Billy Elliot - Visual Text

Flowchart nodes

• Billy Elliot - Visual text

• Theme

• Gender expectations can be hard but with ambition ambition you can overcome them

• Quote from director

• "easy for people to identify with a story of struggle of any individual, in this case a young child trying to find himself in difficult circumstances."

• By watching the film Billy Elliot, Daldry believes that it "will be able to relate to their own battles in childhood."

• Setting

• England, 1984 miner strike, North east England, Durham coalfeild 

• Theme development through music

• Music reflects the resentment that working-class communities felt towards the goverment policy which threatened there way of life

• Billy's Personality: Liberal, expressive, committed, focused, determined and rebellious

• Theme - That society judges people and pre-determined gender and class steriotypes

• Billy, explores the class stereotypes by wanting to pursue his dream. The Elliot's represent the hardship of working class miners during the mid-eighties in Northern England. The Wilkinson's express the middle class and is practically unaffected by the political developments even though they are also victims of unemployment. Finally the Royal Ballet School shows how the upper class remain indifferent to what was happening

• Billy questions gender stereotypes. Billy struggles against society and his own family. As it was generally believed that ballet is either for girls or gay boys. Both his father and brother are shocked when they find out that Billy prefers ballet to boxing and that his best friend, Michael is gay.  From this Billy never gives up and succeeds in challenging all stereotypes and getting support

• Music: LONDON CALLING by The Clash, Is played around the 9th scene where extreme pressure experienced by the tight working class mining community is exemplified in this scene as tempers flare in a street riot. Police charging through the village and cross cutting between the police and Tony who is being chased down.

• Music:  CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION by T-Rex, Billy struggles against his family, since it it believed by his family that ballet is for girls or gay billy's. His father and brother are shocked and prefer him to do boxing as its a manly sport. Jackie says " Lads do football or boxing, or wrestling - not friggin' ballet!" from this billy questions his fathers logic and says that ballet is "perfectly normal." and that its not for "poofs," but athlets"

• Opening scene: Billy jumping on his bed d dancing to cosmic dancer by T-Rex  

• Ending Scene: Billy leaping on stage at a ballet show, Swan Lake then fade out and cross cut to the opening scence

• This cross cut expresses how far hes come in his ballet journey. 

• Opening scene uses Verbal technique as the lyrics indicate to the audience the movie has something to do with dancing and Visual Techniques as we see billy mving his ody and how happy he is to move.

• Conflicts and Relationships

• The relationships Billy shares with his dance teacher and his fatherare an integral part of his maturation. The director uses these relationships as a means of presenting his coming of age and journey to self descovery. To obtain self expression and fulfilment through dance Billy courageously stands up for his beliefs and rebels against the prejudice of his family and comunity, and society.

• Billy and Ms Wilkinson (dance teacher)

• The relationship between Billy and Mrs Wilkinson is unique and a key element in the film, they spend so much time together and from this together their bond grows stronger as Mrs Wilkinson is sort of a mother figure. Through Billy's journey of doing ballet he discovers and accepts that he different from other boys his age and begins a journey to self discovery. 

• Mrs Wilkinson is an angry and disappointed person but she is the one who identifies Billy's Spark and talent, By challenging billy to stand up for his belief in self expression through dance and his dream to become a ballet dancer despite his social and economic background as well as the conservative expectations of his male dominated family.

• She sees someone that could achieve something that she never could and so she becomes completely obsessed with him, forcing him onward, sometimes partly against his own will. Driving him in order to get the best out of him and believing that he will make it. For her own part she wants to be an element in his success

• Compared to his family she doesn't treat Billy as a child, she makes no change that he is younger and so demands him to train, physically and emotionally.

• The relationship between Billy and his Father. Jackie Elliot is a broken spirited man who finds life hard without his wife who has just recently died, he is fighting the industrial struggle of the miners strike, resulting in poverty and hardship of the Elliot family. Jackie expects Billy to continue the family tradition of remaining in Durham and becoming a miner but Billy feels that the world has so much more to offer him.

• Billy and Jackie Elliot (father)

• Jackie wants Billy to follow the family tradition of boxing and is shocked when he discovers his sons involvement in ballet. From this he considers unsuitable viewing as it is only for gay or feminine boys. This symbolises the issue of the father-son generation gap. Billy and Jackie clash due to their conflicting views of life, gender roles and the future. 

• Jackie gives Billy his support when he sees billy dance for the first time in the boxing hall at Christmas. Billy finds the courage to rebel and revel his talent by doing the "dance of defiance" preforming his audition piece Jackie then realises that his son holds talent and determination to succeed. Jackie overcomes prejudice and decides that his son deserves to be support him at any cost to help Billy achieve his dreams

• Billy helps his father to overcome his personal prejudice towards dancers proving that they are tough and not effeminate, combining self expression and sheer athleticism. In a sense the child becomes the father of the man as  as he succeeds in challenging his fathers stereotypes.

• Billy and his family

• The conflict between Billy and his family makes Billy torn, between his affection for dancing and the expectations of his family. The conflict is introduced when billy spots a ballet class after boxing practice, completely memorised by how the girls moved and the coordination Billy joins in. Billy decides to keep this from his brother and father as they are true macho men and would hate that their son was doing ballet. Eventually, this proves Billy wrong. Billy's father realises that Billy is an excellent dancer after billy shows him and even prepares to turn away from the strike to support him.After being persuaded by tony her rejects this idea and sells his wives jewels to pay for billy to audition and the royal ballet school.

• TECHNIQUES

• JUXTAPOSITION

• The first ballet class, Billy in his boxing gare and the rest in ballet gare, gender  At the audition Billy and Jackie don't match the environment, class    

• MISE-EN-SCENE

• The kitchen argument between Mrs Wilkinson and Tony, Strongly patterned wallpaper, pots on the cooker, dishes cluttered, worn paintwork, mismatched bowls clutter etc etc

• LIGHTING

• Tends to change with the mood, warm and cold

• LANGUAGE

• variation between classes

• CAMERA ANGLES

• ASPECTS OF A FILM:  - PURPOSE AND THEME, why was the film made and what ideas is it trying to communicate? - TIME SCHEME, scene arrangement - CONFLICTS, the way they are introduced, built up and concluded, parallels and contrasts, mood changes. - CHARACTER, role and development, aspects emphasised, links to social background and relationships - DIALOGUE, little or a lot, natural or styled - COSTUMES AND ART DIRECTION, set and props - CAMERA, LIGHTING, SYMBOLS/MOTIFS, the effect, purpose and impact - EDITING, pace of action, effective changes in shot/scene - SOUND, quality and effect of the mix of dialogue, music, natural sounds, sound effects