1.8 Self-Assessment Film Analysis

• watch the clip closely to determine purpose and film techniques used 

• discuss “how” the technique works or why the choice was made

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1. As the short film opens, the camera blurs and focusses in a __________ shot of a boy’s shoes while other kids tease him.
   
   
2. The camera ____________ up to focus on the boy’s face in a ________________ shot. His unhappy expression matches the poverty of his appearance. His pants are ripped and his shirt is dirty. 
   
   
3. The __________ space beside him on the bench suggests he is alone and feeling ____________.
   
   
4. The scene _______to a picture of the main character standing on a bridge. The reflection of the bridge in the water suggests the boy is __________________. He does not notice the beauty and order of the garden around him because he is so focused on what he does not have.
   
   
5. As a duck flies by, a feather drifts down and the scene shifts in a _________________ shot to another boy sitting on a bench. This suggests the two boys are similar in some way. The __________ space beside the boy on the bench makes the viewer uneasy until the main character steps into the frame to provide balance and order to the scene.
   
   
6. The new boy is well dressed and is wearing brand new black and white shoes. He is smiling. The boy with holes in his shoes returns to the bench.  In a ___________ angle shot, he looks enviously at the other boy’s shoes. He thinks he knows what he wants: the other boy’s shoes.
   
   
7. The ________________ angle canted shot from the other boy’s shoes to the face of the main character makes the main character look _____________ . It foreshadows reality is different than the main character imagines it to be.
   
   
8. The main character’s focus on the shoes he doesn’t have is interrupted by the other boy’s smile and wave. The main character ignores the attempt at friendship.  In a ____________ angle shot, he looks down on his own shoes suggesting the main character feels _______________________________.
   
   
9. The main character sits under a tree and pulls his shoes off.  The camera _______________ in on his hands.  His shoes become puppets to speak his feelings that “life isn’t fair”. The key decision occurs when the boy makes a magic wish “I wish I was like him”.   As a result, the two boys change places.
   
   
10. Both boys are happy that they have switched bodies until in an ironic twist of circumstances, the main character realizes he can no longer walk. The _____________ angle shot of the lady walking toward him to lift him into a wheelchair suggests his perspective is changing again. He now envies his former health. He realizes he took his former legs for granted.         
    
    
11. The film ends with a ___________ shot of the formerly paralyzed boy running and jumping.
    
    
12. The main character made a wish, but he finds the reality does not live up to his fantasy. The _____________shot on the happy boy suggests the main character has come to regret his wish because the shoes came at a cost of something he wanted even more, his health.
    
    
13. The _________________ lines of a rock wall suggest there is an established order or boundary in the universe. The camera focusses on the order and joy in garden while the older lady wheels the main character down the winding path toward the camera. As the main character passes the camera, he clenches his fists and looks disappointed. The moral or timeless universal truth of the modern fable “My Shoes” is that living wisely enables one to be rewarded and living unwisely causes one to be disappointed.