Billy Elliot. Stephen Daldry used various film techniques to make Mrs. Wilkinson who she is and show how her character impacts the film.

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Mrs. Wilkinson: Billy Elliot Transcript

Introduction

Mrs. Wilkinson is someone who believes in Billy and helps him discover his talent; she is a strong spirited mother-figure character in the film who has an emotional connection with Billy and feels the need to help him understand who he is and his passion for dance. She has a powerful and loud voice which makes her Northern English accent stand out. By profession, she is a strict ballet teacher who lives in Everington. She lives as a British middle-class citizen during the 80’s. She is around forty years old and lives with her husband Tom and daughter Debbie.

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When Billy officially accepted Mrs. Wilkinson’s offer to audition for the Royal Ballet School, he was told to bring what was special to him. These items were supposed to help Billy and Mrs. Wilkinson create a dance for the audition. One of these items was a letter to Billy from his deceased mother. Mrs. Wilkinson then began to read the letter aloud to him, with Billy soon finishing it off with reading the last few sentences from his own memory. I noticed the room they were in was quite dark and there was less lighting. This was probably done to make us focus on what was inside the light not the surroundings. By not having much to look at in the background, it makes the audience focus on the letter that is being read and its contents. This scene in the film was filled with close-up shots of Mrs. Wilkinson and Billy. I believe Stephen Daldrey chose to use close-up shots because they add more emotion to the scene. Shifting the close-up shots between Billy and Mrs. Wilkinson shows the connection between them while reading something so personal. It also allows the audience to closely focus on the details in her face that they couldn’t see in a larger shot.

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Another key moment in the film was when Mrs. Wilkinson was training Billy to do pirouettes, but he kept falling repeatedly which led to him giving up. He stormed out into the bathrooms where he argued that Mrs. Wilkinson was only teaching Billy for her own benefit as a teacher than for him. She then slapped him across the face leaving her with lots of regret and Billy crying into her shoulder. This scene used mainly close-up and a few wide shots. I believe Stephen Daldrey was extremely smart to use the wide shot because it made distance between the two characters. They were seen so close together while dancing but when viewed across from each other you could see how physically different they were. The close shot while they were hugging revealed how both characters needed and valued each other’s support throughout their current problems.

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Directly after practice, Mrs. Wilkinson takes Billy down to the lake. She is wearing a large fluffy coat, which matches the weather and setting of the film while adding to her unique clothing style. There she tells him the story of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. The story is about a cursed princess who turns into a swan at day and then back into a human at night. Stephen Daldrey included this on purpose because it holds major symbolism to Billy’s character. The Swan Lake story is relevant because it represents how Miss Wilkinson sees Billy. The swan's transformation into a human for a few hours is representative of how Billy feels when he is dancing. Many of the shots used in this scene are close-up or medium ones. A medium shot is used to reveal both the character and their surroundings. Daldrey used it to show the characters and the lake which was the characters main focal point.

Conclusion

Stephen Daldry used various film techniques to make Mrs. Wilkinson who she is and show how her character impacts the film. Dialogue, camera angles, symbolism, lighting, and costume were the techniques that helped enhance her character the most. These film techniques are essential to provide depth and show the emotions of her character. Without Daldry directing and choosing to use these techniques Mrs. Wilkinson would not be the same, she would be a boring character and would not inspire Billy to be able to reach his dream.