Noam Chomsky day

Children each speak one by one showing a respect for authority not seen in the american lifestlye.
Birds tweeting and high key lighting with sun creates a relaxed and nature based atmosphere.
Multiple close ups of the children looking happy about the surprise romanticises Ben as a Father
Ben shot in from low angles shows how the director encourages us to idolise Ben as the kids as they celebrate their festival.
Fast paced sequence of cuts of the family all  singing uncle Noam without Rellian while he is seen in the back of most shots still makes us align with Ben as we don't seem to notice him.
Ben is centre shot and we are shown him to be idolised by his children.
While Rellian prefers to live a mainstream lifestyle and celebrate christmas we align with Ben and the rest of the family through the use of over the shoulder shots from Ben of Rellian. When Rellian leaves we go back to shots of the other children to continue seeing only Ben's optimistic POV.
He seems to ignore all problems and so do we as the spectator aligns with him.
To finish the scene we watch Nai put his new large weapon to his face and close to his eyes.
Up beat contrapuntal music is used to raise the spectators spirits despite watching something that should make us nervous. This contrast can have different effects on passive and active viewers. Passive viewers will admire Ben's parenting and potentially find this shot comedic. Active viewers are likely to begin to questions Ben's parenting methods a lot more from this point on.

In the Noam Chomsky day scene, Matt Ross attempts to romanticise Ben's parenting techniques towards the passive viewing spectator. Ben is seen centre shot from a majority of low angle shots giving the viewer the same admiration his children feel towards him. Furthermore, the scene shows a sequence of fast paced close ups of each child except Rellian smiling towards Ben. The spectator is encouraged to align with Ben here as they appreciate Ben's parenting techniques and can see the joy that his unique approach to parenting brings to the children. The use of location and sound enhance this effect through high key lighting and a high key natural colour palette; the sound of birds tweeting is natural and soothing creating a calm and warm atmosphere. Twice in this scene the spectator is encouraged to question the lifestyle of Ben and his family. Rellian has a typical teenage boy stroke of anger towards his father, he questions why their family can't live a normal lifestyle. We see that he has been forced into Ben's idea of a happy lifestyle and his opinion is not regarded as important. The fast cuts away from Rellian as he cannot continue his argument seem to shut down his valid opinion and shows Ben to be victorious in the dispute. This pushes the spectator to agree with Ben's smaller and by in large grander choices.
Towards the end of the scene, the upbeat contrapuntal music is used whilst Nai puts a large knife to his face. Here the music at atmosphere created controls the way this scene is received by a spectator. For an active viewer, this scene can be either comedic due to the controversy or comforting as we see Nai's happiness. An active spectator is more likely to begin to feel discomfort as we begin to realise the dangers of what Ben is putting his kids through and how he romanticises his own parenting techniques internally. There begins to be grounds for questioning Ben's capabilities as a parent and is the lifestyle the children are thrown into moral?



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