If your parents, teachers, or leaders told you to lie, would you say yes? When you encounter injustice in your life, will you choose to suffer in silence or to resist? The answers to these questions are included in the short film "The Secret of the School Choir", which is a story about lying and rebellion, which has a Douban score of 8.8 and won the 89th Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short Film.
The short film tells the story of Sophie, a girl who transfers to a new school and joins the school choir. The choir is one of the best in the country, and if you can get the first place in the national competition, you can go to Sweden. Choir teacher Erica, in order to let the choir win the competition, let the students who did not sing well sing silently. Sophie's best friend Lisa, the lead singer of the choir, unites with the others to rebel after discovering the teacher's secret.
The film is only 25 minutes long, and the story content and narrative structure are also very simple, but the moral of the short film is far-reaching and diverse. The end of the short film is the finishing touch of the film, highlighting the rich and full emotions through the contrast between "silent" and "sound". Why a simple short film won the Academy Award for Best Live-Action Short Film will be analyzed in this article.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >01, the big idea under the small pattern, "school choir" indicates the small pattern of short films, and the director uses "the rebellion of the school choir" to reflect the oppression of the weak by social authorities</h1>
The name "Secret of the School Choir" doesn't look special at first glance, but after watching the film and looking back at the title, you can find the intention of the title. Although this is a far-reaching short film, from the overall point of view, this is a small pattern of short films, and the short film points out its pattern in the title "School Choir".
The story takes place in small scenes: rehearsal classrooms, school playgrounds, Sophie's home, and the stage of choral competitions. But no matter where the scene is, the people and things involved in the story are related to the school choir. In terms of plot setting, there is no competition of interests between adults, focusing on the children of the choir and the teacher Erika.
The character setting in the short film is also very simple: there is Erica, a teacher who only values profit and ignores fairness, and likes to argue; there is Sophie, who likes to sing but chooses to be patient under the unreasonable demands of the teacher; there is Lisa, who is talented but eager to stand up for injustice.
Small characters, small scenes, and small contradictions are fully highlighted in the details and constitute an indispensable element of this small short film.
In such a small pattern of short films, the director sets the plot foreshadowing and conflict to be "complete", vividly showing the conflict between childish innocence and social utilitarianism, and completely constructing a microcosm of society. The main characters in the film represent different categories of circles in society.
In this "small society", we see teachers disregarding the children's inner feelings for the sake of good rankings in the competition. Use candy as a small favor to give children a "reward" and let the child keep the secret of the ulterior motive. We can also see that at the request of the teacher, the sullen but trying to speak to the children. Before Sophie appeared, no child told the secret between himself and his teacher, and before Lisa rose up, everyone had to succumb to the oppression of authority and remain silent.
The teacher represents authority to some extent, Sophie represents the silent majority of society, and Lisa is the representative of the rebellious spirit and the courage to speak, and three different characters form a "small society".
The director uses a school choir and a small number of characters to build a small pattern of short films, showing the audience a utilitarian microcosm of a society that is oppressed and dare not resist. The oppression of the weak by authority is directly spread out and displayed in front of the audience, causing the audience to think deeply. And the setting of this plot laid the foundation for highlighting Lisa, the little girl, leading her classmates to rebel. At the same time, it also closes the distance between the audience and Lisa, hoping that she can also dare to expose lies and rebel against authority like Lisa.
Although "The Secret of the School Choir" is a small and short film with a small structure and a short time, the meaning contained in it is indeed diverse and profound. At the same time, the short film also guides the audience to look at the problem from different perspectives. Every audience with different identities and energy will have their own unique insights after watching the short film.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >02, the two-line narrative structure of flat and direct narration highlights the emotions of the characters with details, and conceals the director's deep mastery of the film</h1>
"The Secret of the School Choir" has no complex character relationships, no moving complex plot, but the director constructs the drama of the short film with a highly ironic contrast between "sound" and "silence", an unexpected and reasonable ending, and a soundtrack that is highly compatible with the plot.
From Sophie, who loves to sing but is stoic, to Lisa, who has the talent to sing but leads the rebellion, to the other members of the choir who have no lines, everyone's eyes are drama. It can be said that as soon as the short film opens, people can't help but plunge into the scene and empathize with the emotions of the characters in the film.
The entire short film adopts a two-line narrative structure, with two lines attaching equal importance to each other, and there is no distinction between primary and secondary. One line is dominated by the choir, showing the process of choir rehearsal and competition, and the other is dominated by Lisa and Sophie, showing the two becoming friends, discovering the secrets of the choir, and planning a rebellion.
The two lines cross to promote the plot, and the director grasps the overall situation through the interaction between Lisa and Sophie, and makes a strategic layout. In the interaction between the two, they explain the fact that Sophie loves music, Erica's unreasonable demands on the children, and the process of plotting rebellion.
The plot of the short film is simple and simple, and there is never a superb special effects scene or a complicated and undulating plot in the film. Some are just small conflicts between people and real emotions between friends. The short film is tightly paced and not procrastinating, and from the beginning to the end, the three protagonists Lisa, Sophie and Erica do not have many lines, while the other characters have almost no lines. In the case of few lines, the director conveys rich and full emotions to the audience through details such as character expressions and actions.
Sophie goes to Lisa's house to listen to songs, and the two little girls who love music wear headphones, close their eyes, and their bodies beat rhythmically to the rhythm of the music, and their inner relaxed and happy emotions do not need words to make the audience feel empathy. After being asked to sing silently, Lisa returned home dejected and practiced singing in front of the mirror, her inner doubts and disappointments vividly expressed through her expressions.
At the end of the film, a group of children stand on the stage, and Erica raises her hand to prepare for the command, when the camera cuts to Lisa and Sophie, and the two hold each other's hands tightly. Through this action, the director shows the audience the children's inner uneasiness. When the teacher saw that the child only moved her mouth and did not make a sound in order to "retaliate" against herself, she was angry. Then, the camera falls on Lisa's face again, and a casual smile shows Lisa's snickering after a successful rebellion.
In a tight rhythm, the director abandons too much dialogue and boldly uses detailed actions and micro-expressions to express the emotions of the characters. The plot arrangement of the short film is detailed and strategic, which can ensure that the rhythm is tight and does not affect the transmission of information and emotions to the audience, which can be described as ingenious. It is not difficult to see the director's deep mastery of the film.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >03, from lead singer to leading protest, Lisa is a representative of the spirit of resistance, and she contains the courage of the masses to resist authority</h1>
In the eyes of children, parents and parents are the highest authority, and few children dare to challenge the authority of parents and teachers. Before Sophie, many students were asked by the teacher to sing silently, but none of the students (including Sophie) dared to question the teacher's request, let alone openly confront it. Unlike Creza, she was a rebellious child.
After Sophie tells Lisa that she can't sing the secret, Lisa bluntly calls it unfair, believing that everyone in the choir has the right to sing. In later rehearsals, she pointed out Erica's problem directly: "Sophie, D'Oddia, Zory, and others, open their mouths like fish, because you tell them not to make a sound." As the lead singer of the choir, Lisa told the teacher: I don't want to sing in the choir anymore.
Many children in the choir are criticized by the teacher for "not singing well enough" and asked by the teacher to "not speak out", they will feel unfair and frustrated, but they all choose to suffer in silence. But Lisa dared to stand up and speak out for these unfair classmates. Not only that, but Lisa and Sophie also plotted together to rebel against the teacher in public.
On Douban, an audience member asked everyone a question:
When you find that everyone around you is caught in a lie, and you are stuck in various reasons to silently maintain this lie, and on the surface it seems to be safe, harmonious and beautiful, how will you choose? Get involved in that lie, be a part of it, or debunk it at no cost?
When the person who has left you in a lie is a man of more authority than you, do we still have the courage to openly resist? In life or the workplace, we may have encountered different forms of injustice, but there are very few people who really have the courage to resist and defend their rights and interests.
In the popular drama "I Am Yu Huanshui" some time ago, Yu Huanshui, who is frequently searched for, is actually a typical representative of the lack of resistance spirit and courage. In the face of the manager's difficult threat, although Yu Huanshui was extremely angry, he could only endure it silently. If it were not for the misdiagnosed Oolong, Yu Huanshui might never have resisted and raised his dissatisfaction.
In The Secret of the School Choir, the school choir is a microcosm of society. Erika symbolizes authority, lies, and injustice; members of the choir are "insignificant" individuals. Individuals can choose to make themselves tiny, even transparent; they can also choose to jump out and speak up for themselves or others. The latter are people with the spirit of resistance and the courage to fight.
The Secret of the School Choir is a Hungarian short film originally titled Mindenki, which translates to Chinese "everyone". Chorus is an art form of multi-person collaboration, which tests the comprehensive ability of the whole team and pays attention to the tacit understanding and cooperation between the members. Every member is a member of the team, but if only the members who sing well really sing, and let the members who sing badly "indiscriminately", they lose the meaning of the chorus. "Everyone" implies that every member of the choir should be treated fairly.
"The Secret of the School Choir" is a small-scale short film, which starts from the secret between the children and the teacher in the choir, showing the courage of the children to expose the truth. Although the short film is not long, it contains many points worth discussing and pondering: lies and truth, injustice and courage, social utilitarianism and the simplicity of children... If you finish watching the short film, you can feel the endless musical charm and human reflection.