Metadata
WORK ID: NEFA 21927 (Master Record)
Title | Year | Date |
THE MAGIC SPECTACLES | 1963 | 1963-01-01 |
Details
Original Format: Standard 8 Colour: Black & White Sound: Silent Duration: 8 mins 20 secs Credits: Organisations: Caldercote Junior School Individual: David Williams Genre: Student Film Subject: EDUCATION |
Summary A short amateur comedy produced by pupils of Caldercote Junior School in Leicester with the assistance of David Willams. The film tells the story of a boy who finds a pair of magic pair spectacles and uses them to cheat at maths. However, the glasses are broken and he fails miserably in an exam and has to go to the local library to learn maths. |
Description
A short amateur comedy produced by pupils of Caldercote Junior School in Leicester with the assistance of David Willams. The film tells the story of a boy who finds a pair of magic pair spectacles and uses them to cheat at maths. However, the glasses are broken and he fails miserably in an exam and has to go to the local library to learn maths.
Title: Caldercote Junior School Presents
Title: The Magic Spectacles
[A pair of spectacles appears under the title with a pair of eyes inside that...
A short amateur comedy produced by pupils of Caldercote Junior School in Leicester with the assistance of David Willams. The film tells the story of a boy who finds a pair of magic pair spectacles and uses them to cheat at maths. However, the glasses are broken and he fails miserably in an exam and has to go to the local library to learn maths.
Title: Caldercote Junior School Presents
Title: The Magic Spectacles
[A pair of spectacles appears under the title with a pair of eyes inside that look around cross-eyed.]
The film begins in a classroom with children sitting behind wooden desks working. On the blackboard the teacher writes down a number of sums. All the children in the classroom continue to work diligently at their maths problems, with the exception of one boy who is reading a comic book he holds under his desk.
The boy puts the comic into his desk as the teacher turns to face the class. He walks towards and stands over the boy speaking.
Title: “If you can’t see it now, you need some glasses.”
The boy looks up at the teacher nodding followed by another general view of the classroom.
Title: Next day on the way to school
The boy walks along the grass verge of a road, cars occasionally passing. He stops, turns around and looks down on a pair of spectacles laying on the grass. He picks them up, puts them on and looks around him. Taking them off, he places them in his pocket and continues his journey to school.
The film cuts to the classroom seen previously with the children again working hard at their desks. On the blackboard the teacher writes a new maths question cutting to the boy looking up from his paper with a smile. He takes the spectacles from his pocket and puts them on. He turns to look at another boy sitting nearby who begins to snigger along with his friends. Eventually all the children in the class are laughing at the boy and his new spectacles.
The teacher turns around from the blackboard and all the children quickly stop laughing, looking down at their work. The exception being the boy in the spectacles who continues to smile and laugh as the teacher approaches.
Title: Put those away!
The boys looks frustrated as he speaks to the teacher.
Title: But you told me I needed glasses, sir!
The teacher turns and returns to the blackboard and a view of the pupils continuing to do their sums.
The film cuts to the boy’s face as he blinks and wrinkles his brow looking at the blackboard, now with the answers written underneath the questions. He removes the glasses, rubs his eyes and sees that now that the answers have disappeared. He puts them back on again the answer magically re-appear. With a smile he begins to write in his exercise book.
The film cuts to the teacher coming to sit down at his deck just as the boy gets up and walks towards him holding out his exercise book. The teacher begins to mark the boy’s work with ticks. With the marking done the boy returns to his desk.
July dates in a desk calendar flick by are superimposed over images of the boy writing in his exercise book, sums on a blackboard and he and the teacher smiling happily.
The film cuts to show children coming out of school and walking along a path. As the boy stands beside a bush reading his comic, a group of boys push past him knocking him to the ground. He is helped to his feet by two children and they all continue to walk along the path.
In the classroom the boy turns and talks with his friends sitting behind him. Written on the blackboard in thick chalk is ‘EXAMS TODAY!”. As the teacher hands out the exam papers, the boy begins to take his magic spectacles out of his pocket. To his horror, the glass in the spectacles has been smashed. He holds up the broken glasses to his eyes, but they do not reveal the answers. The boy looks worried.
A clock on the wall reads 9.29am and the teacher advises that the class can now begin the exam. Each of the pupils turns over their exam papers and looks down at the questions. The boys looks down worriedly.
The hands on the clock turn to 10am and the teacher tells the class to stop. With the exception of the boy, the class comes to an instant stop putting their pencils down. The boy eventually stops and puts down his pencil as the teacher begins collecting in the papers.
At his desk the teacher begins to mark the exam papers. The film cuts to him calling over the boy who comes to stand next to the desk.
Title: On the way home….
The film cuts to show the boy walking along a suburban street, he picks at a hedge. He turns and walks along a path into the local ‘Public Library’. Inside he picks up a book from the ‘Arithmetic’ shelf and holds it up to the camera. The book is called ‘Know Your Maths. With Answers’.
The boy comes out of the library and crosses the road passing the ‘West End Working Mens Club’ The film ends with a close up of the word ‘The’ and ‘End’ in the sign.
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