Billy Elliot - 1

“A journey into the world can be filled with obstacles and challenges that individuals must overcome to grow up and/or enter a new phase in their life”

Transitioning into a new world can be difficult for any individual, and will undoubtedly consist of various obstacles and challenges that an individual will have to overcome through different stages in their life. These challenges can be seen in the film ‘Billy Elliot’ by Stephen Daldry and the short story ‘Big World” by Tim Winton. Both these texts explore an individual’s transitioning into an unfamiliar world, using opportunity, family support and determination in order to succeed. Many techniques have been used in both texts to explore the concept of entering into a new world, including imagery, camera angles and techniques, non-diegetic and diegetic methods and also juxtaposition. All these methods used, come together to explore aspects of growing up and examine how experience can bring about transformation, personal growth and change.

Billy Elliot is a great film that demonstrates the concept of into the world through the journey of a young boy, being raised by a single parent, in a low socioeconomic society with his dream of becoming a ballet dancer. In the opening scene of the film, we see the protagonist, Billy Elliot, bouncing on his bed, dancing to one of his records, and singing;

“I was dancing when I was twelve,
I danced my way out of the womb”

This scene gives the audience the idea that Billy has a passion for dance, and we can clearly see the happiness expressed in his face. The use of slow motion in this scene demonstrates a dreamy atmosphere, expressing Billy’s enjoyment while he is dancing with continuous close up shots directed at Billy’s smile. Stephen Daldry has set up the camera at different distances and angles to capture different parts of Billy’s body, for an example, his torso, his legs, his face and finally the full body, as a way to let the audience see Billy for the first...