I like about this film is the nostalgia of it and how well it connects with the audience with elements of nostaglia. The audience really focus on the story which despite the dilemna, the story has a happy ending and has a moral story behind it. I also like how the title of this film works really well with the narrative of the film. I would like to create a connection between the film and the audience in the production stage of my advanced portfolio.



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