Pre-Production Research Film 5 - 'Ambition' - christopherlewiscook via Virgin Media Shorts - By Joe Blissett

'Ambition' - christopherlewiscook
Virgin Media Shorts
"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"
Genre: Family
____________________________________________________________________________

The sequence begins with a high angle long shot of a family emerging from their family home on what we assume to be a weekend day. We can tell this from the way the family are dressed, but in particular the young boy who is named 'Thomas'. Thomas is wearing blue jeans and a big green rain coat, and this is what indicates to us that this is unlikely to be set on a week day, as Thomas would probably be wearing school clothes, such as trousers as well as probably holding a book-bag of some sort or carrying a rucksack, none of which are seen at the point. Also because of Thomas' age, we can assume that he is likely in infant or junior school and so we could assume that the lighting of the scene may well be lighter if it was on a school day, because it would be morning. However because this is not the case, we, the audience, assume that it is a weekend and that the family are going out for a walk somewhere, probably to the town or to a shop. The lighting of the scene does appear to be brightened, implying a positive mood, and the calm soothing non-diegetic sound also helps connote this. The shot then pans down and zooms into a penny, potentially creating the emphasis of the penny itself, making the audience wonder where the film will lead because of this. As the boy (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 that penny into his piggy bank indicates some sort of beginning of a journey, one in which the audience assumes will lead to something climatic at the end... however we aren't sure. However the title itself (ambition) refers to every child's aspiration in saving money to afford something special, such as a toy. This links to the general representation of the social realism in Britain as it is common for children to want to save money in order to get what they want, and so the audience understand this which makes the film more entertaining to watch and more relatable.
As the film progresses, Thomas finds himself earning extra money from things such as down the back of car seats as well as doing household chores around the house, in which his parents give him a couple of pennies each time he does it. This is particularly displayed when a long shot shows Thomas hoovering his front room whilst his dog sits out of the way on a chair. By showing Thomas doing this kind of job it contradicts what the usual association of children is like, however it can also show the accurate example of a child's determination of getting what he wants, something that many parents can relate to, which in turn, achieves the ultimate connection between audience and film.

At many moments in the film, close up shots of the piggy bank indicate to the audience the emphasis behind the final goal of achieving what Thomas wants to get, and around the aspect of without this prized possession, he, like many kids, won't get what they want and won't be happy.
However once he has finally saved up enough to buy what he wants at the toy shop, he is faced with a difficult dilemma. As he approaches the toy store, a mid shot of the boy's face displays one of shock and sadness as he sees a man dressed in a dog costume (appealing to the audience once again) holding a bucket to which the money donated will go towards helping 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 the boy walk up the bucket before a close up shot shows us the money falling into the bucket. 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. The boy then turns back to his mum with a smile on his face before the scene fades the black and the credits role up, indicating the end of the film.

Something I particularly liked about this short film was the lack of dialogue. By doing this, it made the audience focus more on the scene and story, which then in turn also makes them become a part of the story and emotionally attached to the boy's journey, and so it would be good if our group could replicate something along these lines perhaps, but maybe not using the same genre, however this one did work very well.