DEAN COSTELLOE

We can understand from the film beginning by showing the Pixar Studios ident, that the film is going to be rather playful and therefore suggesting it is suitable for children. This is exemplified further as the colours are bright and attractive, also suggesting that it is for children. The short film begins with the text of the name of the short film 'One Man Band' with the text made up cleverly of instruments. The text then fades into a close up shot of an old-style poster, in which it advertises the one man band, with a cartoon character at the bottom of the poster, who we can assume is the main protagonist of the short film. The old style of the poster instantly sets the period of time this movie will be set in, which is quite clearly in the olden times. The shot pulls back into a mid shot, in which we see the original poster on a stand, and red curtains open to reveal the character from the poster. He begins to play his abundance of instruments, and the shot pans out into a long, establishing shot, primarily used to show the setting in which the man is playing his instruments. From this shot we can see that he is isolated and lonely, as there is nobody else in the shot, but we can confirm that this is happening in a European renaissance plaza. After this, it cuts to a close up shot of the man, who is continuing to play his instruments.

 

A POV shot starts, and from this we can be certain that the shot is from the point of view of the man playing the instruments. He looks down at the floor, where he possesses an empty pot, which is used for passers-by to put money into as a result of his busking. After we see the empty pot, the shot pans up to the plaza again, as if he is looking for somebody to impress and hopes that he can make some money off of said people. After panning round the still empty plaza, we see a little girl holding a single gold coin making her way towards the fountain in the centre of the plaza. The eyes of the man light up and widen, showing his ecstasy that there is somebody else in the plaza with money that he could potentially make off of her. After a short close up of the girl at the fountain, we see that she is about to throw her gold coin into the fountain, but stops abruptly as the one man band plays a loud note in order to stop her and get her attention, shown by a focus pull to see the one man band. In quick succession, there is a few close up shots in order to tell the story of the man trying to get the girl's attention. Again, after some quick successive shots, the girl begins to walk towards the one man band, in which he kicks over the money pot towards her, clearly signalling for her to put the money into the pot. Another close up shot of the man shows him winking at the girl, hinting more towards her putting the money in the pot, and also performs a rather elaborate finish, in which he again gestures with his hands towards the pot, further portraying the man's desperation. Just as the girl appears to place the coin into the man's pot, more music starts and both of their gazes avert to behind them. A tall, slender man appears in shot, with an abundance of instruments, similar to that of our protagonist.

 

He begins to play his instruments, and the little girl runs away from our original one man band and her attention is now on the newly introduced one man band. We see another establishing shot of the plaza, however, this time we see both one man bands on either side of the plaza and the little girl running from one man to the other. We see that this slender man has a trick up his sleeve, as in the next shot, we see the girl awestruck by the new one man band, and a figure of the man's face springs towards the little girl out of his instruments, and him and the figure simultaneously wink at the girl, much like the other man, however the figure's hat drops down, and they gesture towards putting the money in the figure's hat. Again, just as the girl goes to put her coin into the figure's hat, the music intensifies and we see the girl turn around to face the other man, who is now rolling around on one of his drums, still playing an abundance of instruments. The speed of the music suggests competition and tension between the two men, as at this point, we do not know which man is going to receive the coin. After seeing the little girl clearly impressed by the man's new skills, however, the man falls and rips down his curtain stand, embarrassing himself and practically ensuring that the other man is going to receive the money. The man who fell picks himself up and sees that the girl is again engrossed in the other man's music, so he frantically begins playing again and the girl is confused as to which one man band she prefers. We then see a close up again of the tall, slender man who does a dramatic stroke of his violin and throws the bow and plays different instruments. The music again intensifies as the tension builds higher and higher as we await which one man band the girl is going to give her coin to. The original man is clearly shown to be getting angry at the fact that he is potentially losing the competition, so he pulls a lever and a contraption appears from his back with several little figures with trumpets playing simultaneously and dancing. We see the girl start to gaze at the man with the contraption, when the tall, slender man then pulls his own lever, which, in turn, his own contraption appears with many violins playing themselves. The girl clearly looks confused as to which one she prefers, and again, the music intensifies and the two men face off. They get closer and closer to eachother and play their music more and more aggressively, and begin to push eachother. The little girl backs off, looking horrified as the two men continue to go at eachother, competing for the coin.

 

Many close up shots follow of the men staring at eachother with hatred in their eyes, playing their music. The little girl jumps and covers her ears, and in doing so, drops her coin and a close up tracking shot follows the path of the coin rolling across the floor. We see the coin fall down a drain, and then a shot from inside the drain looking out shows the three people staring down into the drain, as they have all seen what has just happened and are all shocked by this. The girl looks visibly upset as we see her frowning and sniffling as if she is going to cry and at this moment we see the two men prepare themselves for an uproar of emotion from the little girl. Instead of bursting into tears, however, she gestures her hand out towards them and the two men looked shocked, patting themselves down to prove that they have no money on them to give to her. The girl is very clearly angry and points at one of the men, who looks shocked and does not know what to do in order to rectify their mistakes. The original protagonist proceeds to snap one of the violins off of the slender man's contraption and hands it to the girl, who instantly snatches it from him. She walks off with her new violin and bow, and kicks up the money pot which had fallen over in all the commotion, and she stands next to it and begins to play her violin. The men wince and hold their ears as she is clearly not a very good violin player, however the girl continues by tuning the violin and trying again. The men still show that the music is very bad, so the girl tries to tune the violin again. This time when she begins playing, the men take their hands away from their ears and their expressions change as we can assume that the little girl is actually rather talented. A large bag of money is dropped onto her money pot, and she grabs it and begins to walk away. The two men are understandably awestruck as this little girl has walked away with all of the money that they were trying to get off of her. The girl turns to the men before leaving, and takes out a coin, as if she is going to give it to one of the men. Their eyes light up at the sight of the coin, showing their desperation for the money that they had worked so hard for. She reveals a second coin, and the men begin to edge towards the girl, gesturing for the money. As they begin to get very close to the girl, she tosses the coins behind her into the highest tier of the fountain, and we watch the money sink into the water. We then see a shot of the two men staring at the fountain in awe, and one of the strings of the slender man's violin snaps, emphasising the shock and anger of the two men.

 

The original title 'One Man Band' appears in the same colourful font from the start, and then the same red curtains that the man opens and reveals himself with appear again, this time closing over the text and ending the short film. After the credits, however, we see the shot of the same plaza, this time at night time, and the two men working together to create essentially a two man band mixed with a circus act with the rolling and balancing on the drums. In the same font as the title, the words 'The End' appear on screen to signify the official ending of the short film. 

The fact that Pixar Studios were able to create this narrative without the use of any dialogue shows that the reaction shots alone were enough to tell a story, and the use of music speeds can intensify the setting.