Camera Shots from Movies

For this assignment I chose to watch the movie Amateur, the Netflix original released in 2018 by Ryan Koo. This movie is about an elite level 8th grade basketball prodigy named Terron. During his 9th grade year at his local high school, a man from a private academy approaches his dad about his son playing for him at said academy, later in the movie it is unfolded that the coach paid the dad hundreds of thousands of dollars to enroll at the academy, causing the young athlete to lose his "amateur" status, making him ineligible to play basketball in both high school and college.

The first scene I chose to capture was a clip of him playing basketball, either before school or between classes. This scene emphasizes the childlike wonder of just enjoying the sport he loves, which helps to develop the plot.

The next scene I included was of his math teacher using the chance of an individual making the NBA to teach a math lesson about statistics. This scene gives us information on just how good of a player he is, as later in the film he gets chances to play both collegiately and professionally, but also to how oblivious he is to the reality of the situation.

The next scene is of him in the house players at the academy live in, studying for math homework. This shows his growth as a well rounded person, as previously in the film all his extra time would go to basketball, but following the math lesson that also gave a glimpse at the real world, he is beginning to take his academics more serious. While his teammates, who clearly are yet to understand, poke fun at him.

I picked the next scene because of the jaw dropping cinematography as his teammate dove on the loose ball, shoveled it to Terron, before he finished it off with the slam dunk on the other end. This clip is also from the last game before his eligibility was extinguished, which shows that it doesn't take a long time to go from the very top to the very bottom.

The final scene I chose showed him running onto the court of his old school, which he was attending once again. This completed a full circle story, showing that how if things are not done the right way, oi is possible that you may have to restart and do it the way it should be done.